From Riyadh to Bilston: Fitness instructor trains Saudi princesses

It was all quite a culture shock for Rebecca Jones, a fitness instructor from Bilston, who has recently returned from the Arab nation where women’s rights have been limited.

The gym where she worked was owned by the country’s royal family and she was stunned to be asked to train princesses.

"The gym itself was run by a royal princess and her business partner, and they believed it was every woman's right to exercise. We have an image of Muslim women which is not true. The ones I met and worked with were inspiring. Their girl power was amazing," said Rebecca.

"I was personal trainer to one of the princesses and another came to the legs, bums and tums class. It was not what I was expecting.

"Muslim women don't do PE at school and are not encouraged to take part in exercise. The women who came to the gym had to ask their husbands' or fathers' permission to come to the courses, but it's a step in the right direction."

The 24-year-old former pupil of St Thomas More Catholic School in Willenhall is set to launch her own fitness courses back in her home town after returning from the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh in January.

Starting next week, she will hold classes at the Iron Factory in Oxford Street, Bilston.

After leaving school, she studied for sporting diplomas at Bilston College before travelling the world teaching nutrition on cruise ships. She took the Middle East post for a year's stability and to increase her experience.

She plans to run courses, called Witness The Fitness, for a maximum of six people at a time. "Exercise can be scary stuff for people who don't go to the gym - but the idea is that I teach people how to train themselves so, in the end, they don't need me," she said.

Whilst in Saudi, she joined other ex-pats living in a compound comprising around 500 villas, a swimming pool, restaurants, launderette and shops, with security laid on by gun-toting National Guard forces.

"Imagine a four-star holiday camp with machine guns - that's where I stayed, in one of the villas, with four other ex-pat girls. It was all very strange at first."

Rebecca also took a while to get used to the different attitudes in Saudi Arabia towards men and women.

"Everywhere you go, places are sectioned off - families in one part, singles in the other. Of course, I used to go bounding into the singles section until it was pointed out that it was for single men only - unmarried women had to go to the family section.

"That used to happen a lot, especially when I was dying for a coffee in the morning."

She worked six days a week and made the most of her one day off, often enjoying trips into the desert for parties and beach-buggy rides.

Other rules meant she was very homesick at first. It was three months before she finished her probationary period, allowing her to leave the compound - but by then, airline prices had gone up and she could not afford to visit home until July, seven months after leaving Bilston.

The 11-hour flight to London and two-hour journey by train to Wolverhampton seemed like an eternity for home-loving Rebecca.

She describes her parents, jiu-jitsu instructor Michael and midwife Marie, as her 'rock' and her sisters Kayla, 26, and Leonnie, 25, as her 'best friends'.

Her father, a former lorry driver who set up his own martial arts club, Street Jitsu Association, has been her biggest influence, guiding his 'wild child' youngest daughter towards kickboxing and other martial arts when she was young.

"I was high-energy, a bit of a wild child, and I think he wanted to channel all that in the right direction. Once there, I found the love for it and started my own classes teaching women self-defence. It was definitely the right thing for me - dad set me on the path."