North East women urged to take part in ‘This Girl Can’ campaign
A study found that 6.1m women exercise for less than 30 minutes a week – compared to 5.3m men.
Women of all ages are being encouraged to overcome the fear of judgement and start exercising!
The Sport England Campaign ‘This Girl Can’ last year encouraged more than 2.8 million women in the UK to become active. But that was just the beginning…
The latest phase is aimed at females starting at age 14, and it’s persuading them to overcome the fear of judgement when exercising.
The new Active Lives Survey from Sport England has found that in January of this year (2017) less women were partaking weekly physical activity than men. This new campaign is trying to turn these statistics on their head.
Heather Keir, a receptionist and part-time bodybuilder from Newcastle spoke to us about her transformation from gym goer to bodybuilder;
“I didn’t start off with bodybuilding, I started with going to the gym. I had a PT (personal trainer) and I did it to feel better. It wasn’t about personal image or anything like that. The more I got into it and the more I learnt about everything, I saw the weights section and thought I’d like to try that, and I just thought I’d give it a go. The more I did it and learnt about it... Now I’m in that little world.”
Heather then went on to tell us about the way bodybuilding makes her feel. Research shows physical activity does release endorphins and trigger feelings of calm and happiness, but experts say it’s usually cardiovascular exercises rather than bodybuilding.
“Bodybuilding, you feel good but it’s different. Lifting weights makes me feel good, but for me it’s more of a competitive thing, it’s kind of like a sport. Although I enjoy it, it’s something that I wanna hopefully progress into a career.”
Body transformations are not the main aim of the ‘This Girl Can’ Campaign, but everyone is encouraged to start being active, for at least 30 minutes a week. The fear of judgement is rife and this campaign is giving women the confidence to go out and get fit however they please.
We asked Heather about the most radical change she went through when she started bodybuilding, and surprisingly enough it wasn’t a physical one;
“The most radical change was the day that I ventured over to the weights … the weights section is full of lads. The day I did that though was the day that I realised … Cos I’d been so scared of it before but really no one cares. From then on I felt that ‘I can do anything now.”
For more information visit: http://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/