A woman who overcame anxiety by becoming a gym bunny has launched a product that she thinks improves a current strength staple, while being easy for beginners to use.

Esme Chennells Milton, 28, from Walthamstow, was into sports growing up but throughout university gave less time to her interests.

She explains: “Then as I was finding my feet after university I had quite a difficult time with anxiety and I was recommended was to do something I love and to try to be as active as possible.

"This is how I found myself getting into the gym and becoming somebody who totally transformed into a health and fitness lifestyle. I found that the gym gave me an incredible amount of structure and empowerment, in showing myself that I can be string and achieve goals.

“It would be a number one piece of advice I could give to anyone struggling with anxiety or general life stress, exercise allows you to have a focus and to give yourself some really attainable short term goals which is often what you can’t see when you’re feeling anxious. It completely transformed my state of mind.”

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

After honing her skills and knowledge after many years in the gym Esme has become somewhat of an expert herself. She has also returned to sports by working at The Sports Consultancy, a company who gives advice or large scale sports events.

Esme initially attended classes that were made up of high intensity cardio when she made her foray into the gym world. She admits to feeling too scared to go into the weights section and so, securing the help of a personal trainer, Esme “focused on compound movements and powerlifting”.

She says: “I absolutely loved it. I thrived on that so much more than cardio based, high intensity training I had been doing.

“We experimented with different types, with a resistance band it’s not about the gravity of a weight but about the range of motion. Combing those two things was where I saw the most effect.”

However, Esme began to tire of the commonly used rubber resistance bands which can move out of place, pinch your skin and even snap.

“I didn’t really feel like much thought had gone into the product compared how easy and nice they can be to use. I thought there has to be a different way to do this, there needs to be a way to make it more comfortable.

“I started experimenting with a company who produce lengths of webbing for lots of things not fitness related like medical supplies, such as bandaging. I spent a long time trying different resistances and material types and I realised that the solution was very simple. It just needed enough resistance but not too much, so that it’s friendly for a beginner.

“I tried it and friends tried it and we ended up with something that’s really durable, but won’t damage your skin if you’re wearing shorts and allows you to work out anywhere depending on what works for you.”

Esme adds: “I’ve always been slim and athletic, but have had a hard time making the mind-muscle connection needed to build muscle, since using The Peach Band I’ve added inches to the measurement around my glutes and have increased my squat to 100kg within a matter of months.”

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

Esme’s fitness tips

1. Do what you can - Whether it’s doing a workout once a week or six times a week, do what you can manage so that you are able to stick to it for the long haul.

2. Start off slow - Trying to embark on workouts that are super intense, with heavy weights too soon will only lead to injury, leaving you demotivated and wanting to give up. The slowly slowly approach is the one to go by.

3. Set yourself long term and short term fitness goals, and focus on the short term ones regularly, making losing those pounds or gaining that muscle more manageable.

4. Go easy on your body - it’s easy to sign yourself up to every single HIIT class you can get your hands on, but too much HIIT, jumping and plyometrics will ruin your joints, leading to a much more difficult to manage fitness regime in the future.

Esme’s nutrition tips

1. Plan ahead - do a full weekly shop so that you can visualise meals and snacks and be prepared.

2. Simplify things - whilst there are plenty of ‘healthy eating’ recipe books and meal plans on the market, they often include complicated recipes which just do not fit into our busy schedules. Keep meals simple by splitting your plate in quarters and choosing a protein source, a carbohydrate, a healthy fat and some micronutrients.

3. Don’t cut out food types just because others do. You may assume that you are intolerant to something but seek the advice of a professional.

4. Don’t copy others and how much they eat. Everybody is different, we all respond to different amounts of food in different ways dependent on our metabolism, lifestyle and genetics. Find what works for you.

More info at peach-band.com