“Let’s accept each other without ceasing to improve”. Carlotta Gains29 years old, originally from the province of Cuneo and married to Matteo, is between wellness coach most followed and loved on social networks, with over 400 thousand followers. Prima personal trainer italian aparlare of body positivity is partita from her personal experience, when as a child she had to deal with eating disorder problems – anorexia e binge eating – and then as a teenager he discovered the world of fitness. From that feeling of well-being so sought and discovered in training, determined, she managed to devise a fitness program accessible to allpracticed by thousands of women: they are in fact about 20 thousand paying users every month they take their courses.
Traininpink was born on Christmas day 2017. “My husband and I opened the page Instagram and started doing free training – he says -. In 2019 we started selling ours online training courses“. First only one, then over the years the choice has been expanded: “We have also introduced a food program, in collaboration with two nutritionists, and other training programs “. At the moment there are 5, different every month, plus a nutritional one. “Our goal is to be able to have a program that is fine for most women, in such a way that each can be followed as much as possible in the course of life – explains Carlotta -. It is true, we are addressing above all a female audience, but I want to say that the principles of training are the same, however, for everyone, male and female. There is no gender distinction“.
This year, then, first in Italy, Gagna once again took a further step forward to make her idea of fitness truly accessible to all and sustainable: in May, shortly after the law in Spain, she too introduced the fully paid menstrual leave for their employees.
Its programs are aimed at women in particular, followed at practically every stage of life. Why did you choose to create a specific one for post partum?
“I had to study a lot to release this course because pregnancy is a very special period in a woman’s life, in which the body undergoes many changes and obviously training cannot be the same as what you normally do. It was a long job, but here it made me very happy to be able to follow the women in this delicate phase so that they can safely resume training gradually before moving on to another standard program “.
Do you also offer a program for older ladies?
“Yes, we have also thought about people of a certain age. Last year I created EasyInPink, a special program for my mom, who is in her 60s and we have several women more or less her age who are following it. It is simpler than the others because it assumes that these people are starting from scratch or that they want to resume business after many years. But the goal is to create a course that is as suitable as possible for any woman and at any stage of our life ”.
As for the relationship between physical activity and menstrual cycle, what do you recommend?
“I advise, even during the menstrual cycle, not to stop training. It is okay if on the day we feel less fit – even regardless of menstruation – we choose to decrease the intensity of the training or if we are really sick we do not train. However, I do not recommend interrupting the program based on the cycle, I believe that the best thing is to follow a precise programming that allows us to progress and obtain results over time, with an eye to about how we feel. Many times, exercising lightly during your period can also relieve pain. Obviously not in case of pathologies. Physical activity is always modular, so always, first of all, you have to listen to your body “.
In Italy, menstrual leave has been “rediscovered” after the innovations introduced in other countries. When did you decide to adopt this measure?
“In Italy we were the first to introduce menstrual leave, on May 26, 2022. It was not an easy path: since there were no precedents, we had to contact a law firm that made us a dedicated plan on how to be able to integrate menstrual leave within our company. There are a lot of issues that are not considered to be privacy. Our idea started from Spain, which on May 18 introduced the leave in case of painful menstruation. In Italy it was talked about in 2016, with a bill on dysmenorrhea, but it was not approved and it is not known if it will ever be re-discussed. We have therefore decided to undertake a private initiative, so as to be able to give a small advantage to our employees “.
Why did you feel this need?
“Because, on the one hand, I suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome and this leads me to have very abundant but above all very painful cycles. So I know the feeling of having to work hard when you have a very painful menstrual cycle. And then, on the other hand, as we always say at Traininpink, inner well-being is closely linked to physical well-being, and obviously work has an important role in how we feel, because willy-nilly we spend a lot of our day there. I think it is very important that even these pathologies are recognized in the workplace “.
How does menstrual leave materialize in Traininpink?
“It consists of one day a month of fully paid leave from the company, both in terms of wages and contributions. The girls on our team do not have to bring any medical certificates or authorizations. The mere communication to the administration of wanting to take the menstrual leave on the day in which it is needed is sufficient “.
In Italy, there is little talk of the menstrual cycle, there is still a sort of taboo. Could this be a factor holding back the introduction of leave?
“I agree that these topics are talked about too little, but I hope that we and the other company that introduced the leave can be an example for others who want to introduce this measure. We have also added free sanitary pads to the office, so that all girls can use them on the days when they have menstruation and come to the office ”.
How many employees are there at Traininpink?
“We are seven employees of which five are women. We are ‘in pink’ because we turn to and we are mainly women in the company ”.
How did your colleges react to the introduction of menstrual leave?
“Really well, many have already used it in recent months”.