​SERVES 10

130g unsalted butter, room temperature and cubed
150g caster sugar
3 large eggs, lightly whisked
2 tsp vanilla extract 300g self-raising flour
⅓ tsp salt
200g soured cream
​
FOR THE APPLE TOPPING
 2 large Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1½ cm wide wedges (460g prepped weight)
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1½ cm wide wedges (125g prepped weight)
130g demerara sugar
1 tbsp mixed spice
​

1. Preheat the oven to 160C fan (180C/gas 4). Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.

2. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place. Beat on a medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, a little at a time, until incorporated. Sift together the flour and salt and add this in a couple of batches to the batter, alternating with the soured cream. Turn the machine off as soon as everything is incorporated. Spoon the batter into the cake tin and set aside.

3. Place all the apple slices in a bowl. Mix together the sugar and mixed spice and sprinkle over the apple. Toss to coat, then spoon over the cake batter. Bake for 60-65 minutes, until the mixture has risen up around the apple and the top is crisp, firm and golden-brown. A knife inserted into the mix will not come out clean, as the apples are wet, but you can tell the cake is cooked when you give the tin a little shake and the top doesn’t wobble.

4. Remove from the oven and set aside for about 30 minutes before removing from the tin.
​
5. Serve either slightly warm or at room temperature. When slicing, use a serrated knife to prevent the apples from tearing

• The foam compresses.
• The sole wears unevenly.
• The heel can begin to tilt.
• The shoe gradually loses its ability to absorb and distribute force.

And when a shoe stops doing its job properly, your body has to adapt to pick up the slack. Your foot may start to roll differently. Your ankle may lose stability. Your knee may change its path. Your hip may compensate. Eventually, even your back can be asked to manage forces it was never designed to handle in that way.

Expensive Doesn’t Automatically Mean Better
It’s worth saying clearly: expensive shoes don’t automatically equal good shoes. Not all shoes are built for the same purpose, or the same person. A soft shoe isn’t necessarily better. A highly supportive shoe isn’t necessarily better either. The best shoe is simply the one that fits your foot, your activity, and the way you personally move.

Five Things Worth Checking Today:
​

1. Don’t judge shoes by appearance alone. Press the midsole and compare it with a newer pair. Cushioning can break down long before the tread visibly disappears.
2. Look at the bottom, not just the top. Uneven or excessive wear on the sole can change how the shoe interacts with the ground beneath you.
3. Pay attention to new aches. If your feet, knees, hips or back suddenly feel different and nothing else in your routine has changed, it’s worth looking at your shoes.
4. Mileage matters. Running shoes are commonly replaced somewhere around 300–500 miles, though body weight, walking surface, shoe construction and the way you move can shift that figure considerably.
5. Fit matters more than the logo. Your toes need room. Your heel should feel secure. A shoe should never force your foot into an uncomfortable position just because of the brand on the side.

Treat Your Shoes Like You Treat Your TyresPerhaps most importantly: don’t wait until your shoes are completely destroyed before replacing them.
We replace the tyres on our cars because we understand that worn tyres change how the entire vehicle interacts with the road. Your shoes deserve the same consideration. Your feet are your body’s first conversation with the ground — and what happens there doesn’t necessarily stay there.

Where Footwear Meets PostureSince 2001, Personal Best has followed and built on a simple but important understanding: the underlying cause of a problem doesn’t always lie in the area of the body where the symptoms show up. More often, the real driver is poor posture, pelvic misalignment, leg length discrepancies, or tight and poorly toned muscles — with footwear playing a significant supporting role in all of them.
Poor posture has a knock-on effect on vulnerable parts of the body, particularly the back. That’s why our chiropractic team provide a complete posture assessment, and fit insoles that correct poor posture where needed. With correctly fitted orthotics or insoles, posture can be improved and any limb length discrepancy can be accommodated.

What a Foot Orthotic Is Actually Trying to Do
The aim of a foot orthotic is to correct dysfunctional biomechanics, and in doing so:

• Reduce pain
• Provide support
• Prevent or halt the development of foot deformity
• Provide better positioning
• Relieve pressure on a specific area of the foot
• Improve the overall biomechanical function of the foot
• Improve pelvic alignment
• Reduce lower limb torsion and knee stress
  
  

Done well, this allows the joints of the body to align correctly and promotes efficient transmission of biomechanical forces all the way up the chain — from the foot, through the knee and hip, and into the back.

Orthotics at Personal Best
Clinic Director, Kristine Hagen has specialised in foot biomechanics and provides a comprehensive orthotic service for both adults and children. With over 30 years’ experience, she has extensive knowledge of all types of orthotics, and we can assess, mould, design and fit the majority of orthotics on site. Any adjustments that need to be made can be carried out while you wait.

If your feet, knees, hips or back have started to feel different lately — or if it’s simply been a while since anyone looked at how your shoes are wearing — it may be worth starting the conversation at ground level.

In the run-up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a Japanese company launched an early pedometer called the Manpo-kei — literally, a “10,000 steps meter” (man = 10,000, po = steps, kei = meter). The device was built on the thinking of Dr Yoshiro Hatano, a young academic at Kyushu University of Health and Welfare, who was concerned that Japan was importing a more sedentary, baseball-watching American lifestyle along with it.
Dr Hatano’s reasoning was simple: if the average person could be nudged from around 4,000 daily steps up to 10,000, they’d burn roughly 500 extra calories a day and stay leaner as a result. A catchy number, a clever product, and six decades later it’s still the figure everyone’s watch is quietly judging them against.
It was a brilliant piece of marketing. But that doesn’t automatically make it the best measure of fitness.

A Step Count Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
Walking is genuinely good for you, and we’ll never argue against more of it. But hitting 10,000 steps every day doesn’t necessarily mean your underlying fitness is actually improving. A number on a screen can’t tell you how hard your heart and lungs are working.
Getting breathless during exercise is completely normal — and honestly, it’s one of the more useful signals your body gives you. What changes with consistent training isn’t whether you get breathless, but how much effort it takes to get there. As your muscles adapt, they become more efficient: they need less oxygen to do the same work, and they produce less carbon dioxide as a result. That means less air moving in and out of your lungs for the same activity — a real, physical sign that your fitness is improving, in a way a step count simply can’t show you. Regular training also strengthens your heart and improves circulation, so the whole system is working better together.

Why This Matters Beyond the Numbers
The bigger picture is this: exercise doesn’t just change how you look or how many steps sit on your watch face by 9pm — it changes your overall physical and psychological wellbeing. It lowers your risk of conditions like stroke, heart disease and depression, and regular activity remains one of the single most effective ways to help prevent type 2 diabetes.
So, by all means, keep walking — it’s one of the simplest and most accessible things you can do for your health. But don’t let a 60-year-old marketing figure be the only measure you’re chasing. How you feel during and after activity — your breathing, your recovery, your energy — often tells a truer story about your fitness than any step count ever will.
​
If you’d like a clearer picture of where your fitness actually stands, our team at Personal Best can help you look beyond the numbers on your wrist.