Montell Douglas, the Strictly Come Dancing sensation and Gladiators star, has been reflecting on her life-changing journey of learning new skills after wrapping up the Strictly Live tour. The Olympian, who has made a name for herself in both sprinting and bobsleigh, opened up to Wales Online about the significant transformation her body has undergone since hanging up her competitive spikes.
Now an ambassador for the Department for Education's Skills for Life campaign, aiming to boost Britain's 'brain gains' by 2025, she's on a mission to motivate others to stay driven towards their ambitions. In a candid chat about her personal growth, Montell discussed how aging has influenced her acceptance of her physique.
With her 40th birthday on the horizon, she shared insights into her health and fitness approach: "As an athlete my life was very different, it was very centralised around performance. At that point every day was focused on training and that was my priority.".
She added, "I would fit everything around it. My two sports, athletics and bobsleigh, were also very different - so in athletics, your power-to-weight ratio is really important as you are pulling yourself down a track.". Reflecting on her sporting transitions, she noted, "I wanted to be the lightest and fastest I could be, whereas in bobsleigh, I put on 10 kilos; I purposely fuelled and ate high-calorie meals and more often because of that.".
Her fitness routine took a backseat after her sports career when she transitioned into the corporate world. "My training was on the back foot," she confessed. "Going to the gym wasn't a priority, it was more like a nice thing if I had the time and energy. That was a massive shift and my body changed straight away. I was sat in front of my computer working from home, still eating really well, but in terms of fitness, I did a lot less because I was also coaching in the evenings.".
Perhaps one of the most significant transformations to her physique occurred after competing on Strictly Come Dancing, as she confessed she didn't hit the gym for about six months due to her commitment to the show and subsequent live tour. "My body changed, my mindset changed, my stamina has changed a lot," she acknowledged. "In terms of body composition and what I look like, I now apparently have a 'dancer's body', whatever that means.
"I stand differently, I feel differently, now I look so different and I get a lot of questions from my friends and family like 'How are you feeling about your body because it's massively changed?'. "I'm like 'My bank account is suffering because I need a new wardrobe. I have dropped two dress sizes'.".
As she gears up to celebrate her 40th birthday, she emphasised that paying attention to the changes her body is undergoing is "even more important". "Muscle mass, we know, depreciates from 30 onwards so we are on borrowed time. I notice that even more now as a former professional athlete, almost 40, looking completely different.
"I now have the body I had when I was about 22 years old, which also mentally throws me every day; I'm like 'Who is this body?' But I'm embracing it because I'm able to do amazing things with it and that's what I'm focusing on - how it feels and what I'm still able to achieve in the body I've got.".
She detailed, "I'm now having that mindset of 'Gosh, you are nearly 40 and you are going to feel different and the body is going to respond very differently.'" Appreciating the changes she's encountering as she approaches 40, she has become adept at tuning into her body’s signals. "I'm eating food that was fine before and now it might irritate me.
"Or it craves other things more now, and I think that's definitely a hormonal thing, being a woman, but also you are getting older and I'm always constantly challenging it. I don't give it a rest really, it's like 'Look, you are just taking the mick now, can we just relax'.".
Entering her age as a period of reflection and self-evolution, she shares personal insights: "I am constantly always thinking about changing and permanently evolving. "That's always been my go-to, every minute of every day I'm always changing, when I think about new challenges it's almost a process rather than a destination.".
Over the past year, she expressed that among the paramount lessons learned were personal achievements including growing more self-confident. Montell has opened up about her journey on Strictly Come Dancing, revealing that while she loves public speaking and coaching, she's not always the most vocal in personal matters. "I love to talk, I love public speaking, I love to coach, but in other areas...in my own personal stuff, I'm not always the most forthcoming or loudest," she admitted.
She credits the show for pushing her growth, saying, "That's a skill I'm developing and being on the TV in front of millions of people week in, week out really challenged that. I'm putting myself in positions where we are pushed to grow. You can only learn whilst you are in it.".
