Meet Jules Mcgill

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jules Mcgill. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jules, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I think I always knew my purpose because at 15 years old I remember speaking to a career adviser in School and having no idea what I want to ‘be’ but knowing it had to encourage women and girls to exercise more. She directed me towards hospitality which is hilarious- and I didn’t follow! Instead I took up a degree in Sport development and whilst this allowed me to work with projects to get more kids moving their bodies, it still didn’t hit right for me and I knew there needed to be more depth to what I did. I became a PE teacher and focused on working with girls aged 11-18 and saw how confident they could feel in my lessons compared with other teachers but it wasn’t until I was pregnant, realising the pressures on women to stop exercising during pregnancy and get back to it asap afterwards in order to bounce back to their pre baby weight- that things started to fall into place. I was angry, I knew exercise could be used for so much more but I was also suffering from postnatal anxiety myself and a huge shift in self perception around motherhood and my own body, which meant I didn’t find the confidence to pursue this further until my son was 3. My second pregnancy allowed me to really develop my confidence, my ethos around exercise and positive body image and I know now that I am following my purpose.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

My business, Aluna Wellbeing was created from an inner knowing that exercise has so much more to offer us than manipulating our weight, but also an anger that people, and specifically women are treated as fair game for comment, criticism and judgment. I also knew that the fitness industry was rife with this judgement and as a result I created a Personal Training business that aims to promote the benefits of moving your body regularly, but also to show people who are busy that it gets to look however they want it to- that the numerous rules we find attached to the fitness industry are made up and we get to move our bodies any way we want, for us! The strength work I do with clients as a PT allows them to reconnect with their bodies, use our sessions to experiment with resilience and overcome physical challenges so that outside of the gym they can do all of these too. My business continues to grow and women are slowly becoming aware of the pressures placed on them and so many are no longer available for the diet culture beliefs we grew up with- we do a lot of ‘undoing’ and I find it incredibly exciting to help build this revolution! My dream is that one day, my job won’t need to exist because we’ll all be moving intuitively for ourselves and confident in our bodies.
I have ideas to take my Life First Approach to exercise into Schools to showcase what exercise can be and for staff to feel happy delivering through this lens. I am also involved in the set up of a local health charity where we aim to deliver movement and pelvic health exercise for free, allowing this approach to movement to ripple further out.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

My experience as a teacher has been invaluable- I learned how to quickly adapt, create new concepts and explain exercise to people in a way they didn’t know before. I am a great communicator and people feel comfortable with me, I think within Personal Training these people skills are often undervalued but ensuring people feel comfortable and safe with you is essential to allow them to facilitate any change. I have also found the postnatal specialism qualification I did which centred around pelvic health invaluable in teaching me so much more about the body- a basic qualification doesn’t do this and because of the one I chose I’ve been able to empathise and support women with any pelvic issues throughout their lives.

Choice of qualification and delivery is essential, I sought out a provider who I resonated with and I learned from her teaching too- the language she used, to my advice would be to put yourself in the room with teachers who you respect- you can learn a lot from the way they make you feel. I think it’s a personal quality to be able to read people the way I do, but I do think paying attention, listening and being willing to adapt is key.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I would absolutely love to take my Life First approach to exercise far and wide, I want everyone to see how incredible our bodies are, that exercise gets to be available for all of us and it doesn’t need to have anything to do with weight loss! I work with a lot of mums on who this has a huge impact and I know it’s impacting their children too- I’d love to collaborate with anyone that can help me grow this community, spread this message further and allow me to access education settings so that we can make shame around our bodies a thing of the past….one day!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Florence Fox – Photographer

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