If you haven’t been fortunate enough to meet Michelle Bridges, let’s just say this: not only is she one of the most successful personal trainers and health influencers in the country, but she is one of the kindest.
(No, really – she even genuinely laughed off the fact that two outfits she had planned to wear today may or may not have been stolen! “I was meant to wear a different Carla Zampatti dress but it looks like they’ve been stolen so someone has two beautiful dresses at home.”)
This is why down-to-earth Michelle was high up on the list of invites for The Weekly’s annual Women Of The Future Awards – an initiative aimed to celebrate, acknowledge, support and honour young women across the country who are seeking to change the world as we know it.
Michelle Bridges at The Weekly‘s Women Of The Future Awards.
However, along with creating personal training programs and healthy-living cookbooks, as well as advocating for people in rural communities to band together through exercise, Michelle, first and foremost, is a mum to her son, Axel.
“Being a mum – it’s such a fun ride,” she exclusively told us at the Women Of The Future Awards luncheon. “But it’s challenging, as any mum would say.”
“Axel is just under two now so his personality is really starting to come out.”
However, there’s no ‘I’ in the word ‘team’, which is why she and partner, Steve ‘Commando’ Willis, place the utmost importance on parenting their young son equally.
“Me and Steve always have each other’s backs. When I was young I used to look for the weak parent but we always support each other and have a united front.”
Despite team work making this family dream work, Michelle can’t deny the difficulty of balancing parenthood with life in the public eye. This is why she’s strategic in getting everything done while maintaining her own commitment to fitness.
“My advice to busy mums is to fit it in anywhere, any place, anytime,” she said. “I wear workout gear all the time so I can lunge while I do my laundry!”
So, this is how women of the future are getting it done? Taking note…
