The Sydney-based trainer tells us how to live better, work better, move better.

Recent studies suggest that lesbians are at a greater risk of being overweight than gay men and even heterosexual women.

Lisa Brown is the director of Innervate Health & Fitness and shared her experience as a lesbian business owner in the fitness industry.

The Sydney-based trainer lives in Coogee, just across the road from the beach, with her 4-year-old black Labrador Leroy Brown. She’s only a few weeks away from her first marathon, the Outback Marathon around Uluru.

She says training for the marathon “has reminded me of what my clients feel like to get off the couch, get out of their comfort zone and train with us, as I am totally out of mine at the moment!” Before she hits the road she sat down to talk health, fitness, and advice for gay girls looking to bulk up.

What is Innervate Health & Fitness?

We are a team of passionate, highly qualified and experienced health professionals and personal trainers serving Sydney, Inner West, Eastern suburbs and the North Shore. We run corporate group training for your work team, one-on-one and buddy sessions, and small outdoor groups. Our motto is Live Better, Work Better, Move Better!

Do you think there’s enough of a focus on health and fitness within the lesbian community?

No, but in all honesty, I think that there should be a bigger focus on health and fitness within all communities. Eating disorders and a worldwide obesity epidemic is on the rise and is causing havoc in every community. We are literally eating ourselves to death.

What advice would you give to any LOTL.com readers wanting to lose weight?

If losing weight is your goal, my advice is to do interval training (which speeds up your metabolism and keeps it elevated for some time after your workout) and do some type of resistance training using big bang movements like squats, lunges, deadlifts, pushes and pulls. Lift heavy but make sure you know what you are doing. Significantly reduce your carb intake and increase green veggies instead, increase your protein and water intake and get adequate sleep.

How about advice for girls wanting to bulk up?

If you want to bulk up, you have to literally eat more and get into the gym and lift. A good programme for gaining muscle size is German Volume Training. Google it, it is a very simple workout and you will gain muscle if you also follow it with good nutrition. Make sure your food is still clean food and not junk food but increase it, especially your daily protein intake. Balance your calorific intake with the number of calories you are burning, do not skip meals and relax (fidgeting burns more calories).

What made you start your own business?

I was a Phys Ed teacher working in a senior management role in a prestigious private girls school in Sydney. I was bored with teaching and needed a new challenge but, as is sometimes the case, the routine and regular salary kept me in the role (or, put another way, my fears did). A breakup of a relationship and a severely broken heart gave me the kick in the ass I needed to leave teaching and pursue my own personal training business.

What is the biggest business challenge you’ve faced so far?

I took on a personal training apprentice who burnt me for a lot of money, time and energy. I learnt that I should have trusted my initial intuition and not worked with him in the first place. It was an expensive lesson but a really valuable one.

What is the best thing about running your own business?

Choosing who I work with and how hard I work and when I work. And also seeing people get kick-ass results and totally change their lives.

Where do you see your business in 5 years time?

I am growing my business organically. I would like to increase the size of my team but only with quality trainers. There are so many PTs in Sydney, some great and some terrible and outright dangerous. I want to grow Innervate’s reputation of being a team of trainers that are highly qualified so you know that you are working with a professional and not someone who has completed an 8 week course and nothing else.