DUBAI: Health professionals have long trumpeted the benefits of regular exercise to promote physical well-being, longevity, and mental wellness, while also easing the burden of chronic conditions on the health sector.
Now, empowered by Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s economic reform agenda, young Saudis are readily taking advantage of opportunities and state support to launch their own business ventures in the burgeoning fitness industry.
Many of these young people bring entirely fresh approaches to the concept of wellness — with a greater emphasis on mental health, socializing, and creative pursuits, rather than the solitary and often hypermasculine experience of the traditional gym sector.
Sarah Al-Turkistani, who was born and raised in the town of Taif in the Kingdom’s southwestern Makkah province, saw a yawning gap in the market for female fitness enthusiasts eager to get in shape but put off by the limited gym facilities on offer.
A year since its launch in the coastal city of Jeddah, her business, Loca Studios, has offered women a completely different fitness experience, where the grind of a regular workout becomes a social activity, involving music, dance, multi-sensory therapies, and even the chance to drink coffee with new friends.
Sarah Al-Turkistani, who was born and raised in the town of Taif in the Kingdom’s southwestern Makkah province, saw a yawning gap in the market for female fitness enthusiasts. (Supplied)
Al-Turkistani told Arab News: “Through exercise, people can actually heal their body from physical and emotional traumas.”
As a graduate of the health profession, having studied at the College of Clinical Pharmacy in Jeddah, she takes a whole-body approach to fitness, acknowledging not only the physical benefits of weight loss and muscle growth, but also the mental advantages of exercise.
What she also drew from her studies was an understanding of the limitations of pharmaceutical drugs in treating maladies. “It usually helps you in one area but damages your body in another,” she said.
Instead, she has become an ardent advocate of holistic lifestyle choices to improve and maintain overall health.
Following her studies, Al-Turkistani began a stint in pharmaceutical chemical procurement at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, but soon moved to Nahdi Pharmacy, where she established the firm’s marketing department. It was here she honed her business acumen and delved deeper into the realm of holistic health.
During her time with Nahdi Pharmacy she became involved in a joint project with the Saudi Ministry of Health and the Joslin Diabetes Center in the US to publish a study for the American Diabetes Association on …….