Our women in fitness series is a celebration of fly girls doing fly things. Meet Bhavna – a business owner who kicked off her fitness journey when she hit the big three-oh.
Bhavna’s story
The moment I hit 30, I realised I wanted to challenge myself more, and get fit by engaging in other activities. I wanted to be that person that woke up and had exercise in my routine. My journey first started with Zumba because I loved music, rhythm, dance and exercise. I made a promise to myself to go every single Wednesday and Saturday morning, even if I was out the night before. I slowly started to add other elements to my fitness regime such as swimming and cardio, which helped me build a strong foundation.
A year later, my gym was kitted out with new equipment which just looked like a bunch of new toys to play with. I was lucky that trainers showed me how to use the equipment, and encouraged me to use the gym just after my Zumba class as I was in the gym anyway right? Fast forward to six months and I started to get curious about weights and other equipment as I was never a fan of treadmills and being on a machine for more than 10 minutes. In walked in my personal trainer, who I am still with today – Theo. He gave me my very first weights session at the age of 32… which included clean and press, deadlifts and squats. I was in SO MUCH PAIN for a week but I was determined to learn more and push through it.
Falling in love with weights
At the time, I started to follow a few accounts on Instagram and had a few other friends into weights. It was helpful to see that girls can train just as hard as men too. I started to work with my trainer every week, and learned a great deal about weight lifting techniques, nutrition and eating. I slowly built up to working out 4-6 times a week, ensuring it was part of my weekly routine, to help me take a step back from working and looking at screens. It was my one hour when I truly switched off and focused on myself as my schedule is extremely hectic with all the work I do with Meebox, UK’s only subscription box for nail lovers. I’m lucky that Theo and I have great rapport, which we still have today. I would have never imagined myself walking into a weights room, filled with mostly men five years ago. Now, I can’t imagine life without weights. I’ve also replaced Zumba with boxing too (only because I had an amazing teacher who was no longer teaching and Zumba was not the same without her!). I also have an inspiring boxing partner, Holly, who I meet up with every week, making Mondays one of my favourite days of the week.
In the past few years, I have seen a tremendous change in my physique, skin, hair and mental awareness which made me a complete advocate for exercise and eating well. The trick is, to build up slowly as we all have to start from somewhere, have a routine and don’t stop even on days where you feel lazy. Try to find an exercise you’re inspired by that works for you as everyone is different.
