On HerBod’s second birthday, I walked into the gym at 5:30am to the most wonderful surprise.
Some of our beautiful members — Jenni, Lisa and Jamie — had snuck into HerBod on Monday night and filled the gym with balloons.
But they hadn’t stopped there.
Hidden amongst the balloons and around the gym were little Highland cow figures. 😂🐮
They were everywhere.
The more you looked, the more cows you found.
Watching members walk through the doors throughout the day and seeing their reactions was probably one of my favourite parts. There were so many smiles, plenty of laughs, and people discovering little cows in places they hadn’t noticed before.
Then, after my 9am Golden Ladies session, the ladies came in with a birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to HerBod.
It was such a simple, thoughtful and completely unexpected thing for them all to do, and I had the best day.
But once everything had quietened down, it also made me think about the last two years and what HerBod has actually become.
Because I don’t think I could have planned for this part.
Two years ago, HerBod opened its doors
It feels a little crazy to say that.
There has been a lot packed into those two years.
There have been some really good times, plenty of exciting moments and things I am incredibly proud of.
There have also been hard times.
Like most small businesses, there have been moments when things haven’t gone to plan. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve tried things that worked and things that absolutely didn’t. I’ve changed things, learnt things, worried about things and probably spent far too many hours lying awake thinking about the gym. 😂
I’ve had to work hard, persevere when things were difficult and be willing to change direction when something wasn’t working.
HerBod today isn’t exactly the same HerBod that opened its doors two years ago.
And I’m actually really proud of that.
Because I’ve learnt so much from the women who train here.
I’ve listened to what they need, watched what works, changed what doesn’t and continued trying to make HerBod better.
Through all of that, however, the reason I created HerBod has stayed the same.
I wanted to create a gym that was genuinely different
Not one that just said it was different.
I wanted women to have somewhere they could walk through the door and feel comfortable being there.
Somewhere you don’t need to already know how to exercise before you join.
Somewhere you can ask me what you think is a silly question — and I’ll answer it.
Somewhere you can tell me an exercise hurts, feels uncomfortable or scares you, and we’ll find another way to do it.
Somewhere you can learn why you’re doing something rather than just being told to do it.
And somewhere you aren’t simply given access to a room full of equipment and left to figure the rest out yourself.
I also never wanted to run a gym where I only knew people as names or membership numbers on a screen.
I wanted to know the women who trained here.
I wanted to know what they’re working towards, what they struggle with, when something isn’t quite right, when they need help and when they’re ready for me to push them a little harder.
Two years later, I can genuinely say that’s still how I want HerBod to operate.
But somewhere along the way, something else happened too.
It's the women who make HerBod
I built the gym.
The women inside it built the community.
And I think that’s the part I couldn’t have planned.
There are women who met because of HerBod who are now genuinely friends.
There are women who notice when someone hasn’t been in for a while and ask if they’re okay.
They encourage each other. They celebrate each other’s wins. They ask how appointments went. They remember what someone told them the week before.
There are conversations happening between sets that have absolutely nothing to do with exercise.
There is laughter.
There is support.
And there is definitely a healthy amount of chaos. 😂
Sometimes I have to remind everyone that we are actually supposed to be exercising.
And sometimes I am probably just as responsible for the distraction.
HerBod is my business, and I’m incredibly proud of it.
But HerBod itself belongs to the women who have made it what it is.
Walking into a gym at 5:30 in the morning and finding it full of balloons and tiny Highland cows was a pretty good reminder of that.
Two years of watching women surprise themselves
There have been lots of milestones over the past two years, but the ones that mean the most to me usually aren’t the big business ones.
They’re the individual ones.
Watching someone add weight to an exercise they once thought they couldn’t do.
Watching someone improve their balance or get up from the floor more easily.
Seeing a woman return to exercise after an injury and gradually start trusting her body again.
Watching someone who was terrified to walk into a gym slowly become someone who walks through the door like she owns the place.
Seeing women get stronger.
Hearing that something they used to struggle with in everyday life has become easier.
And sometimes, seeing someone walk through the door on a day when simply getting there was an achievement in itself.
Progress doesn’t always look dramatic.
Sometimes it’s another kilogram on the dumbbell.
Sometimes it’s one more repetition.
Sometimes it’s moving with less pain or more confidence.
And sometimes it’s simply coming back.
I’ve had the privilege of watching a lot of those moments over the past two years.
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of them.
So, thank you
To Jenni, Lisa and Jamie, who snuck into my gym after hours and filled it with balloons and Highland cows — thank you. You absolutely made my day.
To my Golden Ladies, Marina & Hilary, and those who sang Happy Birthday and surprised me with the yummiest — thank you.
And to our members who wished HerBod a Happy Birthday, sent me messages, made me laugh and, more importantly, support me and this little gym every single day — thank you.
But I also want to thank every woman who has been part of HerBod at some point during these first two years.
Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or joined last week.
Whether you’ve been a member, came in for a trial, booked a PT session, joined one of our programs, stopped by for a chat or trained with us for a period of your life before moving on.
Whether you’ve recommended HerBod to a friend, shared one of my posts, left us a review or simply told someone about the little women’s gym in Monbulk.
You’ve been part of our story.
Running a small business isn’t always easy, and I don’t want to pretend that it is.
But the women who walk through these doors constantly remind me why I keep doing it.
I’m proud of how much HerBod has grown over the past two years.
I’m proud of how much I’ve grown with it.
But most of all, I’m proud of how far so many of the women inside it have come.
There is still so much I want to do.
There are things I want to do, things I want to improve, more I want to learn and plenty of ideas currently taking up space in my head. 😂
HerBod is nowhere near finished becoming what I know it can be.
But I also don’t want to rush past this moment because I’m already thinking about what’s next.
So for now, I’m going to enjoy the balloons, eat some birthday cake, keep finding tiny Highland cows around my gym, and appreciate what we’ve managed to build together over these first two years.
Happy 2nd Birthday, HerBod. ❤️
And to the women who made these first two years possible:
Thank you.
Here’s to Year Three.
Sharnae
