Midge Seymour-Roots

What was your relationship to exercise before Fitology Hub?

Fitology Hub wasn't the first gym I'd been to. I'd been attending gyms and exercise classes since my early twenties, but the focus wasn’t really on strength training, per se, it was more about keeping weight off. I've always incorporated exercise into my life, but, in the past, it was more about maintaining a particular body shape - so, I suppose, in that regard, it wasn't terribly healthy.

Prior to joining Fitology Hub in 2021, I'd been going to a local gym and had a PT as a way to try to fight the onslaught of menopause and the resulting change in my body shape. I guess, when I first came here, I was still thinking about exercise in similar terms, but I've been going through a number of changes since then - emotionally and psychologically - and my focus now really is on being strong, and being happy with myself, and to accept myself.

How has Fitology Hub impacted your life?

Since becoming a member of Fitology Hub, I have more of a rounded and realistic approach to exercise and my body. I can develop my strength and walk taller, but my body is just as it is. It's less about control and more about being happy with myself. It's about what I can gain rather than what I can lose.

My shift in mindset has been caused by a number of things, combined, and it wasn’t immediate. It has been a gradual awakening and wasn’t something that hit me in the first month, or even six months of being here. It's been a gradual process and being part of a very welcoming community has been a big part of it.

A camaraderie builds up with the women I train with. There aren’t any mirrors at Fitology Hub, but you see yourself reflected in the other women - we reflect each other back to ourselves, in our encouragement for each other. When someone in the group achieves something for herself - like, this morning, when one of the women in my group lifted a really solid weight - we all celebrated her and celebrated with her.

When I was doing something like slam ball at a different place I used to train at, they would tell you to focus your energy on a person you hate and to imagine slamming the ball as hard as possible into their faces. There's none of that at Fitology Hub. The focus is on the internal. It's about taking your power from the inside and slamming the ball like a woman! I've found it very grounding.

I'm not going to lie, there are times, when I might feel competitive in sessions and think, She's lifting that, so I've got to lift that too! But now I also have this awareness that what I'm doing is enough. If I'm tired that day I don't have to push through. I can allow myself to respond in the way my body needs me to, instead of being hard on my body, or on myself.

There's this ethos of being gentle and compassionate with ourselves and to really think about how we're fuelling ourselves and our bodies - that sense of nourishing ourselves with kindness, not criticism.  It's something I've been really trying to focus on and to bring into my life more and I wish I'd had some of that when I was younger.

The values of Fitology Hub really invite us to pay attention to what our bodies are saying to us and to get in touch with the inner self. Even though my professional life - I was a nurse back in the day and then I retrained as a psychotherapist and now I'm an organisational consultant - is all about the felt experience and trying to bring cognitions together to think about the unconscious life, being a member here has really taught me something more about really listening to myself and just allowing myself to be.

I love how sessions start with breathwork. I remember Suzanne explaining how it helps calm the nervous system and I've actually started to use it a lot at home as well. We used to laugh in my group, first thing on a Friday, that it was our cue to go back to sleep! But there's something about that gentle start - focussing in on the breath and on our internal selves - that helps to leave the world outside. If I've ever come in, distracted by frustrations or aggravations at work, I've really found that the breathwork has centred me.

I think training in an all-female space is really important to me now and I’m kind of surprised because it's the only female gym that I’ve knowingly been to. I was actively seeking a women-only environment when I joined. It was when we were just coming out of covid - I was about 55 and really in the menopause and just not happy with myself. I was trying to be nice to myself, but it felt important to be able to go into a place where I wouldn't feel shame. Not that I think people would be pointing their fingers at me at another gym, but the thought of going into that kind of place left me feeling insecure. There's something wonderful about going into a place that's full of women of all shapes, sizes and creeds. It's really positive and unique and it's something to be celebrated.

I joined Fitology Hub at around the same time that I found out I was dyspraxic and dyslexic. One of the things I've always liked best about going to the gym is that I'm not a team sport player because I can't catch a ball to save my life! Training here is helping me with my coordination and with simple things, like throwing a ball against the wall and knowing it's coming back to be caught.

I remember talking to Suzanne, very early on, about how I need things to be repeated and to visually see the trainer do something first because I can't hold verbal instructions in my head. I'm very bad with directions and I can't really remember, week to week, what things are that I've done before; I always need to be reminded. The session plans are written up on the white board to be referred back to which is so helpful and the team is always so patient with me and how often I forget.

Discovering that I'm neurodivergent and accepting myself and my neurodivergence has been a process which the Fitology Hub community has made easier. Even though I always had an inkling, finding out something about yourself that explains you to yourself is very powerful, but it also gives you something that you have to reconcile. There's a period of grief to go through, I suppose, even though it's always better to know, and being part of this supportive community has been a good environment for me to go through this.

There’s something about Fitology Hub that means it really doesn't matter what age you are when you start. There's an acceptance here that we're all different ages, which is really important because it's encouraging us older women to get out there and lift weights and not to be afraid. I love the way they challenge the thoughts you can have about your capability here. You know how, sometimes, when you're feeling a bit fragile, you can think, I shouldn't do that! But it's not true. Fitology Hub helps us to overcome and manage that fear.

How has strength training impacted your life?

Being stronger physically has given me an internal strength. I know that I present myself well and that I'm very verbose and articulate, but there's also that part of me that's very fragile and vulnerable and anxious. That part can sometimes take precedence over what I know I can do. Fitology Hub has allowed me to hold on to the fact that I'm a woman who can bench press and dead lift! That external strength has helped me feel internally strong. It's really allowed me not to shy away from trying things and it's given me a courage and a confidence.

I grew up in the late 80s and 90s when you were considered huge unless you were emaciated. It can be hard to get that programming out of you, but when I look at my legs now, I think they're nice and strong. There's something lovely about just seeing your body and appreciating it for what it is and what it can do, rather than thinking, Oh shite, I need to be a skinny malinky! or whatever. There's something about how the female body is celebrated with strength, rather than how much it can control what it takes in, that's really special.

I also know strength training is really helping me to age well. I try to exercise most days - at home I do something and go for a walk. I'm 60 now and some women my age can't walk very far but I feel I can walk for two hours without thinking about it. I sometimes have to remind myself that not all women of 60 are lifting weights! I think, because I am, other people are all doing it too, but I know really that they're not. I also know that they could and that they'd feel great if they did! But it can be intimidating, which is why Suzanne and the team are so great to work with, because they take all of that out of it really. They stop it feeling intimidating and focus on the positive. They enable us to focus on the, Yay, I'm doing it!