KICK BUTT WITH FITNESS GOALS

WHY SKINNY IS OUT OF FASHION

Skinny is out and the peach is in.

Also known as the “butt emoji”, the peach symbol represents a firm, tight booty, something many women now aspire to achieve.

The peach is a symbol that Caitlin Simms, 24, has incorporated into her branding for the boutique gym she recently launched in The Walk on Lake Street.

Balance Performance Centre was born out of coronavirus lockdowns and is now thriving, with Caitlin fully booked and recently welcoming fellow personal trainer Courtney Louise Radford to her women’s-only gym.

But it’s not all about the peach, with a cultural shift for women to get strong.

“The direction women are going these days, the goal is no longer to be skinny but to be healthy and fit,” she says.

“Women are looking for shape. A lot of clients want to build muscle. I work with a lot of clients who want to put on weight and put on size. I work with all sorts of girls. The peach resembles a booty, that’s where my logo came from – building shape.

“People want to build that peach and females of Cairns come to me because they want to build shape.”

When Cairns gyms were forced to close to stop the coronavirus spread, Caitlin shifted sideways.

“I was really busy with face-to-face clients and then corona happened and I got the news that all the gyms would be closing,” she says. “I was in a pickle because I had so many clients and with gyms closing my source of income would be ceased. So I borrowed some equipment from a friend and set up in my home garage.

“I sent out a group message to all of my clients, saying ‘Your sessions have been moved to a new location’, and it was as simple as coming home to my gym. I was still busy through corona and ran all my sessions out of the garage.

“A few of my clients mentioned when they were in there how much they enjoyed training one-on-one in the garage with me. They said it was more private and intimate.

“That kind of gave me the idea, this was about two weeks after corona and the gyms closed, that maybe I should open up my own space and do it full time out of another space.”

A vacant commercial property at The Walk Laneway on Lake Street was fitted out, and Caitlin did a business name shift from Balance by CJS to Balance Performance Centre.

“We were ready to open as soon as the gyms opened,” Caitlin says. “It was a big step but it was a no-brainer.”

The goal was to open a space where “females could go and feel safe and not be judged when they are beginners”.

“I target a lot of mums and overweight women who want to train and eat well and live healthily,” she says.

“There’s lots of boutique gyms in Sydney and Melbourne. There are no other boutique gyms like this (in Cairns) and it’s a female-only gym too.”

Caitlin, a body builder who regularly competes in the World Beauty Fitness and Fashion (WBFF) bikini competition admits she is “not naturally lean”.

“Growing up I felt like I was always dieting. I grew up in a household where we ate a lot of traditional Maltese food and high calorie food,” she says.

“I wanted to offset that, so got into health and fitness and to learn how to manage my weight a little better.”

Nutrition is an important aspect of Caitlin and Courtney’s PT work, and clients are given a “no BS approach” to tracking calories.

“We look at our calories and macros like a budget. If you are going to take care of your finances, why not take care of your health as a budget?” Caitlin says.

“If we want to fit something in we learn how to adjust daily intake for that. We look at investing into our health.”

She says getting women mentally strong is important too, her catchphrase being “I get women strong physically and mentally”.

“Mindset is everything. Empowering women is definitely a passion of mine and teaching them they can live a healthy, balanced lifestyle,” Caitlin says.

“This (gym) came out of a shi--y circumstance from corona.

“Everything happens for a reason and I don’t think I would have ever stepped in or had this idea if it wasn’t for coronavirus.

“(During lockdown) all my girls continued to get results whereas a lot of people went off track.”