Loading the Spiral: 5F Resisted Glide
2027 Online Program: Live with Recordings
10 fortnightly sessions to lean into loading your myofascia
You know how to glide. Now it's time to load.
5FRG is a journey building on your Five Filaments Repertoire foundations.
Learn to load the 5F with precision, blending mobility with resistance training for a fun and challenging practice. 5FRG is designed for building bone density and muscle hypertrophy, boosting mitochondria for optimal metabolic health at any age without sacrificing the suppleness of fascia.
Each of the 10 sessions adds progressive resistance to the spiral patterns you already know. Using wrist and ankle weights, dumbbells, kettlebells and resistance bands, you'll learn to load each spiral, region by region and session by session.
Each 60-minute session covers 5 loaded spiral sets in detail. Each also includes a short concept segment on the science behind that session's work: progressive overload, mTOR, protein, creatine, fatigue, hypertrophy and recovery. All recordings live in one place, with a minimum of two years' access.
Session Dates
5F Principles
The Loaded Superset
Read Karen's published work informing the 5FRG
The 5FRG Program is based on the myofascial rheostat: a model of fascial tissue as living and responsive.
The model brings together three processes: calcium signalling, hyaluronan (HA) production, and the body's metabolic resources. Together, they may help regulate how myofascia responds to load, shifting between stiffness and glide as conditions change.
Resistance training is a powerful form of this load. It's a hormetic stressor, meaning that the right dose, followed by recovery, prompts the body to adapt and grow more resilient. In 5FRG, we pair progressive resistance with spiral motion to challenge the tissue in every direction it's designed to move, so strength and glide can develop together.
10 Sessions for Mighty Myofilaments
Most resistance training aims to grow muscle. But what is hypertrophy, really, and is it something we should be working towards? Hypertrophy doesn't mean making more muscle cells. It means growing the ones you have.
With the right load and recovery, each muscle fibre adds new myofibrils, recruits new nuclei to support them, and strengthens the connective tissue sheath that holds it all together. Same cell, grown bigger and more capable.
And yes, it's worth working towards. Muscle is your metabolic and mobility investment account, especially through midlife and beyond. 5F Resisted Glide builds it the myofascial way: loading tissue through spiral, multidirectional movement for coupled strength and mobility.
Register Now
Load builds the matrix
At the heart of this work is the idea that fascia is not passive packaging around muscle. It is a living, fluid-rich matrix that senses load and responds to it, helping muscles grow, transmit force, and adapt to the demands we place on them.
Strength that glides
Within this matrix, hyaluronan (HA) helps keep tissue hydrated and supple, so it can deform and change shape smoothly as you move. Resistance training through spiral, multidirectional movement loads muscle while keeping tissue responsive.
Stress, then recover
Karen's published research explores how this HA-rich environment shifts between physiological modes. Load is the challenge; the "Quiet" mode of recovery is where HA supports hydration, repair, and smooth glide, and where adaptation takes hold.
Strength that Flows
Muscle is one of the best investments you'll ever make, and the earlier you start depositing, the better. Muscle doesn't just move us. It's a metabolic organ that helps regulate blood sugar, supports bone density, and keeps us capable and independent as we age.
For women, this matters even more. As oestrogen declines through perimenopause and menopause, muscle and bone are lost more quickly. Resistance training is one of the most effective ways to protect against that loss, at any age.
The more you have in the account before the dip, the more you have to draw on.
Here's the paradox: many of us avoid lifting because we fear it will make us dense, stiff, and less mobile. But research shows the opposite. Resistance training through a full range of motion can improve flexibility as effectively as stretching.
Well-loaded tissue tends to be more resilient, not more restricted.
In Quiet mode, fascia hydrates, repairs, and glides. Load, followed by recovery, is the signal that tells tissue to adapt. 5F Resisted Glide pairs progressive resistance with spiral motion, so muscle grows while tissue stays supple and responsive.
This programme is for people who love to move in every direction. Traditional weight training mostly works in single planes: up and down, forward and back. Your body is built to spiral. 5FRG loads you through rotation, reach, and multidirectional patterns, building strength the way you actually move.
Register Now
