When most think of going to a fitness class at their gym, they think of a fitness-crazed, super tiny, super athletic person leading the class, yelling “C’mon!” or “You can do it!”
Not at the L.A. Fitness club in Capitol Heights. Class attendees double-time it as healthy and “thick” fitness instructor Michelle Gibson counts them down from the front of the class.
“Four more, three more, two more, one!” Michelle yells, twirling her rope. She jumps faster and faster until the rope and her sneakers blur on the hardwood.
“Show-off!” yells a woman from the back of the classroom. Michelle laughs as she demonstrates hinge-kicks high above her own head. “Fight for your sexy!” she commands her class.
Heavier fitness instructors and personal trainers are becoming more common, owners of health clubs and gyms say. Carol Espel, the national director of group fitness for Equinox, said she had observed the trend at conferences, in her own gyms and at other clubs. “There’s always been a handful of overweight trainers,” she said, but the number rose after research in the late 1990’s showed that it is possible for people to be overweight and also very fit. Since then, she said, many clients have come to value exercise for its effect not just on weight but also on health, and they have grown more accepting of overweight trainers.
Some people in the fitness business question whether an instructor whose body doesn’t reflect time spent in the gym can earn the respect of students. But many health clubs have also found the opposite true: many clients, particularly those who have a few pounds to lose, feel more comfortable working out with trainers who are not exquisitely lean.
Michelle says she never lacks attention from men, and that they find her five-foot-four, size 14 frame sexy.
“Men have always said to me, ‘You’re not fat, you’re p-h-a-t,’” she says.
As a fitness instructor, Michelle hopes to encourage African-American women to focus on exercise as a key to health, rather than using self-hatred to motivate weight loss. The women in her classes naturally agree with her inclination – and none of them are seeking to be supermodel thin.
“I’m a full-figured woman who would run circles around the average person, and I know it,” Michelle says. “I kind of think it’s my secret weapon.”
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