About.

Bella Femme Fitness specialises in helping women become body confident. This includes strength training for women, pre and post natal fitness, peri-post menopause fitness and all things women’s health related when it comes to living a body confident life. Including, DRAM (abdominal separation), prolapse and urinary incontinence (all the lovely things that happen to women after having a baby, and sometimes before!).

All clients are checked for DRAM, and also how well they activate their TA (transverse abdominus – aka ‘the core’), this in turn provides a cue as to pelvic floor activation.

Bella Femme Fitness focuses on helping clients incorporate changes that work for them, and help them change their lifestyle to one that is important to them.

Chief Bella Femme Coach, Sonia Hennessy, is not only a fully-qualified personal trainer, wellness coach, and registered with Fitness Australia, but her real-life experience means she knows exactly what you’re going through and how to help you overcome your challenges. Sonia has spent many years working with people to really understand them and uncover their inner secrets. Most noteworthy is her 22 plus years experience drawing knowledge out of people, plus her own personal experiences! She brings all of this to the field of coaching to help you unlock what’s been holding you back.

The future is bright.

Bella Femme Fitness is changing the goal posts. It’s time women had options. No more diet talk, no more weight loss challenges, no more punishing routines that hurt women’s bodies and make life more difficult (or make you pee your pants more!). It’s time to become body confident. It’s time to focus on health and happiness and live the life you want!

Sonia’s Story

Hi I’m Sonia – a 45 year old married mum to two children -a daughter who is six and a son who is four. I’ll fill you on a little bit about me.

My story is a varied one. Many moons ago I spent nearly 10 years in the police force (Tasmania), and also during that time I moonlighted as a personal trainer for about two years.

At the age of 30 I left Tassie to explore the world. I headed over to Europe and became a Tour Manager with Contiki Holidays, taking tours around Europe for the best part of two years. Then I ended up living in London for another nearly five years! I worked for a small audit firm and then later with Deloitte, working in fraud investigation and risk work.

At 36 I decided that it was time to head back to Aus. I had met my now husband in London (an Aussie boy) and we decided it was time to think about “settling down”. So, the end of 2009 sees me return to Aus and settle in Melbourne. I landed a job with the top professional services firm in Australia and stayed with them for three years. During which time I also became a mum. I left work when I was pregnant with my second child as for me, pregnancy, a toddler and the high flying, corporate workplace just didn’t mix.

My experience with pregnancy wasn’t fun at all – for either of my pregnancies. While I wasn’t in hospital, it was no easy sailing. There was no pregnancy ‘glow’for me! I experienced pelvic girdle pain (previously called pelvic instability) through both pregnancies, so walking was challenging! At the advice of my obstetrician I had a C-section for the first pregnancy. That was nasty to say the least, the recovery was awful. I suffered excruciating pain with carpul tunnel syndrome and had massive stresses with breast feeding (no milk… and yes really, I tried everything to get my milk supply up), so my daughter was bottle fed. Baby no. 2, my son was VBAC, he was a trooper and breast feeding worked a charm this time, until he was 16 months old!

I struggled terribly after the birth of my son and when he was four-month old I was ‘diagnosed’ with postnatal depression. That was a real struggle and a journey that lasted probably three years. One could argue I’m still navigating it! In the first six months of my son’s like I was eating a block of Kit Kat Cookies and Cream chocolate every day, I was a mess. I could hardly muster coping each day, let alone try to think about eating properly or ‘exercising’.

Over time, I did manage to regain my balance, both in exercise and what I was eating. I no longer eat only chocolate every day! Now I’m more me again, with my post-baby body, which is normal and totally fine!

In the whole time I was pregnant, got my health back and now… I think I went to the gym twice in three years! My healthy living changes all happened in and around home, my lifestyle and the kids. No extreme diets, no crazy fitness regimes. It absolutely can be done without any of that!

My journey and experiences led me here. To create a place that women can learn without judgement and achieve their health and fitness goals. A place that I couldn’t find when I was looking for help. Sleep deprived and being told by the fitness ‘gurus’ that sleep deprivation was just an excuse just didn’t work for me.

So here we are. I hope I can inspire and help you on your journey. There is another way. Please don’t feel that you have to follow some ridiculous regime, that ultimately will hurt you. I may or may not be the trainer for you. Look for who you can relate to, who really understands you and what you are going through. It is ok to find someone who works for you and with you, and does not judge or tell you you’re not good enough because it’s their way or the highway.

I aim to show women that there is another way. Women should not have to feel that they have to train the same as men, and that there is no other option. There are options and we absolutely can do it in a way that suits us!