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Personal trainer Tally Rye: 'I do not need to be mega-thin to be good at my job - we need different body types'

Tally Rye says women are not fulfilling their full potential because they are too consumed with body pressures - Paul Grover for the Telegraph
Tally Rye says women are not fulfilling their full potential because they are too consumed with body pressures - Paul Grover for the Telegraph

Personal trainer Tally Rye says unfollowing all the #fitspo influencers that were not healthy for her, and finding the anti-diet movement on social media, has been an eye-opener.

 

I do not need to be mega-thin to be good at my job, I’m good enough in the body I have, through all its fluctuations. I became a personal trainer in 2014 but, until about two years ago, I thought the reason I hadn’t been as successful as some of my peers was because I didn’t fit that real “fitness” mould. I think it is partly true, but I was like, why is loads of stuff happening for other people and not for me? Oh yeah, they’re thinner than me – that’s the thing I stuck to. I felt not as good solely based on my appearance. It’s been a massive journey trying to unlearn that.

 

All the information I was getting about fitness was about dieting. I got smaller, became leaner, but started to become extremely disordered about food and exercise. I was 21 when I started looking at fitness on Instagram and Pinterest. The “#fitspo” early days were geared around fitness for fat loss and I just naively took that on board. The people around me staged an intervention saying, “you don’t need to track your food”.

 

So many women have so much to offer, but are not fulfilling their full potential because they are too consumed with body pressures. It quietens our voice. With my book, Train Happy, I wanted to write the book I wish I had when doing those Google searches at 21. Author Naomi Wolf’s quote, “dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history”, really speaks to me. A lot of my journey has been understanding what diet culture is, how pervasive it is in the fitness industry and the pressures that particularly women face.

 

I take full responsibility for probably not being a positive influence for people in the past – I have to say sorry for that. I have built this influencer career alongside my fitness career and I had the best intentions, but some stuff I posted was harmful. It was very food-based content, that was part of my disordered thing. For me, unfollowing all the #fitspo influencers that were not healthy for me, and finding the anti-diet movement on social media, has been an eye-opener.

 

In the fitness space there needs to be more normal people: different backgrounds, body types. I exist in a privileged body; I’m white, I’m thin. So I’m learning how to use my platform to showcase different people doing workout videos for me, which reflects my book.

Tally Rye - Credit: Paul Grover
Tally Rye believes intuitive fitness is about unlearning diet culture, but also rebuilding trust with yourself Credit: Paul Grover

 

Because we associate exercise with penance for eating, a lot of people work out from a place of hate or punishment. Intuitive fitness is about unlearning diet culture, but also rebuilding trust with yourself. Instead of looking to external rules on what to do, it’s about tuning into how we feel. Before, I didn’t consider swimming to be effective – Aka I wouldn’t burn the most calories – but the best use of my time is something that is going to help me distress. With swimming I can’t look at my phone, I’m on my own and have to focus on my breathing, so I find it meditative. I also love teaching my spin classes and weight training.

 

I posted a pull-up video, where I couldn’t complete a single one, because there are so many trainers who feel shame around that. A misconception about fitness trainers is that we’re all superhuman athletes. Some people responded negatively to the video, but I also had a lot of nice messages from fitness professionals being like, “thank goodness because I feel like other people might judge me”.

I’m allowed to not be good at stuff and still know what I’m talking about with fitness.

Tally Rye was speaking to Molly McElwee