Shakti Hai, Toh Sehat Hai (If you have strength, you have health)

Moving your body regularly, at any age, is one of the best things you can do for your health. It helps prevent illness, keeps your muscles and bones strong, and makes it easier to stay independent and do the things you enjoy. But being active isn’t just about walking more. Building strength through simple exercises is just as important, particularly as we get older. But many South Asian women aren’t doing enough exercise, with only half regularly active, and just 1 in 3 doing any kind of strength-building exercises. And this isn’t just about physical health, this inactivity affects wellbeing for the mind too. South Asian women who are less active often feel less satisfied with life, and less connected to a sense of purpose than South Asian men.

In a previous research study, we looked at what helps or gets in the way of staying active we found that cultural expectations, lack of family encouragement, traditional gender roles, and a lack of clear information play a big part. People of South Asian heritage told us they didn’t know how important strength exercises are, or what the NHS even recommends. And with so much confusing advice online, it’s hard to know who to trust.

That’s why we created something new.

As part of the Connect Well study, funded by the British Medical Association Foundation, we teamed up with 25 South Asian women to co-create an animated video that explains why muscle strength matters and how to build it in everyday life. It’s short, simple, and made with community involvement in the heart of it.

Our hope: This video will encourage and empower South Asian women to look after their health in ways that feel right for them. Because when you build strength, you build health.

The Connect Well Team

• Dr Jonathan Quinlan, Assistant Professor in Exercise Physiology and Muscle Health
• Dr Kanta Kumar, Assosciate Professor of  of Health inequalities in Rheumatology practice
• Vanshika Agarwal, Research Associate

Academic Steering Committee

• Professor Afroditi Stathi
• Dr Sally Fenton

PPI Steering Committee

• Dr Fatima Zakia
• Mrs Smita Honap
• Mrs Shila Patel

Acknowledgements

In addition to the women who took part in this study to co-create the animated video, we also want to acknowledge and thank some other key partners who made this work possible. Specifically, we want to thank Mrs Sharda Lavingia and Dr Baljeet Kaur for their support in organising the focus groups. This work would not be possible without funding from the British Medical Association Foundation (Pushpa Chopra 2024) and has been delivered through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). Finally, we want to thank Max Gregoriou and Jonathan Klug from Beluga Animation for the production of this animation.

The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.  

Contact details

To discover more about the Connect Well project, please contact the research team via email below:

• Dr Jonny Quinlan: j.quinlan@bham.ac.uk
• Dr Kanta Kumar: k.kumar@bham.ac.uk