In Frinton on Sea, a member of the local community has used her own negative experiences to help have a positive impact on her local community. Samantha Boys from the seaside town has created Sparkle Ladies Gym, a space for women to come together, meet new people and find their active.
After encountering an injury, Samantha could no longer attend the gym for five months, she soon lost a lot of the fitness and confidence she’d built up since she started attending. Having always been so active and then suddenly feeling so lost, Samantha began struggling with her mental health. As a form of relief and a way of becoming active again, she attended a ladies-only gym, which was a welcoming space that made her feel comfortable again. This inspiring experience helped plant the seed for a new idea in Samantha’s head, leading to the creation of Sparkle Ladies Gym, a space where women could feel safe, supported and truly themselves. The aim of the gym was to build a community where ladies could connect, feel encourage and most importantly know they’re not alone on their health and wellbeing journey.
Sparkle Ladies Gym is more than just a place to lift weights, get sweaty and workout. It’s a space built on connection, empowerment and care. With a flexible range of membership options available, including pay as you go, the owners are always listening to the needs of their members and doing their best to meet them. The gym has become a place where women can come as they are, feel supported and leave feeling significantly better than when they arrived.
“I love coming to this gym, it’s run very professionally by Sam and Debs and it’s great meeting other likeminded ladies. I have found that using the HUR circuit especially has been good for my joints and overall physical and mental health. Coming to the gym and regularly exercising has become part of my life that I wouldn’t want to give up”.
Donna Bicknell
At the heart of the gyms values is ensuring it remains a welcoming space, somewhere where women of all ages and abilities feel like they belong. A lot of time and effort has gone into ensuring the gym is set up to suit everyone, with their HUR circuit being a key example of this as a quiet and low impact area that’s perfect for anyone who want’s a gentler workout. A HUR Circuit is a training program that uses specialised HUR equipment, which employs air resistance technology to provide a gentle, joint-friendly workout, making it perfect and well suited to older and less mobile attendees.
Another important value of the gym is to make it easy. It sounds simple, but the staff ensure that when you arrive, everything is laid out correctly, contributing to no stress or confusion. There is also a strict ‘no selfie’ policy, which has helped keep things respectful and relaxed, with the photos that are shared on their social media only ever posted once permission has been received.
The community that has been built thanks to the gym goes much further than just exercise though, as Samantha and the team regularly organise events and nights out which aim to bring everyone together in more comfortable environments. The team pride themselves on this and value the fact that they’ve created a pressure free space where women can grow at their own pace and build lasting connections.
Whilst the gym refrain from running traditional classes, in order to avoid the stereotypical language that other gyms use, they do host small group workouts in their Vault area which attendees love. As well as the owner Samantha doing more focused one to one personal training. For those that want to be a part of the community but are unable to always attend the gym in person, they are able to access a playlist of different workouts on their YouTube channel, which they can try in the comfort of their home. Structured programmes for both low and high impact exercise are also offered, meaning that whether you want a guided session in the gym or something to follow at home there is something for everyone. The sense of community, paired with the low impact HUR circuit and the women-only space has proved to satisfy a previously unmet gap in the market of the town’s amenities.
Most of the members that attend the gym are ladies aged 40 years old or above, with Frinton-on-Sea being home to a community of retired women. One of the most touching stories that the staff have heard is about a lady that sadly lost her husband, which left her feeling unsurprisingly lost. She joined the gym not just to improve her physical health, but also her mental and emotional wellbeing and overtime, thanks to the gym she has built a small network of friends. She regularly attends the gym, meeting with her newly found friends for dinner and coffee in her spare time too. Samantha explained;
“It’s beautiful to see how the gym has become more than just a place to exercise — it’s truly a community where women find strength, friendship, and hope when they need it most.”
Samantha is key to ensure that Sparkle Ladies Gym remains more than just a place to workout, but also a place for women to thrive in a period of their life which can provide so many challenges.
