Shropshire college launches remote email fitness club
It might be the first college remote fitness club for staff and students from around the world. More than 45 members have joined since the launch of the email fitness group by the sports department at Shropshire’s Concord College.
As they teach and study all around the world, emails promoting physical and mental wellbeing have been sent to staff and students by sports hall manager Will Harrison.
Mr Harrison said: “As much of the world experiences a lockdown, I hope all staff and students are well and managing to keep active.
“I am aware that current circumstances under the remote learning programme may involve sitting at a computer or being more inactive than usual.
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“To counter this, for those who would like extra help or motivation for workouts or how to make them more productive, we’ve launched an email fitness group.
“The group provides challenges, ideas and workouts – specifically for limited equipment and bodyweight exercises that can all be done at home.”
He added: “The workouts, which are sent out several times a week are printable too, so it’s flexible for when the staff and students can work out – as we’re all experiencing challenges of long days, inactivity and time-zone differences.
Motivation
“We’re not reinventing the wheel, but simply want to give people ideas and motivation, and keep mental and physical wellbeing up.”
So far, fitness workouts have included 20-minute full body sessions, high intensity interval training (HIIT), a fun ladder living room session and the infamous ‘sally up, sally down’ challenge – requiring a continuation of a single exercise throughout a song.
Other challenges involve following fitness videos on YouTube too, and the department hopes to run some competitions in the near future.
Some students have also benefited from tailored plans – in-depth plans to stick to at home and to suit individual groups – which have been designed by Mr Harrison.
Student Ronnie Tse, 18, who is from Hong Kong, is one of just a handful of Elite Sports students at the Acton Burnell-based college.
He said: “I take part in some of the challenges. The regular emails help to motivate me and remind me to exercise, even when I perhaps don’t feel like it.
"Exercise is really important and it also helps prevent the reoccurrence of my asthma.”
