Keep your mind and body healthy during lockdown, say Penarth personal trainers

By Ellyn Wright

23rd Oct 2020 | Local News

With the fire-break lockdown in place from 6pm tonight in Wales, we're preparing for another two weeks of working from home, essential journeys only and missing our friends and family.

With so much negativity, it's crucial that we take care of our physical and mental well-being.

Penarth Nub News spoke to personal trainers in the town, to find out the benefits of staying active, even if it's in the lounge or backgarden.

John Bruno of Total Training Penarth went online for the first lockdown, and found it so successful it's now an integral part of the business.

Alongside his wife, John hold Pilates and HIIT classes via Zoom, and offer clients personal fitness training via whichever video calling platform they prefer.

"Keeping fit during lockdown is really good for your mental health and it gives a structure to your week," said John.

"Then from a physical point of view, it keeps you fit and healthy, and it's good to have that continuity during lockdown.

"We have about 10-12 people in our Pilates classes and everyone ends up chatting at the end of the class, so it's really good for that social element as well.

"We run a Silver Fit class with physiotherapist Rachel Disley, where the average age is about 75. We lead them in the virtual room with some exercise and then they have a cup of tea and sandwich and chat after.

"Exercise is not just exercise; it covers lots of different things. Social activity, mental health and physical wellbeing is what makes exercise successful. We strive for that in our classes and one on one sessions," said John.

Total Training also offer a video gym: exercise videos that people can do themselves at home in addition to classes.

John also offers mental health advise and is running Pilates introduction courses next week, for anyone new to the exercises.

At the start of lockdown Rae Carpenter left behind a career on S4C to run Live Fit Wales full time with her friend Kath Adams.

Dedicating all her time to running online fitness classes payed off: since they moved to Zoom classes, Rae and Kate have had people join them from as far as Manchester and Glasgow.

In response to the lockdown coming into effect tonight, Live Fit Wales has added to their online programmes.

"Any lockdown during darker months of the year was going to be a very different experience to the lockdown of bright warm days. Mentally, although it's only two weeks at the moment, I think it will be very tough on some and hard for those who maybe haven't struggled previously," said Rae.

"Small business owners will be extremely concerned and my heart really goes out to those who will financially struggle and maybe even see this as the last straw and have to stop trading. We must try our hardest to support whatever online mode these small, local businesses are able to offer.

"We know at LiveFIT Wales/Cymru, exercise is essential to helping good mental health, but in response to today's lockdown announcement, we have decided to add two Yoga and Mindfulness sessions to our timetable per week during the lockdown where people will be able to log on and move their bodies gently and with purpose and also, spend 10 minutes getting mentally centred.

"Sometimes we just need some TLC. Let's hope it's just two weeks and that small local businesses can bounce back again and thrive not just survive with the run up to Christmas," she said.

     

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