‘Women were never these little fragile beings society likes to portray’

Ultra-marathon runner and founder Hélène Guillaume on women’s health, inequality and WILD AI

“Keep it going” reads my recent notification on my smartwatch after a sweaty spin class. For someone who found it difficult to start exercising after multiple lockdowns, such reminders do make a difference. So naturally, I was excited about WILD AI – an app designed to help women train, recover and eat based on their menstrual cycle.

Unlike other fitness apps, WILD AI is made for the needs of the female body – think menstruation, pregnancy or menopause. Based on daily check-ins such as heart rate, sleep, menstrual cycle, contraception and physical activity, the app gives you a readiness score as well as advice for training, nutrition, recovery, supplement needs and mental state.

“By tracking things, every day you have a very good understanding of your readiness score and you become more aware of your body,” says Hélène Guillaume, ultra-marathon runner, triathlete and founder of WILD AI. “Our hormones and daily habits are a lot more impactful than most of us would think and when you don’t understand that, you go against your body. So, our aim is to help women understand their body and take advantage of its full potential.”

Guillaume’s background in science made her aware of the data gap in sports especially in women. As an ultra-marathon runner, rugby player, triathlete and ice-swimmer, she has struggled herself with a system exclusively made for men. “80 per cent of the medical research to today is made on men.

“Women have no visibility. Until very recently, we haven’t been involved in any research at all and the commonality was that women were a subset of men. We were supposed to do things at a smaller scale, hoping it would work out.

“But that didn’t take into consideration that not only do we have a menstrual cycle for years, but we also go through big life stages that completely change our bodies,” the entrepreneur explains.

“So, with WILD AI, we are aiming to change entirely the notion of what a woman is. Because we were never these fragile little beings that society likes to portray. We are incredibly strong and powerful.”

The lack of support is one of the things that has led to different misconceptions, Guillaume thinks. “Women and girls don’t understand what is happening to their bodies. A big misconception is that you would perform less well during your period. Also, words like perimenopause and menopause are still very misunderstood.”

But it’s not just about support. The fashion industry along with the rise of the diet culture have also fuelled unhealthy approaches in women’s health. “We follow these traditional diets that were created for men, but that actually have the opposite effect of what we’re expecting,” says Guillaume.

“As women, we go to the gym as often as guys, we start training, exercising like crazy and starving ourselves. But then we end up with belly fat, because our body, as opposed to the male body, is getting into starvation mode and it starts to stock up.

“So, we need to change this mentality around what is a good looking woman. Otherwise young girls will continue to struggle with body dysmorphia and other eating disorders,” the ultra-marathon runner adds. “We’ve been for so long celebrating these androgynous bodies that are actually not healthy at all. A skinny girl with no periods is not healthy, but it’s never portrayed like that. A female body has curves and that’s what we should consider normality.”

Things like going to the gym and lifting weights are extremely important, says Guillaume, but tailored in a way that would suit women. “The life transitions that we go through as women are opportunities to understand our body and to choose to harness the power of it. When you understand this, the female body becomes an incredibly powerful machine.”

Guillaume hopes that ultimately, more women will start to embrace sport and nutrition for a healthier lifestyle rather than a weight loss goal. “We have really high ambitions and we want to become the technology for women so that every single woman in the world would have access to the power and tools to perform”, she tells me.

“Interception is the capacity to understand what’s happening in your body and this what we aim to achieve with WILD AI too. Once you learn to do that, you can really reduce the negative symptoms and push on the positives.”

WILD AI is available in App Store and Google Play.