WHILE some stress may be good for you, severe stress can be a serious risk to your health, being blamed for physical and psychological damage.

Keeping fit is as much about relaxing your mind as working your body, which is good news when you're aching and exhausted after a session in the gym.

Taking time out to rest and unwind is crucial for overall well-being.

Redworth Hall's Bodysense health club is ideally set up to help - just a few steps from the pool and the gym is the Emmanais beauty salon, the perfect, calming environment to fall into after the treadmill and weights equipment.

It's recommended that you indulge in treatments after a workout - massage will help relax your muscles and work away any build-up of lactic acid, while many of the body treatments will restore moisture after swimming, the sauna and showering.

A full range of massages is available but, with the party season looming, it's also a good time to get your skin buffed and polished ready for Christmas and New Year events.

It's not just women wearing revealing party dresses who can benefit; many of the treatments are suitable for men too. Phyto-Body Polish is an all-over skin-enhancing treatment which removes dead cells to soften, smooth and brighten the skin. Salon owner Marie Green says: "It's the perfect treatment for ladies who'll be wearing backless or sleeveless dresses at parties coming up but it's also ideal as a pre-holiday body peel, or before a tanning treatment."

Cream containing small but quite coarse exfoliating beads is worked over the legs and feet, the back, neck, tummy, chest, and arms and hands. Then, after showering it off, a citrus fragranced firming cream is massaged all over the body.

Marie adds: "It's very good if you're the sort of person who doesn't body scrub at home, and it's effective on dry areas like elbows and for eczema."

Emmanais' other exclusive body treatments use Thalgo products, based on sea and marine algae therapy. Another treatment suitable for men and women is the Revitalising Body Wrap. A detoxifying treatment, it involves a warm, marine algae gel being applied to the body which deep cleanses, tones and invigorates.

For women only, Frigimince is ideal for calming and relieving heavy, tired legs caused by bad circulation. The Frigimince gel produces a cool sensation which intensifies for 20 minutes. After rinsing off, it's followed with a refining gel.

Also designed for heavy legs, fluid retention and cellulite is the Frigi-Thalgo Body Wrap. Usually done waist to ankle, the constricting effect of the wrap is good for any area of lifeless skin tissue like inner thighs, under arms and the bottom.

Marie says: "If you're working hard in the gym to get fit it's important to treat yourself to treatments that make you feel relaxed, pampered and cosseted."

You don't have to be a Bodysense health club member to visit Emmanais, but lying back and being pampered is so much more rewarding after a workout.

l We have teamed up with Bodysense to offer readers the chance to spend a complimentary day at the health club, enjoying the facilities, which include the gym, swimming pool, sauna, steam room and spa bath. Visitors can also pay for beauty treatments at the Emmanais salon or hair appointments at Saks. To qualify, just collect FOUR different Bodysense articles, then contact the health club to book your free day on (01388) 770649.