Feature by K.Ho for Autonomy Personal Training
By Tayvie Van Eeuwen
@tayvieeee
As Buff Butch, a fitness resource for the queer community, encourages: “You shouldn’t have to compromise your identity in order to strengthen your relationship with your body.”
We want to help you find a workout space that’s mentally, emotionally, and physically safe for you and your diverse needs. Check out these four queer-friendly places to workout in Vancouver.
queer box camp Vancouver
about:
A safe environment for queer, trans* and allied folx to learn boxing. With weekly classes running at three different times, Queer Box Camp is accessible in every way. FYI, they even have a class for parents to work out with their babies present, to take away the worry about child care. Amazing!
Classes range from technique to fitness and conditioning classes based on the foundations of boxing training. Head coach River is an experienced competitive boxer who is working to diversify boxing by encouraging every body type to join in. Queer Box Camp’s mission lies in putting in the work, without hyper-masculine expectations, offensive language, or other defeating factors. “At QBC only the punching, learning, and hard work counts.”
Bonus: you don’t have to be fit or experienced to start. Every fitness level is welcome.
Types of workouts:
Boxing technique and boxing fitness.
WHere:
Fox and Unicorn Boxing, 2909 East 2nd Avenue, Vancouver.
Website:
Click here to see their schedule!
queer flex (vancouver personal trainer)
While QUEERFLEX is based in Edmonton, they have personal trainers across the country who have taken their LGBTQIA2S+ Fitness Accessibility 101 workshop and their affiliated gyms have undergone Safe + Affirming Space Assessments. Vancouver’s linked personal trainer, Ruby Smith Diaz, is doing the work right here in the city!
Welcome to QUEERFLEX- Canada’s first non-profit gym focused on being a safe haven for queer, trans, and non-binary folx. Through personal training, public education and direct advocacy, QUEERFLEX is working towards fitness accessibility. In all shapes and forms, mental, emotional, and financial factors are taken into account.
Part of QUEERFLEX’s mission is to honour the trauma that exists in the LGBTQ+ community. They believe that to individually and collectively become stronger and more sustainable, we first need to honour the intersections of identity and trauma.
About Ruby from Autonomy Personal Training Queerflex’s vancouver representative:
“Autonomy Fitness is a body positive personal training service dedicated to empowering you to feel your best in your body, according to your own terms. Autonomy offers you support in gaining strength, power, endurance and confidence, while leaving diet talk, fatphobia, transphobia, and eurocentric body standards at the door.
Autonomy welcomes and centres the participation of Indigenous people, Black people, people of colour, queer fam, gender binary breakers, radicals, and beyond- in any shape and at every size.”
types of workouts:
Personal training.
Where:
Ruby Smith Diaz, Autonomy Personal Training, Vancouver.
Website:
Find Ruby’s studio, Autonomy Personal Training, here. Check out QUEERFLEX here.
Tantra Fitness
ABOUT:
Could pole dancing maybe be the new weight lifting? Tantra Fitness is an all-inclusive studio that provides a safe space for specifically women and LGBTQ+ individuals. No matter your race, gender identity, or sexual orientation, both students and instructors are determined to switch the narrative on “regular” workouts. With various classes to uplift newbies or train experienced pole dancers, Tantra has a spot for anyone who is interested in giving pole dancing and pole workouts a shot. Bonus: Tantra also offers aerial and dance classes!
So, what are the benefits of pole dance? Well to start, it’s hard as fuck in the best way possible. Pole dancing uses the perfect combination of strength, flexibility, and mind-body connection. As a body weight resistance exercise, pole dancing helps folks gain strength while keeping muscles long and lean. This complete body workout is the equivalent of HIIT with yoga. As Tantra Fitness’ website states, “You are so focused on learning the moves that you forget you are even exercising.” A dream, right?
Types of Workouts:
Pole dancing, dance fitness, and aerial silks/hoops.
WHERE:
Gastown, Richmond, Mount Pleasant, and Burnaby.
WEBSITE:
Find more info here.
tight club
ABOUT:
Tight Club is the welcoming workout space most of us visualize every time we set foot in an awkward big-box gym. This beloved community hub has been a Vancouver staple for over seven years and is just getting started. Upon opening, Founder, Keighty Gallagher, dreamt of creating a unique space in Vancouver’s crowded gym scene. With small-group classes meant to increase personal connection, Tight Club’s members are tight.
Each teacher intends to know their students to stimulate both mental and physical health. Since the beginning, Tight Club has embraced everyone and anyone- making them the definition of inclusivity.
As their website says, “Exercise doesn’t have to define your life. It’s something you do to enhance who you are. Tight Club is a lifestyle for individuals who value active bodies, creative minds, and balanced lives. You’re never just training for the gym, you’re training for life.”
TYPES OF EXERCISES:
“From pilates to plyometrics; traditional strength training to TRX; mobility training to HIIT; Beyoncé kicks to So-lunges–Tight Club’s unique workouts and training philosophy was developed to challenge your body and brain, keeping fitness fun and fresh.”
WHERE:
261 Union Street, Vancouver.
WEBSITE:
Find more info here.
A self-declared witch, Tayvie spends her time with all things magic. Her circle is small, but her joy is large. She splits her time between over-thinking and visiting Disneyland. Read her articles to take a peek inside the world of mental illness and happy news, because it’s all about balance, right?
