Queensland Firebirds star Kim Ravaillion opens up on her passion for the gym

When netball star and Queensland Firebirds captain Kim Ravaillion was pushed around on the court she realised she had to change her approach to training off of it.

Netball star Kim Ravaillion in action for the Firebirds. Picture: Getty Images

If you’re a muscly woman you are technically a man. Isn’t that what they say?

I’ve been lucky enough to not experience any negativity towards my body through my career, if anything it’s been quite positive, but I have friends that have experienced that sort of feedback.

Something I’ve learned being an athlete and woman in sport is, we build our bodies up to protect ourselves from injury and to make sure we can get out there and play our sport at the elite level and be as fast as we can be, jump as high as we can, achieve and tick off any goals we want to.

To do that, you need to put on muscle; you need to eat more.

Sometimes I’m sitting at a dinner table with friends and they will eat the smallest amount and I tell you what, I feel like I could eat five-times the amount of them. But we just live different lives.

Queensland Firebirds captain Kim Ravaillion. Picture: Nigel Hallett

I love that fit look. I preach to my clients – I’m a personal trainer – that you need to fuel your body to produce high intensity exercise. With that you’re going to get muscles.

I’m lucky to be surrounded by some really supportive people and if anything, it would be awesome to flip what people see as an issue and just support women to look however they want to.

I’ve always been quite lean and always tried to put on weight and get bigger, but every single body is different and you just have to manage your body the best that you can.

A former school teacher asked me to come in and speak to the younger girls who were afraid of lifting weights because they didn’t want to put on muscle.

It’s about flipping their mindset and getting them out of that thought process that lifting weights makes you massive — it actually just makes you stronger.

Kim Ravaillion wants to flip the mindset on girls lifting weights. Picture: Getty Images

My passion for lifting weights actually started when I missed out on a NSW state team when I was 17. I noticed in the trials how easily I got pushed around on the court and how tired I got before my opponent did.

From that moment I told myself I needed to be fitter and stronger, so I would run around the backyard, I would lift my brother’s weights and do repeat sprint efforts and basic skills to make sure I was the fittest I could be.

It made me disciplined and when I got to state titles the next year, I was so much stronger and ended up making the team.

Missing that state team changed my life. It flicked a switch in my brain and told me I needed to work harder and be stronger to achieve my goals and I’ve not looked back.

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