Real Life Virtual Exercise .....there's no excuse for not keeping fit

Real Life Virtual Exercise … there’s no excuse for not keeping fit!

For many of us in Barrow, sporting activity – especially if you play team games – has stopped since the social distancing measures put in place as a response to Covid-19.  The good news is: some activities are still available – online.  The class may be virtual, but the exercise is real.  You just sign up!

LLS Karate, FAB Fitness and Elevate Yoga are all successfully running online classes which are helping Barrow residents to stay fit and connected, giving an element of structure to our otherwise strange weeks.   When I spoke with the instructors from these village organisations, they all said there has been an added bonus of building a sense of community among the people participating in their online classes.  They have provided an opportunity for people to talk with each other at the end of classes which has helped to stop the sense of isolation that many people are feeling.  The instructors can watch what people are doing and so can help teach good techniques in a safe environment which makes it all much safer and more motivating than buying a DVD to try and follow.

Senseis Danny and Chloe Spence (both 2nd Dans in Shotokan karate) have enjoyed the fact that they have had the opportunity to get to know many of the parents and other family members of students.  Danny says it has helped to develop a real team feeling.  A few parents have started to join in too.  Sensei Danny is also posting classes on YouTube.

Mairi Taylor at FAB Fitness has created an online timetable to mirror her usual week.  People can pay for individual, weekly or monthly classes but one payment can include all the family and she, too, has found spouses and children of her usual clients are having fun learning new things while staying fit and healthy.

Rachel Voss teaches yoga and has found that, for some people who live on their own and who are in lockdown, her classes are the only time in the week that they have been able to ’see’ and talk to anyone.  Some of her regular clients have been able to use her classes as a ‘childminding’ service as children do the class whilst their (usually) mother is on a conference call for work.

Importantly, all these instructors told me that the sense of community has become as important as the class itself – even though that community is reported as stretching across the world as people log on from Barrow to as faraway places as New York!

More information about classes – virtual or real – can be found at: LLS Shotokan Karate: Sensei Danny Spence

https://llskarate.co.uk LLS Karate    LLS Karate