Why aren’t there more Asian women in fitness? London personal trainer launches fitness app to boost diversity and address “deep-rooted issue” in Asian community

A personal trainer from London has revealed how she’s launched her own fitness and wellness app to inspire other Asian women across the UK – explaining that there’s a distinct lack of Asian female role models in the fitness industry.

London personal trainer Juju Sheikh, 27, is a fitness influencer with over 120,000 Instagram followers, and founder of Cloud Nine Collective – a fitness and wellness app dedicated to helping women enjoy exercising and unlearn unhealthy attitudes surrounding fitness and body image.

Juju, who is of Asian descent, explains that there has historically been a distinct lack of Asian role models in the fitness space.

“A lot of us in the Asian community are raised in quite sedentary households where being active just isn’t really part of the equation. There’s also so much pressure around how you look in our culture – especially as a female. The way you look is the first thing people will judge you on. It’s such a deep rooted issue. At the core, women need to look good to be suitable wives. The whole concept is incredibly outdated. I think this will dilute as time goes on and more people from my generation and the ones after push to dissolve this concept.

I always try to encourage people to work out and look after their bodies from a place of love, not hate. It’s so ingrained in us to workout or diet purely to lose weight. I really want to change that narrative and make it a positive space”.

Sheikh explains that, while attending a predominantly white-British girls’ school, she, like many young Asian women, often felt out of place.

“I never felt like I lived up to the typical standard of beauty at the time. I went to an all girls boarding school in the countryside, so I definitely felt like a minority in an environment where most of the girls’ ethnic background was English. I looked different to my friends in a lot of ways and I started working out because I wanted to have a body more similar to theirs”.

Juju explains that she spent the next several years “working out for the wrong reasons”, becoming obsessed with calorie-counting and growing to hate how she looked.

“I hated what I saw in the mirror – over-exercising and undereating became a punishment for looking the way I did. I tried all the weight loss teas and fitness fads, ate only 1,200 calories per day and put myself through so much torture because I felt like I didn’t look the way I was supposed to. That body just isn’t me – as I got older I slowly started to grow more comfortable in my own skin and realised I can be beautiful in my own way”.

After growing to love exercise, Juju qualified as a personal trainer and started Cloud Nine Collective to inspire other young Asian women on their own fitness journeys. As Cloud Nine Collective continues to grow, Juju has become a role model for other Asian women, explaining that she would like to see more women of Asian descent in the fitness space.

“I would love to see more diversity in the space. Honestly, I could count on one hand the Asian women I know in the fitness industry. I hope to see more women from our community spread the idea of living a healthy lifestyle, looking after mental health and breaking old mindsets.

It’s such an amazing feeling to know that young Asian women feel like they can relate to me and trust me to guide them on their fitness journeys. I never really had someone I felt like I could relate to when I was first getting into fitness, and I think that would’ve made it a lot less intimidating for me. So I hope I can do that for someone else”.

ABOUT CLOUD NINE COLLECTIVE

Cloud Nine was founded in 2020 by Personal Trainer Juju Sheikh with one simple mission: to make women feel amazing. Cloud Nine is a positive space where women can take a break from their busy lives and concentrate on doing something great for themselves.