So, my first post on something other than mindset! Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Anyone thats into Fitness or has any kind of interest in it and lives in the UK will know exactly what BodyPower is – but for those that don’t… it’s the largest Fitness Exhibition held in the UK. It’s held over a weekend in May every year at the NEC centre in Birmingham.. You get hundreds of exhibitors and THOUSANDS of visitors. The stands range from Protein & supplements, clothing, food, competition federations, teeth whitening – you name! Anything aimed at ‘self improvement’ is pretty much there.
Being in the Fitness Industry the past few years I’ve found myself working at various stands, however this year, me & my co-crazy Hayley Clough decided to venture out as observers!
We drove up on Friday late afternoon with my babyG Jourdan to head to the GymShark Pop-up shop launch party – the first time they’ve done this as previous years GymShark & their athletes had always been the main attraction at BodyPower. It was a dope evening filled with drinks, canapés, music and BOMB ASS CLOTHING! We bumped into a few familiar faces & had plenty of catch ups – the only downside was unfortunately I made the mistake of purchasing without trying on – so thats going to have to be returned… but other than that it was wicked.
After the event had finished, Hayley & I had managed to consume at least two alcoholic beverages… if you know us you’ll know thats all it takes for the twerking twins HAHAHA – so we went on a mission to locate our next turn up destination. We ended up at the launch party for the new & improved Muscle & Fitness HERS magazine, hosted in a wicked location – The Highline bar in Birminghams ‘Worlds Resort’, stunning views & again it was great to bump into some familiar faces & catch up, but knowing we needed to get up at a reasonable time we left around midnight – didn’t want our coach to turn into a pumpkin and all that…
If I’m honest, we wanted to get to sleep at an okay time so we made sure we were up in time for breakfast… piggies that we are! We we’re staying at the Ibis Styles hotel just outside of Birmingham Centre – 25mins from the exhibition location. Unfortunately, at first this was made impossible… I’m still not quite sure what was going on in the room opposite ours but security were banging on their door for quite a while – trust that I tried to play Sherlock Holmes but all I managed to pick up on was ‘It was the girl in the orange dress’… so girl in the orange dress? BOO TO YOU!
Okay so Saturday, we wake up and head straight to breakfast – normally I intermittent fast but breakfast was included and I knew the day was going to be busy so I planned on making the most of it… unfortunately they weren’t quite catered to a plant based diet… there was your typical continental diet available – cheese, meats, cereal (with only milk) yogurts & eggs… leaving me with some toast no spread and a bowl of chopped fruit. Meh. Hoping more hotels will catch up soon, even offering some non-dairy milk substitute would go a long way…
Anyway, enough of my bitching. After breakfast we quickly got ourselves ready and headed across to Bodypower – we park the car and head in. At first I was pretty surprised, it was Saturday, late morning and it was half as busy as the previous years! We went for a wonder to see what was around… food, talks, demos, supplements, sampling, clothing, workout gear, live fitness competitions running throughout the day, athlete meet and greets – you name it, you could probably find it! It was dope to see so many friends in one place & to get to know some new brands but I must admit – there was certainly something missing. I’m yet to establish what, but the buzz wasn’t quite the same. It may have been down GymShark doing their own thing, the lack of athletes brought over in comparison to previous years or even the reduction in available ‘freebies’… whatever it was – it was noticeable. What I will say is it was amazing to see an increase in wellness brands exhibiting (special shout out to my favourites Vivo Life & The Tumeric Co – separate posts to explain why en route). A lot more health supplements over aesthetic aids & an obvious increase in companies providing plant based proteins over your standard whey…
So nevertheless, it was good day out and I’m not writing it off anytime soon – but I do hope they figure it out before next year…
T.x
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