National Fitness Day is more than just a date on the calendar. It's a day of celebration, inspiration, and a reminder that our health and well-being deserve the spotlight. To mark this occasion, we've sat down with three of our remarkable fitness instructors who are not just passionate about fitness but have embarked on incredible journeys to help others lead healthier lives.
How did you get into being a fitness trainer/instructor?
EDIT: After giving birth to my first child I had postnatal depression for a year and a half. My husband wanted to help so he got me a deck of yoga cards, each had a pose on it, instructions, benefits and breathing exercises. It said that even if I only do one pose a day it will be beneficial...So I started: 1 pose a day, 1 deep breath at a time… and slowly it grew to an hour and I started to feel better. I also started to go to some yoga classes too. There was a community class run by two wonderful girls who wanted everyone to experience the benefits of yoga, the classes were fun, for every age and size. One day, they offered me a scholarship in the House of Yoga in Putney, which I couldn’t refuse. Even if I decided not to teach, I thought I would learn a lot. But I soon realised that I had the same bug as my lovely teachers: to share the wonderful benefits of movement and stillness.
STEVIE: I was searching for a career that would allow me to help people whilst doing something I love, which is keeping fit and healthy!
CHARLI: I've loved fitness since being a tiny tot, but it was after I recovered from severe chronic pain that I decided to take a career shift away from my corporate job and into the health and wellness industry, to teach people how they can help themselves out of pain and live a better quality of life.
What is the best thing about your job?
EDIT: This leads to the second question: I love making people feel better, happier and healthier. Seeing people “switch off”, even if it’s just for an hour, and concentrate on themselves is priceless nowadays. I love catering to people’s needs and it’s great to see when they listen to their bodies.
STEVIE: I get to help people achieve their goals which in turn supports their life ambitions.
CHARLI: Hard to choose just one thing! Bringing a moment of calm, relief, and fun to people's day is definitely one of the best things about my job. Meeting so many different, amazing people also keeps me grateful everyday.
This year's National Fitness Day theme is "Your Health is for Life" - Do you have any advice or a tip that might keep people enjoying and participating in fitness activities longer term?
EDIT: Finding the right activity for yourself is very important in my opinion. Trying out different things and being open minded also helps. You might enjoy working out alone at home if you have a job where you are surrounded by people, or it might be more enjoyable for you to exercise with others, maybe even friends. I find that having fun and enjoying the exercise helps and can make me feel like I’m not even doing a workout! I’d also advise to start slow; I often made the mistake of jumping into an activity too fast, overdoing it and quickly “burning out” and giving up. Starting off with one day a week and slowly increasing it can be really beneficial.
STEVIE: To get the best results out of health and fitness you need to be consistent, make it part of your lifestyle and most importantly make it fun!
CHARLI: Figure out what you truly enjoy doing. Consistently showing up for you health and fitness requires dedication. This is going to be really hard if it's a chore doing it. If don't don't enjoy 'standard' workouts, explore alternative exercise ideas… there's so much out there now, you just need to find which lights you up.
Hopefully reading a bit about why our instructors are so passionate about what they do has inspired you to explore a new class or form of exercise this National Fitness Day! For more info on our corporate fitness classes - many of which are led by Edit, Stevie and Charli alongside MANY others - check out our fitness classes page. Or, to keep up with more of our content like this, follow our LinkedIn page.
