Fitness star fires back at body-shamers

If you’ve ever walked into the gym as a woman and felt uncomfortable in the weights section – which always seems to be filled with ripped guys staring at their biceps – you are not alone.

Sadly, it’s because a stereotype still exists that weightlifting is for men. That women shouldn’t be doing weights and ‘bulking’. That women shouldn’t look ‘too manly’.

Those are just some of the things international fitness trainer and mum Kelsey Wells hears every single day.

But the Instagram star, who has over 1 million followers, wants to reverse the negative stigma around women doing weight training. And she’s developed a new PWR program to do it.

“The thinking that weight training is manly is absolutely ridiculous,” Kelsey tells Be.

“I am very proud to be changing the dialogue because weightlifting is an incredible form of exercise with so many benefits.”

The 27-year-old is constantly amazed by some of the ignorant comments she receives from people that believe weightlifting ‘isn’t feminine’.

And she has tried to make it clear to her followers that all women need to do to be beautiful and feminine is to be themselves.

“It has nothing to do with what you look like. So free yourself of the opinions of others and the beauty standards of society,” she wrote in a post online.

“There is 100 per cent beauty and femininity in lifting weights.

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“Lifting is not ‘manly’. Lifting weights does not make you automatically ‘bulky’. Lifting weights is badass and so are you!”

While Kelsey loves sharing photos of her life and her workouts on Instagram she hasn’t bought into the Instagram vs Reality debate.

She feels passionate about being open and transparent with her followers, and does admit having such an influence on others comes with a lot of responsibility.

“It’s very important to me that I show all aspects of my life – the good and the bad days,” Kelsey tells Be.

“I talk about things like my anxiety because it’s important for my community to know that I’m human and just like everyone else I too have off days.

“I do appreciate the sentiment behind why ‘Instagram vs reality’ started, but everything I post is reality.

“Your good angles and ‘bad’ angles, your bloated tummy and flat tummy, your natural body and flexed body, it’s all real and it’s all you. I aim to embrace and share it all.”

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