Liezel van der Westhuizen. Picture: Marike Herselman Women should prioritise exercise to maintain their health and reduce the risk of complications, according to Liezel van der Westhuizen. Van der Westhuizen, a burnout and mental fitness business coach, said she was concerned about the number of women avoiding gyms due to anxiety and fear of judgment.
Statistics previously indicate that65% of women avoid the gym for these reasons, while 45% say they feel “too unfit” to begin. Reports also show an increase in gym-related harassment since 2021, with seven in 10 women experiencing intimidation compared with 48% of men. Van der Westhuizen said access to wellness spaces has improved, but barriers remain.
“And yet, a staggering number of people, most of them women, cannot bring themselves to walk through the entrance of a gym door. Not because they don’t want to! It’s because walking in makes them feel like they are stepping onto a stage they were never invited onto,” she said.
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She also reflected on her own experience of discouragement early in her fitness journey. “A trainer once told me I was too slow and that I was wasting my time. That moment didn’t break me.
The trainer who tried to challenge my fitness journey never knew he was speaking to a woman who would go on to complete multiple Ironman triathlons, paddle the Dusi Canoe Marathon, swim 7.5km across the Robben Island Channel in 11-degree water, and become the first South African all-female blind-and-sighted pair to cycle tandem across the Himalayas,” she said. Van der Westhuizen said feelings of discomfort in gym environments are linked to biological responses. “When people walk into a gym and feel judged, exposed or out of place, their nervous system reads that as danger,” she said.
“The amygdala fires. Cortisol spikes, and the brain’s single job in that specific moment, is to get you out. Avoidance isn’t a weakness. It’s biology.”
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