Meet the sisters behind popular Glasgow gym Sorella Strength

Sorella Strength on Washington Street is a female-only gym that owners Maya and Cara Halliday opened just three weeks before the first lockdown in 2020.

Sorella, which means ‘sister’ in Italian, managed to shake off the lockdown “curse” and grow their business successfully over the past two years with exciting plans in the pipeline for 2023.

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Since opening, Sorella and all of the personal trainers that work there have gathered thousands of enthusiastic followers on social media.

Cara, 25, said: “We launched, had our big launch class, then had to close our doors completely.”

Worried their gym wouldn’t survive the lockdown, the sisters were forced to move everything online and hope for the best.

Maya, 28, said: “I think now when we look back, it was a blessing and a curse.

“I think it's easy to wonder where we would be now if we hadn't had to close so soon.

“But I also think that when the gyms did open, there was a newfound love from people for the fitness industry.

“And we were the busiest that we've ever been after lockdown.

“I mean, all of our classes had waiting lists and all of our personal trainers were fully booked.

“That buzz is what then allowed us to open up the Project Peach Studio, which was our second studio, within a few months of opening and lockdown again.

Cara added: “It created the community as well, which is such a big thing since lockdown.

“I think people do want to support smaller businesses and smaller gyms.

“For us when we opened it was always about community, so it brought that together even more.”

Sorella is not a gym for women that are intimidated to work out around men, Maya says.

She said: “We wanted Sorella to be about finding a community and how important it is to have supportive women around you when you as a woman are training.

“We wanted to create that type of environment.”

Maya and Cara have always been close. The pair live and work together, even sharing a dog.

Maya said: “We do literally everything together, and we say every day how thankful we are that we get to do it together.”

Before they became certified personal trainers, Cara and Maya leaned on each other for support in their own fitness journeys, inspiring them to replicate that support system in their own gym.

Cara said: “Sisterhood is where it all started.”

Part of the success of their gym is the Halliday’s holistic approach to fitness, concentrating more on creating a positive experience than losing weight.

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Maya said: “What we really wanted to focus on with Sorella was that as much as people come to the gym to change their body, we wanted it to be more than that.

“Rather than coming in to get a quick body transformation and losing weight in six weeks, we wanted to teach people the importance that training can have on every aspect of your life.

“So, like, teaching you discipline, keeping you motivated, mental health.

“We’ve had loads of amazing body transformations from clients, but I think the most memorable ones are the changes in seeing how somebody can come in and be in a really bad place mentally, and then receiving letters and emails and messages from these women saying it’s thanks to Sorella that I managed to get out of that mental state and now I’m in a totally different place.

“For us, the most rewarding thing is seeing people understand and experience what training can do the help your mental health.”

For people looking to get into fitness over the winter, Cara and Maya say that it’s actually the best time of year to get into working out.

Cara said: “I think people avoid it because they think they shouldn’t be motivated in winter when it’s cold but really, it’s the best time to start because people’s mental health has taken a hit over winter.

Maya said: “Make your goals realistic during the winter. You don’t have to go to the gym five times a week but going three times is better than nothing. Prioritise meal prepping and staying in a routine.

“Summer bodies are made in the winter, it’s the best time to get into it.”

Currently, the sisters are working on an activewear line that they hope to launch next year.

Cara said: “That’s taking our merchandise to the next level and having a platform separate from the gym.”

Maya added: “Everything seems to happen really fast and at once, and we forget that we’ve only been open for two years.

Other plans on the cards are to open a larger gym space in Glasgow and look into opening up new Sorella locations in other UK cities.