This week You! talks to the sister duo Mahlaqa & Noor Shaukat, who run a fitness studio in Lahore...
This week You! talks to the sister duo Mahlaqa & Noor Shaukat, who run a fitness studio in Lahore...
Fitness is a reflection of one’s overall physical, mental and social wellness. Surprisingly, there were days when people didn’t do any exercises or follow a certain diet plan to stay fit. There were no gyms and even if existed, they were only accessible to celebrities or the elite class. People only tried to stay fit by eating healthy and doing some manual exercises such as walking, jogging, climbing, skipping, etc.
With the rise of social media, today people are more aware about what is best for their health and fitness. Squats, planks, Pilates, aerobics, Zumba, HIIT and what not! There are number of exercises and machines to follow a lifestyle like celebrities who we follow and wish to be like. Furthermore, there are several diet plans. Some are for losing weight, while others are for gaining weight, lowering cholesterol, living a long and healthy life, and many other reasons. Precisely, it is an era of Keto, Atkins, Mediterranean, Fasting diet and many others.
Due to the escalated awareness among people regarding fitness and well-being, the fitness industry is on the rise. There are gyms at every corner along with a number of fitness groups which offer a great deal of packages that men and women can easily avail. As the fitness industry is growing, many entrepreneurs are opening up their gyms and training centres; hence giving rise to aspiring entrepreneurs as well.
AimFit is one of the training and fitness studios based in Lahore. It is run by a sister duo Mahlaqa and Noor Shaukat, who felt the need of opening their own fitness group in the city. The sisters stand united under a vision that fitness is the way to a blissful life. It took a big leap of trust for these sisters to get where they are standing today. Mahlaqa and Noor Shaukat dispel rumours and squash myths regarding fitness and coaching in Pakistan. In a few years, their fitness programme at their fitness studio ‘AimFit’ has expanded multi-fold. “Noor and I had just returned from the UK after finishing our education there. We had both gotten into sports and fitness while at university. I personally truly got hooked to group fitness while I was working in London post studies. Upon my return, I was keen to find a good group fitness class in Lahore but to my surprise there was NOTHING on offer in Lahore. The traditional gym culture was still there with little to no innovation since we had first left the country in 2008. Upon their return to Pakistan in 2014, they realised that unfortunately adults in Pakistan, especially the youth, were missing out on the fitness drug. Just out of fun, we started conducting our own group fitness dance class for our friends and before we knew it, the class was full. We both then got certified as group fitness instructors and that’s where it all started,” shares Mahlaqa.
AimFit was more of a passion for this duo which was followed by the aim of becoming entrepreneurs. “We started with one class in a shared studio space and before we knew it we were adding classes and instructors to our team. Very soon it became evident that we needed a place of our own so we could offer a unique experience that we were being unable to fully control at the shared studio we started with. The fact that our father is a businessman and entrepreneurship runs in the family, it was luckily easy for us to develop such an idea. His support along the way in terms of sound business advice and motivation has been instrumental in getting us where we are,” tells Mahlaqa.
When asked how they build a successful customer base, Mahlaqa enunciates, “We do it by putting our clients at the centre of all our decisions and taking every feedback extremely seriously. In our fitness group, all customer complaints and feedback (good or bad) goes directly through Noor and I. One of the first team members we hired was a Client Relations Officer. This is back when we didn’t have an Operations or an Accounts Department. Our priority was to have someone on our team who is always there to listen to our clients. We believe that providing quality group fitness classes is the minimum we can do. After that comes the client’s experience, client’s awareness (understanding of what is best for their fitness) and customer service. This is what has helped us build an extremely loyal client base and community.”
The group aims at making Pakistani women healthy and competent along with creating a Pakistani fitness brand that has global recognition for its contribution to the cause of fitness. The clientele is mostly women but they come from all walks of life. The group caters to students, working professional, mothers and also grandmothers. According to Mahlaqa, “At AimFit a variety of different programmes is offered ranging from Dance & Yoga to Weight Training and Core Workouts. Our mantra is to make fitness fun for everyone and that can only happen when people have a variety of workouts to choose from. Together, all the workouts offer a holistic fitness experience as clients get to do Cardio, Strength and Recovery by mixing and matching the different classes. The truly distinguishing factor is that we make all our material, choreographies and class plans in house and, every three months all the material in our classes change and we introduce something completely new. For some programmes like ‘HIITFIT’ the plan is different every single day. This ensures that the clients never get bored and their progression never stagnates.”
Seeing people completely change the way they perceived fitness, themselves and their abilities, is one of the motivating factors in the development of AimFit. “Our biggest accomplishment is when a client who has no relationship with fitness and has never worked out in their life before comes to us and six months later they have fallen in love with fitness,” says Mahlaqa.
While talking about the favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur, she states, “Being able to experiment and create something from scratch. We’re truly proud to have built a Pakistani brand that so many of our clients think was franchised from abroad. We plan to take it outside Pakistan one day. Today, there are hardly any Pakistani brands that have received global acclaim. We’re definitely gearing to make AimFit that brand.”
For many people the various diets lead to obsessive eating habits and gorging because they felt robbed from having a list of foods to avoid from a particular diet. The role of the coach in this scenario is crucial. “Education is at the centre of doing anything SAFELY. That may come through a coach or through your own research. We don’t just deliver group workouts, we educate our clients also so they can make the right decisions - be their workouts as well as their diet. I have seen many people (and in fact I used to do the same myself before I got introduced to group fitness) torture themselves to stay fit. I don’t agree with that approach and AimFit is the complete opposite. We definitely try to make fitness a route to a blissful life,” shares Mahlaqa.
On challenges of changing a client’s approach towards fitness and a healthy lifestyle, she adds,
“It is not difficult at all! You just need to have your client’s trust, which thankfully we do. A small example of this is women’s relationship with strength training and weight lifting. A lot of women think they will get bulky if they lift heavy. We have managed to change this untrue perception amongst our clients by training as well as coaching them to educate and support them on the way. One of our most popular programmes is the weight lifting programme called ‘LIFT’.”
AimFit believes that every person’s body is different and therefore requires particular aspect of training. “Everyone is different but some general rules of fitness apply to everyone alike. Yes if you are an athlete or training towards a particular fitness goal then a personal training programme would work better for you, but most people just need the motivation to get through a one-hour workout. Group fitness has been phenomenal in giving people that motivation kick and not to forget adding the fun into fitness. If you’re getting one or two cardio sessions combined with a couple of strengths sessions and a recovery session in the week, you’re good to go. Of course, this logic doesn’t apply to people with special needs or injuries, but I can safely say it applies to most of us,” tells the entrepreneur.
Mahlaqa informs that it is important to plan in advance and stick to that plan. Also, taking small steps every day and staying consistent is the way to go when you’re an entrepreneur, as consistency matters more than hard work or giant leaps. “However, the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur include a great idea, good execution and passion,” she says.
When it comes to fitness, mostly people can’t afford joining fitness programmes. Keeping this in mind, the duo made sure that they introduce cost effective packages so that it motivates more people to join. “We offer a variety of different packages. The more regularly someone wants to come the cheaper his or her package becomes. We also have our own rewards programmes where our members earn rewards and get discounts on their purchases. The more someone attends classes regularly the more discounts they can get,” Mahlaqa highlights.
The fitness group is intending to work on the lines of modern fitness training rules. Apart from that, the owners wish to expend it through the corners of the country and building up a community with a common goal. “Studios operating in all major cities of Pakistan, with the largest online and offline community of women who are passionate about fitness is what we envision with AimFit,” she concludes.
