Terri Roberts

Terri Roberts is the owner & content creator of The Pink Dumbbell Problem. For 10 years she was the Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Fitness Association (NSFA) and a director of Fitness Leadership Canada (FLC). Through that work, and nearly 2 decades of teaching and training fitness clients, she saw an opportunity to take exercise instruction in a new direction. Using her background in Gender Studies and Education she took the NSFA from a floundering non-profit to a thriving educational organization. In the years since she began this glow-up of the NSFA, Roberts has forged partnerships with groups and individuals to train fitness instructors on multiple intersections of marginalization.

Roberts completed her Masters of Arts in Women and Gender Studies degree at MSVU in 2022. Her thesis, The Pink Dumbbell Problem, analyzes the issues fitness instructors have with gender-specific myths about exercise, muscle mass and feminine comportment. She presents this content to the public via her YouTube channel, Terri M Roberts - Pink Dumbbell Problem. Roberts is working with fitness certification text book authors to make their materials more gender appropriate and inclusive, and is working with several organizations on adding more gender-inclusive content to their standards and exams.

Having come to fitness via dance, Roberts has also been a voice in sorting out the confusion people feel over the differences between dance, sport, and fitness for it's own sake. This has lead to more accessibility of all three for many people! As a survivor of a car crash that was caused by an impaired she is one of the very few dance & fitness educators & adult educators in Canada who can speak from experience as to what exercise can, and can't do for crash survivors. In 2023 Roberts published the Fitness Instructor's Lesson Planner (available on Amazon). Having been a high school teacher in the past, she had access to the classic teacher's planner (red cover, spiral binding; you know the one). With nothing of the sort on the market for fitness classes, she created one!

QEII Platinum Jubillee Medal | Professional

Awarded January 2023, for Services to Education.

Diversity, Equity , & Inclusion Alumni Legacy Award, 2021 | Professional

Newly established in 2021, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alumni Legacy Award is presented to a Mount St. Vincent University alumni who:
- Has demonstrated significant commitment and contributions to social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Reflects the Spirit of the Mount and the Mount’s values of diversity, inclusion, equity, and community through their work and dedication to their community.

The Pink Dumbbell Problem: A Feminist Analysis of Gender-Specific Fitness Myths