Post Lockdown, How Can Gym Culture Change to Be More Inclusive?
Since the pandemic crashed onto the scene and disrupted every element of our lives, how you sweat, with the closure of gyms through repeated lockdowns, changed. Out went weekly HIIT sessions with a trainer, and in came runs around the park or exhausting Joe Wick's YouTube back catalogue.
Another switch has been this – with an emphasis on working out for overall mental and physical health, rather than on aesthetics, and traditional boundaries to in-person fitness giving way to comprehensive online offerings – more people than ever have taken up the fitness mantle. This includes those who may not have felt comfortable in gyms, classes and studios, previously.
With gyms now re-open, though, writer Rose Stokes has a question. How can this re-set be used to trigger a change in how inclusive such spaces are?
Annalisa Toccara is not a fitness fanatic. In fact, until Coronavirus arrived in the UK, she had never, ever enjoyed exercise. Not one bit. 'I was not a fan,' the 33-year-old tells me over the phone from Sheffield, where she has spent the past twelve months undergoing a huge emotional and physical transformation. 'As a visibly plus-size person,' she explains, 'I’ve never felt welcome in gyms, where it always felt like you needed to be a certain weight and shape to fit in — and so I steered clear of them.'
How has lockdown changed attitudes to exercise?
After lockdown began in the UK last March, though, something shifted for Annalisa. 'The first four weeks of lockdown really affected me mentally,' she tells me. Looking for ways to feel better, she read about the benefits of exercise on mental health, and decided it was worth a shot. 'I’d spent the first month of lockdown in bed watching Netflix all day and was very unfit,' she explains, 'until one day I got up and just decided that today was the day to start moving'.
She set herself a target of getting outside and walking for ten minutes, before allowing herself to sit down for a rest. That day she managed to walk for thirty minutes in total (with breaks) before getting back to her sofa.
One year on and things look very different. Annalisa has regular sessions with a PT in the park or over Zoom, and she’s fallen so in love with pole dancing that she recently had a pole installed in her living room. 'I feel so much better!' she says. I can’t see her, as we’re speaking on the phone, but I know she is beaming.
The dramatic uptake of exercise for the previously uninitiated is, by this point in the pandemic, a well-documented trend. By July last year, one million people in the UK had downloaded Public Health England’s Couch to 5K app to help them to learn how to run — a 92% increase when compared with the previous year. In the first lockdown, celebrity trainer, Joe Wicks, ran exercise classes aimed at children that reached almost one million screens a day — and many more eyeballs — and were credited with getting the nation moving during the great national slowdown.
As government restrictions aimed to keep us at home save for daily excursions to exercise, more and more people felt incentivised to get outside and move their bodies; walks became the new way to socialise, bikes were soon a precious commodity and outdoor exercise classes flourished.
Others who may have previously felt excluded from fitness spaces revelled in the opportunity to log onto exercise classes from the privacy of their living rooms, away from judgemental looks and without having to walk into intimidating gym spaces that had always made them feel self-conscious.
Charlotte falls into the latter category. 'I found [them] super soul destroying,' she tells me, 'full of "skinny" women and men who were bodybuilders.' As someone who has suffered with eating disorders in the past, she found the spaces and the prevailing narrative they often promoted — that exercise was to look rather than feel good — triggering. Over the past year though, she has discovered a deep love for running with the help of the Couch to 5k app, and has enjoyed working out alone at home. 'I'm not sure whether I'd ever go back to a gym,' she tells me, mentioning 'toxic associations' and how 'unwelcoming' she found them. 'A lot would have to change,' she concludes.
How might gyms change, in the new world?
As exercise spaces reopen their doors to punters this month, two new challenges have emerged for gym owners. First, the profile of the average fitness enthusiast looks pretty different from how it did in the Before Times, and second, the economic outlook is decidedly bleak after a year that has battered the industry. For fitness spaces that are able not only to understand this but also to cater to this demographic’s expectations and needs, these challenges look a lot like an opportunity.
Those who are not, however, risk losing relevance in a much-changed industry. Hannah Lewin, a size-inclusive women’s PT, agrees that the industry is at a crossroads. 'It has obviously been a devastating time [...] and it's going to be more important than ever that gyms are genuinely welcoming to all in order to retain and attract members,' she remarks.
