As the most capped Lioness player of all time, it would be easy to assume that former professional footballer Fara Williams, 40, always had a brilliant relationship with staying active. During an exclusive chat with HELLO!, however, the 40-time goal scorer revealed that her time on the England squad had a serious impact on her approach to exercise.
“When I was a kid, I loved playing outside and being active, but when I became a professional footballer I started to be really competitive, and fitness became harder and not enjoyable,” she shares.
“Fitness was part of the sport I loved, but the competitive element of comparing myself to others was never enjoyable,” Fara reveals, adding that since retiring and exercising at her own pace, she’s fallen back in love with fitness.
“I like running because I go at my own pace now,” she says. “When I was training, we had to send our times to the gaffer to prove how fast we were, but now I’m not trying to prove myself to anyone and I run 10KM every morning.
“Once I took the competitive element out of exercise, I felt so much more confident because I wasn’t comparing myself to others.”
Movement in childhood
It’s the competitive nature of school and childhood sports that Fara believes puts many young people off staying active. We all remember that sinking feeling of coming last in a school race or knowing nobody wanted you on their relay team, and Fara says this feeling sticks with us.
“Once you are traumatised by something, it’s hard to get over that and it can take a while to want to be active again,” she laments. “According to Nuffield Health’s Healthier Nations Index, 57% of adults want to exercise with their daughter to have more quality time together, but are held back – and this resistance likely began in childhood.
“There’s a competitive element to sports and exercise in childhood, be that against your siblings or your schoolmates, and if you’re not competitive, you don’t want to engage,” she says of why many of us are turned off to exercise from an early age.
“Everything was about competing with your class and when you have that element in exercise or movement, it is a barrier can cause us to lose confidence. But simply being active is a positive. It doesn’t have to be competitive,” Fara says.
READ: This empowering workout reframed my attitude to exercise
Reframing exercise
Fara believes that reframing exercise for children will help more young people want to be active, and she’s teamed up with Nuffield Health on their Move Together campaign, which offers free weekly fitness classes for girls aged 11–16 to encourage them to get into movement.
“I had a good relationship with exercise as a child because I never knew it was exercise,” she admits of her childhood spent playing games after school. “I wasn’t aware that I was exercising at the time.”
Having fun, rather than being told to exercise was what kept Fara active as a child, and she feels that using the word ‘exercise’ creates a mental block that stays with us into adulthood.
Barriers to exercise
“When you use the word exercise, it creates a barrier and a mental block,” she says.
“If you’ve had a bad experience in sports or activities, that creates a barrier, so we need to make it fun and take away the competitive element.
“I don’t need to compete with anyone else anymore, as long as I’m keeping myself active and well, that’s what matters. I got out of the competitive mindset as soon as I retired and exercise is now something I take pleasure in again.”
Find out more about Nuffield Health’s Move Together campaign