Burnden Park amazing Fitness Academy!

I have been a member of Pure Gym, and then thanks to my work colleagues and my ideas, I talked with Neil that helping our candidates and staff to join a gym will be good for our health and well-being, since a lot of us don't like training on our own, and some like training as part of a group because it provides a cohesive environment and sometimes you don't feel as alone.

It is also well known that people with unique abilities are more likely than those who don't, to have mental health struggles. (See previous blogs.) Thanks to all of us talking, Neil found Burnden Park Fitness Academy, which is just across the road from our office.

I had my first session at Burnden Park Fitness Academy with Mo, the PT yesterday, and all of us were thrilled at my progress! It was a learning curve for my support worker, Mo, and myself. He's never worked with a deafblind person before, so he had to be quite tactile, and I had to feel what he and my support worker were doing with their feet and or arms so I could do exercises safely and to the best of my potential.

Mo also devised a simple yet brilliant idea of me doing squats safely. He put a plate on the floor for each foot and suggested my heel was placed on the plates, one plate for the left heel and one for the right. In conjunction with counting, 2 seconds for going down the squat, and 1 second as I rose, this worked really well. Also, he visually checked my posture and stance too.

Mo has been working as a trainer for 3 years and me being me, I asked, "What was his inspiration about being in his role?" He said that he could often see the motivation that some people actually want to be fitter, though sometimes he has to encourage others to be fitter. Why he has to encourage others to be fitter is a mystery to me because I just find it as normal as breathing, fitter mind, fitter body, though I can understand that if a person is in a dark place mentally, it can be hard to lift themselves up both physically and mentally.

We also did the chest weight. I started with 15 KG. He told me to imagine I had a pencil between my shoulder blades, to keep the rest of my body still and just use my arms, and just pull the bar until I can pull it to my tummy. He was very impressed because not many people can pull a 15 KG weight when they just start the press. I did 3 sets of 10, though I thought I'd do one better on the leg press by doing a cheeky 4^th set, though loved it and felt the burn!

We aim to continue sessions on alternate weeks at Burnden Park Fitness Academy, Mo is an inspirational PT as do all of them there. They can't do enough for us. We love the gym and fitness, and what is better than having a fitter mind and a fitter body.

During the training, Mo asked about my diet and exercise. I love Avocado, it is a belting source of healthy fat with all sorts of vitamins, and I have my five a day, eat seeds and berries with my cereal every morning, and drink a probiotic every morning too. Margot my daughter and I have a multivitamin too.

Having a healthy mind and healthy body feels so good, if you can't go to the gym and are able walking is a great way to be healthier. Even if you’re cleaning or ironing, you can also do some squats, and if you have some tins in a cupboard, you can use them as little hand weights and use them that way together with funky music.

We hope this has given you some interesting reading folks, and we’d love to hear your feedback!