For many trainers, fitness is just a quick way to earn some bucks. Rarely do trainers take a personal interest....
COVER STORY
For many trainers, fitness is just a quick way to earn some bucks. Rarely do trainers take a personal interest in you and corrects your form. While their spaces may boast of “state-of-the-art” equipments, it is unlikely that you ever see - or read or hear about them having any certification.
As we entered the FZM Fitness Boutique, I realized I was feeling intimidated. The feeling grew as we were later given a tour of the studio, in a good sort of a way, though. I liked how passion for fitness and nutrition, something that we tend to ignore or not give much importance to, actually led Fatima Zara Mallick to start her own company.
“I went to Italy on a scholarship, to study art and fashion. But, as I was doing my Bachelors and Masters, I was also concentrating on my fitness. I was a little plump back then and I wanted to know how I could make myself slimmer. That’s how I got my first personal training certification,” Fatima shared.
When she returned to Pakistan after seven years and started working at different fashion houses, she was disappointed by the culture of plagiarism in the industry. Not only that, she couldn’t find any good fitness classes for herself. “I was looking for a really good trainer who could work with me for my body type. However, everybody here knew less than what I already knew. And I had done like a basic certification - they didn’t even have that.” This was around three years ago. So Fatima decided to get into this field.
“Initially, it was just dance classes, and it was just five or six people. Around three months later, there were so many people who wanted to sign up that I quit all other things and went into this fulltime.”
Certified
“Besides the basic personal training certification, I am a certified Pilates body balance instructor, a CrossFit Level 2 trainer, a certified self-defence coach. I have done piloxing, which is a mix of Pilates and kickboxing, and aqua aerobics instructor training. I am trained in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). I have done Zumba, so I offer it, too.
“I am also a health coach, which is more than giving you a generalised ‘diet plan’. From the health coaching perspective, I look at my client’s body and understand why, for instance, she is overeating. I don’t offer a one-solution-fits-all plan - and this goes for both exercise and nutrition; it has to be customised and tailored to suit the individual’s needs.”
Fatima is further trained in pre- and post-natal training. She offers rehabilitation as well so, let’s say, athletes who have had a knee injury can join FZM to get back into fitness.
“These are some of the certifications I have. And I have around 30 of them. Some of them (e.g. CrossFit and Pilates) require you to take exam while others are one- or two-day certifications,” she adds.
Dance cardio classes and fusion classes are popular in bootcamps at her place, which shows her dedication to the subject. In addition, she keeps herself up to date with the different types of fitness trainings rather than restrict herself to just one.
Not commercial fitness
With clients as young as six years old and as old as 70, FZM is one of the only two studios in Karachi that offer reformer Pilates, and the only one that offers pole and aerial fitness classes.
“If there are 20 people in a class, there will be two or three trainers present to watch out. We are very big on form. We want to give personal attention to everyone who comes to us. We make sure we do everything perfectly and they get their results.”
A lot of kids are there for gymnastics; the older clients want her to fix their muscles; often girls (17-18 year olds) are there because someone in their family asked them to shed some pounds, because they won’t get married unless they looked a certain way; often women sign for her classes because they don’t look good enough as their husbands don’t find them attractive anymore.
“Body shaming is a huge problem in our society. Our society is changing, but it’s going to take a long time to fix this. Since there is a lot of pressure from friends and family, people in general consider fitness a musibat. Exercising and eating right feels like a punishment because they didn’t meet society’s criteria of looking pretty.”
Fitness lovers at FZM are never told “you are fat”, or “you should eat less”. Instead, what they hear is: “Wow, you did 10 burpees! Tomorrow you’re doing 15; that is amazing!” The team at FZM strives to teach these goals: strength, achievements and stamina.
“We have always been against this notion of achieving temporary goals and not making fitness a part of one’s lifestyle. That is actually one of the reasons I went into fitness. The thing is you eat, you breathe and you exercise. Your bodies are made for movement. I don’t think people should exercise to lose weight; I think everyone should exercise because that is very important if you want to lead a healthy lifestyle (and prevent a lot of hospital bills later in your life)! Why do we eat out? It’s fun, right? Imagine if we started enjoying exercise and develop a taste for healthy food. If we change the way of thinking, of course we are going to transform our bodies! Nothing would transpire if your state of mind is negative; if you just keep thinking ‘haye main patli kab hongi’ you are going to land in a very bad place.”
Health counselling
For the sake of argument, suppose there is something that is holding her clients back from achieving their goals, regardless; what is Fatima’s approach? “At that stage, I sit down with them and we chat as to why they are feeling demotivated. Usually, there are other factors like low self-esteem which leads to binge eating and/or other behaviours. We once had a girl whose mother said she wouldn’t buy her clothes anymore until she becomes smart. Naturally, clients then turn to food as comfort and overeat - or they throw up and starve. Neither is a good/healthy option.
“I suggest such people sit down and work with a trained nutritionist who looks at their food diary. That is what I do. I look at the food diary for a week or two and not patterns and discuss possible reasons: if a person is eating a lot at night, why? Is it because their routine is messed up, or that they are not eating all day, or overeating at one meal, or not drinking enough water? There are lots of factors and we get to the bottom of the issue to ensure they get balanced nutrition, because diet is an important part of healthy living.
“I don’t believe in yo-yo dieting; you lose 10 pounds by slowing your metabolism but when you stop that crash diet, you gain 20 pounds back. A basic meal plan would include a very healthy breakfast (e.g. an egg whites omelette with a side of Greek yogurt). For lunch, brown rice (or even a handful of white rice) with any curry that is made at home would be great. Dinner can be similar to lunch. The person should consume three to four litres of water throughout the day, have their last meal at 8 o’clock and go to bed by 12 midnight, without snacking in the middle. However, at the end of the day, the right diet for you will not be the right diet for me.”
To those who would like to workout at home, Fatima’s favourite that works every single muscle in body is the burpee, followed by planks, squats, lunges and pushups. If you perfect your form, you are going to get results. You just have to give your body a constant challenge, constantly vary the routine that is, so that the body responds and change in whatever direction you want. BUT, if you’ve never worked out, trying to do it yourself with no trainer watching is not something she’d recommend. “If a person is looking up Zumba or dance cardio on YouTube, I’d say that’s fine. However, I don’t usually refer online resources to anyone or everyone primarily because what applies to one person might not apply to another; secondly, even a good website like crossfit.com with amazing workouts would use terms like pull-ups or clean and jerk, and with no one teaching it to you, you can get hurt or injure yourself!” she told Us, concluding our interview.
