Busting Fitness Myths For Women With Mimi Gleaming

In this interview I had the pleasure of having Mimi Gleaming on the show to talk about different fitness myths that women often talk about and she gives great insight on things that works for her and will help improve women's lives all over the world.

Mimi's Bio: 

My name is Mina, I am 29 years old. I am franco Iranian born and raised in Rome Italy. I started my fitness journey back in my 20’s .

The reason why I started is because when I was 14 years old I had a scoliosis which means  my spine has a sideways curve. 

The doctor told me  I had two options:

A surgery in which they should replace my spine with an iron or wear a corset for  the next couple of years.

Of course, I choose the second option, so I worn this corset for 3 years.

It was a really tough time, the corset was huge: as a normal teenager I could not dress like the other girls, I was wearing men large shirt so the corset could fit. I had to wear it 23 hours per day. 

During this time, I had to do some physiotherapy to build my lower back muscles. 

After 3 years, finally I was over this hell time.  But the doctor told me that I need to do some exercises to reinforce my lower back and core. 

I drag myself to a gym in Paris, with no motivation or willingness and I was for sure not in shape… but  this is where  something boring has changed into something beautiful…

I arrive to the gym, and I see these massive guys training and lifting crazy weight and I was so impressed and speechless. I could not stop staring at them not only for their physics but because I was impressed how a person can be so strong.

So I took the courage although I was very shy and I ask to one of the guy: how he was so strong doing so many pull-ups  and heavy weigh lifting?! He smiled at me and said: ‘come tomorrow at 6 am sharp and you will see.’

Confused and somehow exited, I came at the gym at 6 am sharp the next day.

I explain to him my story and my back issue. The lack of confidence I had and how hard it was for me the last couple of years. He didn’t say a word and suddenly he said:

“Ok let’s do something about it and stop whining, the past is the past, and today you are here so let’s do something about it.”

So we started with small exercises: abs circuit, cardio, stretching.

The following month we started to learn how to lift weight and I was getting better every day. The impossible turned possible and I started little by little to gain back my confidence. I was getting stronger and stronger and it felt so good.

This is my motto about the gym: some people goes to church every Sunday because is the place where they can find their serenity, for me Gym is my church. It ’s  the only place where I learned how to challenge myself and change my mindset.