WHO IS FITNESS FOR?
"If you’re a personal trainer or a fitness instructor, you’ll be educated about how to train people. But what we mean by people is men"
Baz Moffat is from The Well HQ, a women’s health and sport collective on a mission to change how we train women. They work with sports organisations and individuals to embed the ‘female’ in fitness, and empower women to become active.
A big part of that centres on the idea that the fitness ‘rulebook’ has been written, in the whole, for men.
"There’s no information in any of the standard [fitness] qualifications about women, which is really shocking in this day and age"
The Well HQ have teamed up with The Gym Group, the second largest gym chain in the UK, to deliver the Female Health First programme. It is believed to be the first of its kind in the sector.
Credit: Baz Moffat, Co-Founder and CEO, The Well HQ [left], Ruth Jackson, People & Development Director, The Gym Group [right]
“WE CAN’T TRAIN WOMEN’S BODIES IN THE SAME WAY”
The main focus of the course is to teach fitness staff across the country about female health. Trainers will then be able to use these insights to help make gym environments more welcoming for women.
In a recent survey, 67% of women say they find going to the gym an intimidating experience, and women have been slower to return to the gym since the Covid pandemic.
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Fifty-one fitness instructors nationwide will take part in the pilot programme. Both male and female trainers are involved in the ten-week course.
“It’s great that both our male managers, male fitness trainers, actually really want to know more about this subject” - Ruth Jackson, People & Development Director at The Gym Group
“THIS COURSE IS PURELY FOCUSED ON THE FEMALE BODY”
The programme covers lots of broad topics, from the menopause to menstrual cycles, hormonal contraception, breast health, and pelvic health.
So, what does this actually look like in practice?
Taking the example of the menstrual cycle, Baz told us that personal trainers would have the knowledge to support women at certain phases of the cycle, and help clients manage any symptoms.
IT’S ABOUT CONVERSATION, NOT RULEBOOKS
The aim of the programme is to equip personal trainers and fitness instructors with the specialist knowledge to support female members at different life stages, and know how to help women adapt exercise to really get the best out of it.
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It’s not about writing a new ‘fitness rulebook’ for women. First, there isn’t enough evidence in female health and fitness to do that yet. And second, we're all different. It is ‘personal’ training after all.
“Hopefully this just adds another layer or another element to that understanding of what it is that that women need” - Ruth Jackson
IS THIS THE FUTURE OF FITNESS TRAINING?
The Gym Group, in partnership with The Well HQ, hopes this starts a conversation in other gyms and fitness centres.
This is very much an education approach to putting the ‘female’ back in fitness, and it’s education that Baz believes is the best way to start doing this.
Personal trainers can share their own knowledge with clients and gym-goers, which has a bigger impact.
“Female health has been in quite a privileged white heterosexual space, and now we’re taking that conversation out of that space and applying it to a much wider society” - Baz Moffat