Fitness Instructor Georgina Cox on Strength Training and Confidence

The personal trainer talks creating a positive, healthy mindset around weight training.

Georgina Cox.Courtesy Nikki Paxton Photography

As a personal trainer and online coach, Georgina Cox has dedicated her life to helping women achieve the very best versions of themselves both inside and out. Her fitness app, which offers exclusive at-home strength training programs, is an incredible resource for those new to an exercise regimen. The 32-year-old U.K. native is also a content creator who uses her Instagram platform to uplift women, reminding her followers that all bodies are beautiful bodies.

We chatted with Cox to learn more about her refreshing perspective on fitness, and how women can use strength training as a tool to benefit both their physical and mental health.

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Creating a positive mindset and boosting confidence

Your attitude around movement is just as important as the exercise itself, according to Cox. She notes that when you work out to punish yourself, you create a negative energy around movement. However, if you choose to exercise in order to feel stronger and support your body, you create a positive association with movement.

“For such a long time, strength has been associated with men. It’s something they’re told to achieve, but I’m so glad to see the shift that more and more women are getting more involved with strength training,” Cox says. “It can be so transformative in how we view ourselves, how we view our bodies, and what they’re capable of, and it comes from such a positive place. Building strength, building confidence, looking after your body, as opposed to a negative place, which is [to] lose weight and become the smallest version of yourself, because we exist to do so much more than that.”

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Cox notes that strength training is a great way to feel empowered, independent and confident—not just in the gym, but in all areas of life.

“Whenever you do something, like lift weights, something you think you’re not capable of, something you think that you won't be able to do, when you do it, something can happen in your brain where you think, ‘If I can do this, what else can I do?’” she says.

When she began her own strength training journey, Cox describes feeling a sense of self-worth that pushed her to pursue her life’s work of helping other women feel confident in their own skin. She says many of her clients have experienced similar personal growth through strength training.

“I’ve watched so many of my clients in person not only change their mindset towards exercise and food and their bodies, but really build that confidence in their lives,” Cox explains. “I’ve seen them start their own businesses, leave relationships that weren’t treating them the best, go back to university when they thought they were too old for it. It just it really gives you this inner strength where if you can pick up your own body weight, you can do other things in your life that you doubt as well.”

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Strength training 101

In order to reap the benefits, Cox recommends strength training two to three times per week. Bodyweight exercises with or without resistance bands are a great place to start, before moving on to workouts with free weights like dumbbells. And while many people hit the gym for a good sweat sesh, she notes that activities like rock climbing or a pole fitness class are just as effective.

“Moving our bodies should be fun,” Cox reminds. “It should be enjoyable, and if you are moving your body in a way that you don’t like, you are never ever going to stick to it. And moving our bodies is so important, especially for when we’re older, especially as women, we lose some bone density and muscle mass [as we age], so the movement and the strength that we’re building right now is just going to benefit us when we’re older.”

Cox’s app is designed specifically for beginners who want to learn how to strength train at home, and her content walks users through how to perform each move for efficiency while avoiding injury.

“You can start from the bottom, learn the movement patterns, [build] confidence with things and progress, whether that’s at home or in the gym,” she explains of her Strong Queen programs.

At the end of the day, Cox champions the concept of body neutrality, or the notion that the most important thing is not how your body looks, but how it functions.

“This body that we’re in right now is the only one we’ll ever have and it doesn’t matter how negatively we talk about it or how much we restrict its food or sleep. It will still get up every day and support us and help us do things we love, help us hug our loved ones, help us go out on hikes or whatever it is, our body will do that regardless of how we treat it,” Cox notes. “So imagine what it could do if we treat it with the same love that we give everyone else?”

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