Tuesday, Aug 02, 2016

Abu Dhabi: Three women in Abu Dhabi have started a series of free community-based events in the capital to promote health and fitness among women in an innovative way.

Titled #theADMovement, the quarterly events focus on fun fitness activities, nutritious food advice, and interactive workshops led by experts while providing networking opportunities.

“#theADMovement is a series of pop-up events that are held at different locations in Abu Dhabi and the concept is to expose women to local-based trends or local-based businesses that are related to health and fitness,” said Abeer Amiri, one of the co-founders of #theADMovement.

The 26-year-old Emirati cross-fit trainer founded the programme with her two “fitnut” friends, 28-year-old Emirati Health Coach student and founder of blog FitnutUAE, Sarah Al Nowais, and 30-year-old American nutrition enthusiast and metabolic fat-loss coach, Kristin Anderson.

According to Amiri the trio struggled to find health and fitness events that encouraged them to be healthy while meeting other like-minded women. She said the events they did find were conducted by fitness experts whose ideas did not really relate to the everyday woman who has children, work and other responsibilities.

“So we thought let’s start these events ourselves,” she said.

They launched their first event in March at a spa, which was an instant success with around 150 people in attendance. The growing popularity of their innovative approach to promoting a healthy lifestyle saw around 250 people attend their second event at Yas Marina Circuit in June.

The events bring local businesses and experts from around the country that are involved in the health and fitness fields together with participants in a relaxed and fun environment.

“We wanted people to change their mind set about fitness and wellness. It’s not a chore, it’s not mandatory, it should be something that you want to do and it’s actually a lot of fun,” said Amiri.

From yoga, spa, boot camp sessions, talks on food to introducing children to fitness, Amiri said they try to bring new ways of keeping the topic fresh and providing women the opportunity to learn, find out what is available to them locally, have fun and meet new people. “The three of us are big believers that if you do something with the community, you are more likely to keep doing it and get better at it,” she said.

“Once you meet people around you and get that conversation going and meet at health and fitness events, next time you are going to a yoga class you will have someone to call because you probably don’t want to go alone,” she added.

They are already preparing for their third event, which will be held in October and themed around health and fitness for the whole family.

“We want to allow women to bring their kids because fitness and healthy lifestyle is not just about you alone, it also involves people around you too.”

Amiri said she and her co-founders hope the movement takes off and have more women investing in their health and lifestyle.

Details on #theADMovement events can be found on their Instagram.

By Sarvy Geranpayeh Staff Reporter

Gulf News 2016. All rights reserved.