Movement should fit your life — not take over it.

Movement was part of Alex’s life long before it became his career. He grew up in the Philippines in a family where sport was everywhere — both parents built careers in fitness and sport, and eventually his siblings found their way into it too. Growing up meant being exposed to different sports, trying things, competing, training, and discovering early on just how many different ways there are to move.

Badminton was the one that stuck. He became a competitive player, and his curiosity about sport eventually took him from playing it to studying it — earning a degree in Sports Science and beginning his career in gyms and fitness.

That career eventually brought him to Dubai, where years of coaching introduced him to a very different side of fitness. Because Alex has never had the stereotypical fitness story, and neither have most of the people he has coached. He knows personally what it’s like for fitness to change through different seasons of life, and he’s seen how easily an industry built around health can make ordinary people feel like they’re somehow doing it wrong.

Too much focus on the scale. On how a body looks. On perfect routines, extreme discipline and fitting into someone else’s idea of what “fit” is supposed to be. Alex found himself drawn to something else entirely: the everyday person simply trying to move and feel better.

The parent who wants enough energy to keep up with their kids. The person trying to get stronger as they get older. Someone coming back after years of doing nothing. Someone who may never love the gym but wants their body to keep allowing them to do the things — and be with the people — they love.

Those became the wins that mattered to him. Not just kilos lost or weights lifted, but someone moving without pain. Playing with their children. Picking up a sport again. Feeling capable in their own body. Or simply realising that fitness can have a place in their life without taking over their life.

After growing up surrounded by sport, studying it, competing in it and spending his career coaching it, Alex’s idea of fitness has become surprisingly simple: movement should help you live more of your life — not become your life. And that belief sits at the heart of what he’s building with ATHLI.

Shirley’s story with movement couldn’t be more different from Alex’s. Growing up in the Philippines, fitness and sport simply weren’t part of her world. She was the typical Type A kid from a family without much — study hard, get good grades, build a career, help the family. Life was about creating opportunities and getting somewhere, and there wasn’t much room, or money, to explore hobbies simply because they looked fun.

That changed in adulthood. Once she was earning and finally had the freedom to try some of the things she had always been curious about, she did. Pole dancing. Ultimate frisbee. Weightlifting. Random classes and activities that caught her attention. Movement became another world to explore — and there was something special about finally being able to say “I want to try that”, and actually getting to.

Her relationship with fitness, though, was never a straight line. There were periods of intense focus — training regularly, chasing goals, feeling strong — followed by stretches where work got demanding, priorities shifted and fitness quietly fell away. Then she’d start again. And again. It wasn’t the neat transformation story the fitness world likes to tell. It was much closer to what movement looks like for most people trying to fit it around an already full life.

When Shirley moved to Dubai while Alex was still in the Philippines, movement took on a different meaning. Training became one of the things that kept them connected across the distance — something they could still share while building lives in two different countries. Alex eventually joined her in Dubai, then COVID came, routines disappeared, and the rhythm changed all over again.

Through all the stopping, starting and trying again, Shirley has experienced enough of movement to know its value. Not just in how a body looks or what the scale says, but in feeling stronger and more capable, having the energy to live your life, being able to try new things, and taking care of a body you’re going to need for a very long time. She also understands firsthand how difficult it can be to know all of that and still struggle to make movement a priority.

That perspective is a big part of what Shirley brings to ATHLI. Alex grew up inside the world of sport; Shirley found her way into it later. She understands the person who doesn’t naturally think of themselves as “fit”, whose life doesn’t revolve around training, who falls off and starts again, or who simply wants movement to work around the life they already have.

Because ATHLI isn’t being built on the idea that everyone should make fitness their life. It’s being built on the belief that everyone deserves to find a place for movement within it.