Ladies, no matter how little you think you look the part, you can enjoy exercise – and there’s finally a campaign celebrating the fact. Top marks to Sport England’s inspiring new ads, says Abi Jackson...

The fitness world is full of inspiring stuff; people, stories, ideas.

But never has something moved me quite as much as the This Girl Can campaign which launched this week, which shows real women exercising – while kicking ass and having a ball in the process.

There’s no alienating ‘go hard or go home’ type messaging, with perfect-looking bodies parading around in designer Lycra. And this isn’t about telling women they ‘should’ be working out, in order to lose weight, or whatever.

This is about women who exercise for themselves, for the love of it, and for the countless rewards they get from it – and to hell with worrying about how wobbly their thighs are when they jog, or whether they’re always the slow one at the back of the aerobics class getting all of the steps wrong.

Because exercise really is for everybody. Never train for a triathlon? Doesn’t matter. Not bothered about personal bests? Who cares.

Don’t have an ‘ideal’ swimsuit body? So what – you can still get your sweat on and get those endorphins pumping – just like the women in the campaign are doing.

“We did a lot of research beforehand and while we developed the campaign,” says Jennie Price, CEO of Sport England, who are leading This Girl Can.

“We’ve known for a long time that the gender gap between men and women in the UK is very stubborn in sports participation – it’s around two million. But what I’m very cheered by is that 75% of women want to be more active, which we discovered through our research.”

Of course, time limitations, childcare and cost are all factors in stopping us exercising as much as we’d perhaps like to; but Sport England found that the biggest barrier women admitted to is fear of judgement.

“If you’re a bit uncomfortable with your body – and lots of women are, even if they don’t really need to be – you have this dialogue in your head, that says, ‘I’m not really good enough for this, I’m not fit enough to be in that gym, I can’t put those Lycra trousers on because my thighs are enormous’ – whether they are or not is irrelevant; you think you are, so you don’t go.

“One of the things we’re trying to get across in this campaign is that if you feel like that, you’re not alone – but there is a way to think about exercise and fitness and sport where that doesn’t get in the way. It’s absolutely fine to do this, whatever you look like and however you feel!”