Horsham-based female personal trainer, Becky, works hard to provide the best service possible at an independent gym in Sussex. She recently attended Move For Your Mind 2025 in an effort to improve further, and shares her thoughts on the event here…
I can’t remember why I missed the first version of this event, but I do recall being gutted to have not been there. So, when I heard that Move For Your Mind was taking place in January 2025, I made sure that I was free and booked a ticket. The event happened this weekend, and I’m going to share my thoughts on it…
Move For Your Mind – a fitness event with a difference
I’ve been a Fitness Person since 2017, and a personal trainer since 2021, and in that time I’ve only been to two fitness events. One of them terrified me, but I ultimately had a great time. I was ambivalent about attending the other, and mainly went so that I could meet someone I knew via social media face to face and finally share a pack of mince pies with her (no, I’m not joking).
The reason I actively avoid fitness events is because although I am a Fitness Person, the majority of fitness people are not my people.
They are the prototypical, small-bodied, protein-chugging, personality vacuums that made me frightened to set foot in a gym throughout my 20s. And I don’t often spend time with them, because I don’t generally find them engaging or insightful, which is what I look for when considering spending my precious days outside of my house.
Move For Your Mind is marketed and structured very differently. The brainchild of Jameela Jamil – who has been campaigning incessantly via social media for years – the event is about inclusion, positive movement, and thinking beyond aesthetics and classic fitness messaging. Which I like to think I’m about too. I thought that – just maybe – I’d fit in at this one.
Getting to Move For Your Mind
A fitness event in January might seem a bit florals for Spring, but this pro is tired. January feels like a long month anyway, I’m flat out busy, and wow did I not particularly want to trek to and across London in order to hear people yap positively about movement when I’m already sold.
But I’d made myself a promise. The FOMO was real. And I went.
I realised on the way there that I was quite nervous (though I never really established what that was about), and I was also spurred on by a coincidentally serendipitous conversation I’d had earlier in the week with a phenomenal Equality, Diversity and Inclusion consultant called Cecilia Harvey. With her words that truly inclusive spaces are for EVERYONE ringing in my ears, I dropped the mild sense of panic and self-consciousness about being someone not a million miles from the fitness ideal taking up space, and got the fuck on with it.
Lessons learned via Move For Your Mind
I’ve got a notes page on my phone which is stuffed full of pull quotes from various speakers, but I’ll remind you of something else that’s important: I’m someone with an Events Management degree, so this meant that both of my professional sides were available to scrutinise things. From an events perspective, the space delivered – nice and open, easy for me to navigate, and not overly complicated. We were invited to bring our own food, which is always helpful for a variety of reasons, but what I wasn’t expecting was soft drinks – very tasty canned drinks, plus tea and coffee – and a number of snack options were provided free of charge throughout the day.
I made sure that I had a seat in the auditorium for Jameela’s introduction to day two of the event (day one was a Friday, and I was busy doing my actual job of coaching) followed by her discussion with Stephanie Yeboah, which was brilliant (quote of the session: “It’s so important to see health and looks as different things” – Steph).
Later in the day, Brendon Stubbs taught us all that it takes a mere 15 minutes and 9 seconds to start achieving the mental health benefits of exercise. This is something that a lot of fitness instructors have anecdotally been saying for a long time – that idea of “give it five minutes to get going” really is quite true, it turns out. He was part of a conversation alongside Jameela and Tally Rye, who pointed out that, “diet culture teaches us that we can’t trust how our bodies feel”.
Having already heard a lot about inclusion earlier in the week, I was concerned I was on information overload, but stuck around to hear a talk on bias within the fitness industry… and I’m so glad I did, because Sofie Hagen and Ryan Lanji were more than worth listening to. Ryan’s story about how he’s developed the ability to assess the inclusivity of fitness spaces and classes was inspiring, and Sofie shared their love for someone I’m incredibly proud to have met and trained alongside, the inimitable Ash Rides London.
Next steps after Move For Your Mind
As I left the auditorium, I bumped into Ash, and shared a hug. I haven’t seen Ash since we did a course together over two years ago (not sure how it’s been that long!) and it was great to share our thoughts on being in such a different space, as well as discussing with Tally how lonely it can feel when you don’t think that the industry represents your practice.
We successfully dragged Ryan into our chat and he gracefully complimented my fresh manicure – we both proved that Fitness People deserve fierce manicures too – whilst listening to me babble about my inclusion revelations, and beg him to come and review my service.
I floated part way home on a high… and was brought abruptly back to earth when I opened Instagram (obviously) to see a Prototypical Fitness Post, rudely reminded that I’d spent the day in the most incredible bubble.
To see meaningful and widespread change in the fitness industry, my peers need to get real and hop on board. We need to be aware of who we’re not serving – and, often, actively harming – in order to change our approach and include them. Because everybody deserves movement, for whatever reason is important to them.
Thank you, Jameela and team for giving us a safe space to hope for better. It’s time for us to start delivering it.