Emma Obayuvana, a fitness trainer from the Strong Women Collective, has seen first-hand how the boom in women training has influenced the industry for better and worse.

“When I was going to the gym in my early 20s, which was like 15 years ago, there were very few women in the free weights section and there wasn’t access to the kind of activewear and information we have now,” she says. “How incredible is it that we’ve got more and more women occupying the gym floor in areas that have been traditionally dominated by men, like using free weights, barbells, and plates? But the other side of that is that we’ve also seen the explosion of different brands that aren’t only pushing what we wear to the gym for function but also design.

“Exercise is now about a lifestyle – it can feel as though that demands a certain look to be part of it. We need to normalise the fact that really, most of us do walk into the gym without all eyes staring at us – most people want to just get on with training and get the benefits of doing their exercise.”

Sexualisation of fitness: “The problem with making exercise ‘sexy’”