Trainer on mission to get people moving
Editor's note: In the days leading up to March 8, International Women's Day, Saltwire Network will share inspiring stories that celebrate women's achievements.
When Joy Chiekwe was a little girl, she played “every single sport you can think of.”
Her parents, who are immigrants from Nigeria, thought of sports as a way to get structure into their children’s lives. Chiekwe’s mother played sports at school because she had to, so she didn’t expect her two daughters to fall in love with athletics.
“They just thought it’s something we did to be with our friends,” said Chiekwe in an interview. “Whereas with my brothers, they took it a lot more seriously.”
Chiekwe’s parents were supportive when she continued going to the gym or basketball field, but sometimes her mother would say, “you don’t need to follow the boys or that’s not a place for a woman.”
“But now they understand,” she said. “It’s not just about looking a certain way. It’s really just taking care of my body and making sure I give myself the best chance to get through this life.”
A MALE-DOMINATED FIELD
The time came for Chiekwe to choose her university major and knew exactly what she wanted: kinesiology. It was a combination of sports and health care, two things she was passionate about.
After seeing how exercise and physical activity could transform someone’s life, Chiekwe prepared to get her certification to become an exercise physiologist. She loved the potential a career in that field has in mitigating symptoms of chronic diseases, such as hypertension or diabetes, and helping people improve their lifestyle to prevent those diseases.
As she studied at Acadia University, she said there was only a handful of female students in the program.
“Then coming back to Halifax, there isn’t any other female exercise physiologist that I know of,” said Chiekwe.
“Being a female in the world of health and wellness is always difficult.”
She added that it can be challenging to get people to listen to her as a female, but by building relationships with colleagues and patients, they have begun to value her word.
Working with the football team at Acadia has also helped her learn how to “speak up and take space.”
“It was hard when the (football players) wouldn’t listen. You have to look up and be like, ‘hey, we’re doing this my way or you’re getting out of here,’ and it just comes to practice.”
INSPIRING BLACK PEOPLE TO BE ACTIVE
Chiekwe is now living her dream as a personal trainer at a gym and a certified exercise physiologist with Nova Scotia Health.
It’s been about a year since she started working at ACCESS, a program for cancer patients administered by Nova Scotia Health. There, she and other health-care workers use exercise as a form of medicine to improve patients’ quality of life.
When she first started her job, she was hit with a realization: Chiekwe was often the only Black person in the room.
“I work with a lot of different chronic disease populations, but I haven’t seen one Black person walk through my doors and so I was wondering why is that?” she said.
Being a master’s student in kinesiology at Dalhousie University, she couldn’t let her question go unanswered. Hours of reading led her to the conclusion that “it’s all about seeing someone who looks like them represented in this space,” she said.
The conclusion took her on a journey last year to showcase Black fitness professionals in Nova Scotia on social media and inspire people to move.
From there, Chiekwe got together with other health and wellness professionals to show Black people “how they should exercise and why they should be moving their bodies.”
‘PEOPLE NEED THIS'
That’s how the Black Wellness Cooperative was born in August.
Chiekwe didn’t know how powerful the co-operative would be until they held their first outdoor bootcamp on Gottingen Street last summer.
“We were super nervous that no one was going to show up,” she said.
The event was fully booked, with a lot of people bringing their kids. When people requested another event, they knew they were sparking change.
“We’re getting people who never moved before in their life coming to find new ways to be active, to meet new people,” she said. “After those events we were like, people want this. People need this.”
STAYING MOTIVATED
The co-operative and Black representation is all the more meaningful to Chiekwe who wasn’t surrounded by a Black community as a young girl.
“It’s always in the back of your head that you are that Black girl, that you are different than anyone else around you,” said Chiekwe, who grew up in Cole Harbour.
But that and her immigrant background have helped her stay disciplined in going after her dreams.
“Rather than giving 100 per cent, it’s always 120 per cent,” she said. “My motivation is to show people that because I’m a person of colour doesn’t mean I can’t be better.”
For all girls pursuing their dreams Chiekwe has some advice: “It will always be worth it. Keep doing what you’re doing, stay true to yourself and you’ll be fruitful in the end.”