‘Grace 6/10’ fitness project to empower women

Manama : Fitness enthusiast Noora Jaber Al Muhanna has launched a project called ‘Grace 6/10’, in order to empower women in the fitness field.

She recently conducted a survey for her graduation research paper, studying the stress undergone by working and non-working mothers in the private and government sectors.

According to the findings of the research, Al Muhanna found that many women lacked the necessary knowledge on fitness and health, including the importance of balanced diet or regular exercise.

The Grace 6/10 project will be aimed to make women aware of the significance of staying fit and healthy. The focus is mainly on mothers and older women who often neglect their own wellbeing.

“Women who were interviewed were mainly divorced or widows and many of them were looking after their children all by themselves,” Al Muhanna said, explaining the findings of her study and the motivations behind her project. “The results were very disappointing as many women lack awareness on the importance of fitness, and this had caused many to neglect their health as a whole.”

“Part of the recommendation to combat this issue was to find ways to release stress in life and that could be done by giving out awareness programmes about health and fitness. We began by encouraging women to attend free classes. Many scientific results show that looking after your fitness will gradually release the stress, so we thought of making this more fun and at the same time beneficial,” she added.

She pointed out that the most common mental difficulties are stress, eating disorder, depression and anxiety disorder, while the physical difficulties are obesity, low energy, insomnia, aches and pains, and neglecting there overall wellbeing, including their internal and external beauty. 

“We give classes on some of the latest trends in women fitness such as Zumba workouts, self-defence classes to remove negative energy, mix martial art, cross fit, Latino dance, boxing and meta fit for stress relief. Apart from that we also give coaching classes to raise awareness about the benefits of regular exercise,” she added.

Elisabetta Massey, a certified self-defence, fitness and Zumba coach, is in charge of running the Zumba and self-defence classes for the project.

The organisers are currently working on expanding this awareness project through field trips to companies, schools and hospitals to reach out to a large number of women. 

Free classes for women with breast cancer will be conducted in October, in collaboration with cancer societies. They are also planning to integrate youth programmes to target youngsters at schools and universities.

“Our vision is to raise awareness about the risk of stress and an unhealthy lifestyle. It is not only to empower women, but to make our society empowered by women.”