Christmas party for Ayrshire College fitness team
Sport and Fitness students at Ayrshire College have been putting older adults through their paces as part of their Be Awesome, Be Active initiative.
A special Christmas party was held for the participants involved in the weekly one-to-one fitness sessions inside Ayrshire College’s gym at the Kilmarnock Campus.
Each week, Ayrshire College students from the HND Fitness course have been delivering a tailored fitness plan to members of the community to ensure they engage in some physical activity. Participants are invited to attend the programme through existing partnerships the College has established with East Ayrshire Council, particularly the Community Health Adult Team (CHAT).
Over the years Ayrshire College has been working with partners to deliver a variety of health, fitness and sport opportunities to thousands of children and adults across Ayrshire as part of its Connecting Communities programme.
The programme is set to re-start after the Christmas break and helps the students complete the Applied Fitness assessment for Specialist Populations and Applied Exercise Prescription units of their course.
Tony Adgent, Sport and Fitness lecturer at Ayrshire College, said: “Participants go through a full health screening and adapted fitness testing before the students create progressive training programmes for them. The participants receive free one to one training, sportswear, water bottles, access to porridge in the morning and soup at lunch time.
“The sessions are designed to improve the participants fitness and by doing this, also their quality of life. The hope is also to provide socialisation, support, and improvements in mental health of the participants throughout the ‘class based’ training sessions.”
John, from Onthank, said: “I got referred here through East Ayrshire Council’s Weigh2Go programme. I’ve got underlying health issues and have bad anxiety and depression, so this was the natural way to get me out of the house and take part in a bit of physical activity. I found it hard before I came here just to step out of my doorstep. Having something to focus on has been brilliant, I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Mo, from Kilmarnock, said: “The students are so friendly and dedicated to helping us. I was really glad when they started this programme up, it’s amazing and I’m looking forward to coming back in January.”
Sophie Dale, CHAT Health Development Officer, said: “The Be Awesome, Be Active Programme has been a brilliant partnership with ourselves and Ayrshire College. This programme came along at a perfect time for us and was a natural progression for our clients from our Weigh2Go programme.
“The instruction from the students was first-class and they had such natural rapport with the adults participating. It was clear to see the sessions were fun and enjoyable with smiles on faces all round. I look forward to being part of the next phase of the programme.”
23 December 2022
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