Sharing the wellness experience

The more people grow, the more they realise that taking care of their body and mind is not optional. Advancing in age comes with so many complications and responsibilities as well.

Taking matters of general well-being into your hands can become hectic with responsibilities getting intertwined in daily schedules.

Despite all these, wellness is a crucial part of those who have a goal of living a healthy life. However, wellness has often been misunderstood in the fitness industry.

Wellness can be defined as ‘the act of practising healthy habits daily to attain better physical and mental health outcomes so that instead of just surviving, you’re thriving’.

Modern lifestyles have been making wellness coaching relevant. It has currently been a booming business that many years ago could not have been categorized as a full-time job.

The purpose of a wellness coach has become popular with many people seeking their services. As witnessed by Vivian Thuo, a 35-year-old who works in the Program Strategic Operations field, these coaches come a long way to improving someone’s physical health.

“I decided to hire a fitness coach slightly over three years ago. My initial goal was to lose weight but along the journey, my goals have shifted. Soon after I began training, a knee injury I had as a kid started acting up. My trainer and I switched focus to rehabilitating the knee alongside losing weight and getting healthier,” Vivian told Eve Woman.

From her testimony, it is clear that wellness is not all about physical care. She got aid on how to deal with work and social pressures hence improving her mental health.

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“At the time I was living and working in Dubai. Life was stressful as my family was back in Kenya, I was dealing with grief, and I was facing racism at work. My trainer helped me cope with the stress through daily exercise and talking to me about handling such stress,” she added.

Any profession that deals with the human body is very sensitive, meaning not everybody who gets bored can opt to start a wellness business.

Lenah Mukami, 32, is a wellness and personal fitness coach as well as a sports nutritionist who agrees that coaches need to have deep scientific knowledge of how the body works to give their clients successful routines.

“I run a wellness business, Body on Point Fitness (BOP) through which I help busy people stay on top of their fitness, nutrition and general wellness. I started BOP as a blog, providing science-backed information on weight loss for women,” said Lenah.

Lenah’s own need to lose weight is what birthed the idea of BOP. At that time, what she found from websites could not be properly implemented as it mainly talked about Western diets. In her quest to find Kenyan diets that suit her needs, she enrolled on school and got a wellness certification.

“This broadened my interest in the area, and after university, I decided to try this wellness thing. I shelved my Economics and Statistics degree and delved into an unknown world.”

For seven years, she has watched BOP transform people from unfit to fit and mentally unstable to mentally stable. Her clientele has grown over the years with many people realizing the importance of having a coach.

Just like Vivian put it, most working-class people are seeking wellness coaches to help combat their mental instabilities.

Lenah seconds this by adding that most of her clients are middle and upper-class people, since “they are actively seeking wellness to help combat mental health issues.”

The working population can attest to how draining 9-5 can be. They end up taking long walks, hikes or runs before or after work to relax their mind.

In as much as many people are slowly making wellness coaching a popular business, there are skills you need to portray to pull clients.

“Being a good coach is not about creating the best workout plans, but about being able to relate very well with your client. Listen to them, be resourceful, be reliable, provide solutions, reassure them and help them change how they think about wellness. Being able to do that has helped me attract and retain clients,” said Lenah.

To get her clients, Lenah markets her business through social media platforms, collaborates with other businesses in the wellness industry and even engages in fitness activities outside the gym.

Additionally, one does not need a gym. House calls can work with or without a gym but in case it gets crucial, one can partner with a fully equipped gym and work from there.