Couchman, who holds a master\u2019s degree in educational psychology, said she found many modern gym routines had a \u201csexist\u201d focus on appearance. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about how you look and your shape. The Resistance is very feminist, and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s been done yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way women have been trained, with light weights, crap gear, and lots of jumping around and cardio hasn\u2019t worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Challenging common misconceptions about women\u2019s health and fitness, particularly the belief that effective exercise must involve \u201csweating loads and burning fat\u201d is all part of what makes her gym grounded, supportive, and holistic, she said. <\/p>\n
Couchman said The Resistance focused on building strength and muscle mass, which she said was more effective for long-term health and body composition changes as women age. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t smash our bodies, we support them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Couchman said her first group training sessions in 2023 went from one class of eight women and grew to 80 women booking into 11 time slots per week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI accidentally tapped into a massive market I didn\u2019t really know existed.\u201d <\/p>\n
By the end of 2025, Couchman said she knew she needed a dedicated facility and found space on Napier Rd, Havelock North, next to Hawthorne Coffee Roasters.<\/p>\n
The new gym, alongside the addition of more specialised trainers, addressed the three main barriers she said her research identified as preventing women from joining gyms: intimidation, not knowing what to do, and having no one to exercise with.<\/p>\n
EIT lecturer of sport and exercise, for the School of Health and Sport Science, Nardia Norman, said, historically, fitness and weight loss industries had been inextricably tied and had preyed and profited on women\u2019s insecurities, which for many is centred around weight and aesthetics. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile parts of the industry are still focused on women\u2019s weight loss, \u2018shrinking\u2019, and getting smaller, there\u2019s been a positive shift away. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany modern brands, spaces and facilities have become holistic, focusing on overall health and wellbeing, preservation of muscle, and longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Couchman, who holds a master\u2019s degree in educational psychology, said she found many modern gym routines had a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[29816,23159,9787,565,1958,14744,47034,134,78,2225,111,139,529,69,90,2680,37410,99903,11561,131,223,19137,8812,810,18216,102,152422],"class_list":["post-268057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-approaches","tag-challenging","tag-female","tag-fitness","tag-focus","tag-gym","tag-havelock","tag-health","tag-in","tag-loss","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-opens","tag-rather","tag-resistance","tag-strength","tag-than","tag-the","tag-traditional","tag-training","tag-up","tag-weight","tag-with","tag-womenonly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}