Hannah says that first and foremost, fitness professionals need to understand that not everyone will be there to lose weight, crediting the influence of the body positivity movement and how it’s challenged how we equate weight and health.
'Everyone will have different reasons for attending a gym, and fat loss is absolutely someone's right to pursue, but it isn’t everybody's reason,' she explains. This transition in thinking also has an impact on a client’s commitment, she says. 'It has been proven that when focus switches to a more non-aesthetic approach that they are more likely to stick with exercise on a longer-term basis.'
How can trainers help people to feel that they belong in fitness spaces?
Laura Hoggins, director of The Foundry and a PT with a huge online presence promoting body positivity agrees that intention is important. 'Our tagline is where the strong belong — but we take this to mean both strong physically and mentally,' she explains over the phone. The key, she believes, is for brands and trainers not to project their own ideas of what healthy looks like onto their clients.
'We’re all in this industry because at one time or other, fitness changed our life and we want others to experience the same thing,' she says, 'but that will look different for different people.' Laura believes it’s up to fitness professionals to work with clients on an individual basis to understand their motivations for exercising.
But there are more practical considerations too that make a huge difference to the sense of belonging someone might feel in an exercise space. Annalisa notes that in the first size-inclusive pole studio she went to, there were no mirrors, which she felt was a huge relief. Hannah agrees that thinking about the design of the gym is important.
There are many ways of becoming more inclusive
'Gym owners need to ask themselves, Is your gym genuinely inclusive for all potential users? Could a wheelchair user access the gym floor and the changing facilities? Are there provisions for deaf clients who want to take part in classes?' Beyond this, thinking about everything from the size of your towels to whether or not you stock merchandise in bigger sizes might seem unnecessary to someone who fits the prototypical ideal of what a gym goer looks like, but to bigger-bodied people, they can make a huge difference in fostering a sense of belonging.
The same goes for your staff — do your customers see staff with diverse bodies and skin tones? 'Genuine inclusivity transcends every aspect of the gym business,' says Hannah, 'from hiring to ensure trainers understand how to work with different body types and goals to the types of classes offered and the marketing of your facility.'
How can gyms market themselves in an inclusive way?
Laura agrees that the pictures and words you use to promote your gym are important. 'We are extremely careful about the imagery we use to promote our brand on social media,' she tells me, 'as well as any language we use.' This means forgetting about talking about 'bikini bodies'' and instead emphasising the diverse health benefits that come from engaging in regular exercise.
For Laura, it also means taking a personal approach to exercise for each person who walks through the door. 'If you’re lifting 10kg or 100kg, it doesn’t matter,' she says, 'we celebrate you and your progress.'
Ultimately, clients need to be able to trust that they will be looked after, says Hannah. 'Ensuring they feel comfortable, not judged and able to voice any concerns is so important.'
It may sound daunting, but Laura says the journey her business has been on has been 'incredible', and that the results far outweigh the effort, which, in an industry that focuses a lot on input and output, feels like a healthy ratio.
For Annalisa, Charlotte and millions of others, fitness has been an anchor in a year of constant change and difficulty; a new place where they can feel safe, calm, powerful and connected with their bodies. As we move into the unchartered waters of post-lockdown life, it will be more important than ever for people to have access to places where they can belong, especially when so many are struggling with the impact of the past year on their mental health.
Those gyms that are able to reorient their cultures to capture the imagination of these new exercise lovers stand to gain a huge amount when it comes to their impact — as well as their bottom line.
Inclusive fitness Instagram accounts to follow
Inject some positive inspiration into your feed, with these must-follows.
Hannah Lewin
The mission, for Hannah, is simple: to work with women on fitness that doesn't focus on appearances. Specialising in recovery from eating disorders, she'll fill your feed with truly motivational content.
Laura Hoggins
The trainer and Lift Yourself author knows that optimum fitness looks different for different people. Follow her for advice on lifting and strength that is not rooted in an aesthetic goal.
See My Strong
Founded by journalist and author Poorna Bell, this account is a collection of: 'Fitness stories of women and non-binary folk across colour, culture, age, body size and ability, to inspire & empower,' – as Bell puts it.
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