The Scottish Fitness and Nutrition Expo - what did we think?

A few weeks ago Sam and I decided to have a girlie day out.  But instead of a relaxing spa day we opted for the Scottish Fitness and Nutrition Expo at the SECC in Glasgow!

We were looking forward to spending some time together pursuing our mutual love of all things health and fitness related - but first we needed a coffee!  This gave us a chance to have a quick catch up and plan our wonder around the various exhibitions, information stands and demonstration areas.

We quickly realised that this was an extremely male dominated event but were pleased to see that there was an attempt to encourage us girls in the form of The SFN Sisterhood.  The 100 Rep challenge also had a female competition too!

The event that pulled the biggest crowd was the CrossFit competition.  For those of you who haven't heard of CrossFit, it is a programme developed to offer a full-body workout that combines elements of cardio, weight lifting, gymnastics, core training and more to prepare the body for the unexpected!  All in all it is pretty full on, hardcore training and has almost developed cult status.

Without a doubt both the male and female competitors were extremely fit, strong and with their minds truly set on winning the competition.  We felt that CrossFit definitely seemed to come across as a "survival of the fittest" and not sure whether this competitive lifestyle was for us.  Is it a sustainable approach to fitness?  Where does health fit in to it?

In fact health didn't really seem to feature in many of the events or exhibition.  Lots of the products were aimed at getting you lean or bulked up but few addressed day to day health and even fewer (in fact none) mentioned women specific issues such as exercise and hormones.

In all honesty we found the expo a bit of a let down as unless you were interested in your bodies image you were ignored!  Most of us aren't elite athletes but hope to improve our health and fitness in an easily manageable and sustainable way.  We decided that being "normal" is very underrated!  Who needs the pressure to constantly be in top form or look like a walking Adonis statue!  But we also don't want to spend the rest of our lives sitting on the couch wishing we looked and felt better about ourselves. 

So keep doing what makes you happy and healthy!  Hopefully next year the event will be more inclusive with a wider variety of health and fitness related exhibitors - and you never know, maybe Ladies, Lunch and Lunges will be taking part too!

Aileen x