Queer Fit Club YQR looking to make Regina more inclusive for LGBTQ+

There’s a new fit club in town, and it’s trying to make Regina’s fitness scene more inclusive.

Queer Fit Club YQR is a free, monthly pop-up-based workout for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and its allies.

“I really wanted to create something that I felt was a bit of a gap in Regina,” said founder Michael Betteridge. “The mission of Queer Fit Club is really to create community, build confidence for queer people and do so through movement.”

Betteridge played sports all his life, saying it played an integral part in gaining confidence and finding community. When he decided to stop playing competitive sports in university, he felt like he lost that.

That was until he found the Wheelhouse Cycle Club.

“It was truly life-changing for me,” he said. “I got to participate in group fitness again. I really found that sense of team and comradery that I missed so much.”

He said the cycling club was impactful to his queer journey and he wanted to foster this for others.

“I hope to instill the confidence that competitive sport gave me and give that to the queer community,” he said.

But, Betteridge acknowledges group fitness can be expensive and often a barrier.

“That’s the one barrier we’re really focused on removing for queer folks is the cost. Group fitness is incredibly expensive. We want to bring that to people in a way that’s free.” He said the club will always be free.

“We’re going to work with organizations like New Gen Fitness and SESSION,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of places already reach out and conversations are happening. We’re going to do our best to work with them on making sure that the partnership is mutually beneficial so that we can offer free exercise to our members.”

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Aaron Shannon is the co-owner of New Gen Fitness. He agrees with Betteridge that there is a gap in the fitness community in Regina.

“It’s very catered to hyper-masculine spaces that are quite intense,” Shannon said. “They focus on what you look like or bodybuilding and things like that. I noticed over my ten-plus year career of training that I seem to attract a more anxious clientele which is amazing. I wanted to create a space that had them in mind.”

Shannon shares a similar connection to sports with Betteridge.

“As a queer person myself, I resonate very heavily with Michael’s background,” he said. “I was an elite athlete growing up for years and years. Back in that time if you were talented you were accepted. However, you were only accepted if you fit into that hyper-masculine sort of sphere which I was not. And I knew I couldn’t be alone in that.”

Shannon said that is the inspiration of creating a facility like this.

“It’s to help people who feel like they don’t belong in the fitness industry and to help prove themselves wrong and that they do belong and that movement is for everybody,” he said.

The first pop-up at New Gen Fitness saw well over 100 people.

Queer Fit Club YQR had a smashing first pop-up!

The event at New Gen Fitness saw over 100 people coming together to get active and make Regina’s fitness community more inclusive.

(Video submitted by Michael Betteridge, founder of Queer Fit Club YQR) pic.twitter.com/gPj6AGW7Wd

— Nicole Garn (@garnnic) June 26, 2024

“It’ll be a work-at-your-own-pace timed, type of group fitness that myself and the leader Michaela Kleisinger are going to put together,” Betteridge said. “There will always be modifications for various fitness levels or mobility levels. If you need to stop and take a break, if you want to quit after 15 minutes that’s okay. We want to make sure that everybody feels welcome.”

He said the club will match what the members need or want.

“If they want to do a dance class, I’m going to try to find a dance class to work with us,” Betteridge said. “If they want to learn the foundations of weight lifting, I want to be able to find a space that will allow us to do that. I’m really going to listen to the members and allow them to take the lead.”

Betteridge has goals for the club that go beyond fitness.

“I’m already having conversations with organizations on how they can be more inclusive,” he said. “I foresee advocacy being a really big pillar of queer fit and just monthly pop-ups.

The sky is truly the limit with this.”