Workout Weekly August 18

WEEKLY

Issue 148 - 18 August 2023

YOUR REGULAR ONLINE UPDATE FOR THE UK FITNESS SCENE

Everyone Active extends Sport for Confidence contract in Hornchurch – page 3

Alliance Leisure completes £3.5m redevelopment of leisure centre – page 4

Everyone Active extends Sport for Confidence contract in Hornchurch

HORNCHURCH residents living with a disability or long-term health condition will be able to continue to maintain an active lifestyle, thanks to the continued delivery of the Sport For Confidence physical activity programme at Harrow Lodge Leisure Centre.

Since its introduction at the centre in 2019, the programme has gained significant momentum.

Each week the programme offers an array of activities from swimming and dance to football and multi-sports, encouraging those who struggle to access mainstream activities to move more, make friends and develop new skills.

Led by occupational therapists and supported by sports coaches, the programme is designed to accommodate the needs of all participants whilst supporting individual health, social and physical goals.

Rob Walker, Sport For Confidence clinical lead and delivery occupational therapist, said: “Sport England’s Active Lives Survey recently revealed that people living with a disability and/ or long-term health condition are half as likely to be active as the rest of the population.

“This is largely due to accessibility and adaptability issues.

“The programme at Harrow Lodge Leisure Centre removes barriers and fosters a safe, welcoming and fully inclusive environment where everyone

can flourish.

“For many participants these sessions are their first ever positive experience of organised sport and physical activity they have encountered.

“Our aim is to encourage a long-term active lifestyle and help participants recognise the positive effect movement can have on their health, happiness and general wellbeing.

“Skills learnt in the sessions such as the development of self-confidence, making and maintaining personal connections, communication, environmental awareness and punctuality, and can also be transferred beyond the field of play and into everyday life.”

Each month, Sport For Confidence is now delivering more than 300 interventions at Harrow Lodge Leisure Centre and the number of participants is growing month on month.

Initially the programme was funded through a National Lottery grant but moving forwards it will become part of the integral service provision of Everyone Active, the specialist leisure management company commissioned by The London Borough of Havering to manage the centre.

In addition to the weekly timetabled sessions at Harrow Lodge Leisure Centre, Sport For Confidence has also established several close community

partnerships which deliver more targeted support.

For example, working with the Havering Memory Service via the NELFT NHS Foundation Trust, Sport For Confidence is supporting people living with dementia through the provision of tailored gym, dance and football sessions.

As well as providing post diagnostic support through the diagnosis memory service, this partnership also provides a space for the families of participants to engage in peer support and respite.

Karen Heilbrunn, contract activities and wellbeing manager, Havering, Everyone Active, added: “It has been fantastic to see this programme develop over the last three to four years.

“Many of the people engaged with the programme have never visited the leisure centre before and now they are regulars.

“Through this programme we are changing behaviours and moving more people towards the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity every week deemed necessary to sustain good health.

“Our ambition moving forwards is to continue to work with Sport For Confidence to grow the programme in line with demand.

“This will ensure everyone has equal access to quality leisure facilities and services and the many benefits an active lifestyle delivers.”

Tech firms join forces to deliver enhanced functionality

DIGITAL gym management software

provider Fisikal has integrated with international powerhouse in instructor cover and internal communication solutions provider NetGym to provide a digital solution that takes all the pain out of team management optimising revenues for operators whilst delivering a seamless experience to customers.

NetGym has a strong foothold in the United States where the majority of its 200 clients are located, whilst also supporting operators in Australia,

Director of Operations: Dominic Musgrave

Tel: 01226 734407 dm@scriptmediagroup.co.uk

Studio manager: Paul Hopkinson ph@scriptmediagroup.co.uk

Assistant studio manager: Scott Firth sf@scriptmediagroup.co.uk

Canada, the UK and the EU.

With more than 1,200 unique venues relying on its solutions, NetGym is fast becoming the go-to provider of digital class cover management and communication, facilitating automated updates to live schedules and two-way communications between managers and instructors.

Add to this Fisikal’s expertise in scheduling management and seamless integration with leading payment and CRM providers and the result is a robust, highly efficient and

advanced solution that drives both efficiencies and revenue generation

Rob Lander, Founder at Fisikal says: “We have always believed that growth and success of our offer lies in collaboration. We know, accept and are proud of our specialism. “Through interoperability with other specialist providers, we can all work together to give our clients the very best possible experience. This is good for us, good for our partners and good for our clients.”

The integration went live in July and

fitness industry leader EōS Fitness is the first gym chain to benefit.

Danny Orlick, founder of NetGym, added: “This alliance with Fisikal will enable us to offer our clients enhanced features within our own platform whilst also giving us access to a whole new network through Fisikal’s client database.

“This collaboration is about providing best in class functionality to operators around the world, from large, multi-site operators to independent boutiques.”

Dyaco UK Ltd appoints Jon Johnston

DYACO UK Ltd has announced the appointment of Jon Johnston as senior vice president of Europe.

The appointment marks a transition from Jon’s nine-month consultation role as UK managing director, enabling him to further oversee and invest in Dyaco UK Ltd’s commercial growth.

www.workoutuk.co.uk

Jon said: “I firmly believe that Dyaco UK Ltd, as a leading brand, possesses tremendous potential in the UK and European market. Especially given the current economic challenges faced by facility operators in the commercial gym, hospitality and education sectors, who require a stable, but innovative and agile equipment partner to overcome these challenges effectively.”

“Having now transitioned into my role as senior vice president of Europe, whilst we expand our European base, my aim is to ensure Dyaco UK Ltd continues

to provide a supportive and seamless experience to facility operators looking to create their ideal fitness facility.”

“It promises to be an exciting couple of months ahead as we look to drive growth and deliver unparalleled value to customers in an increasingly competitive landscape.”

Jon brings 30 years of health and fitness industry experience with

a proven track record of driving significant business growth, including putting Matrix Fitness UK on the map, building it to become one of the country’s fastest-growing commercial fitness companies.

During Jon’s successful tenure, spanning a decade as Matrix’s managing director, he led the company into eight consecutive years of rapid growth taking sales from £3million to more than £40million, where he helped leverage financial strength, logistics and service capabilities to facilitate the expansion of nascent key clients, such as Pure Gym, The Gym Group, Xercise4Less, and later, the public sectors.

Jon’s expertise encompasses transformational leadership, sales development, brand strategy, strategic planning, guerrilla marketing, and customer service.

Jon Johnston

Alliance Leisure completes £3.5m redevelopment of leisure centre

LEISURE development specialist

Alliance Leisure Services has successfully delivered the £3.5m redevelopment of Abbey Leisure Centre on behalf of Durham County Council.

Opened to the public in July, the project forms part of the council’s multi-million-pound Leisure Transformation Programme, which includes the refurbishment of existing sites such as Abbey in order to improve the county’s leisure stock.

Alliance Leisure is delivering a number of projects for the programme, which will introduce a range of new activities and services to help improve health and wellbeing outcomes and sustain the council’s provision into the future.

“Our brief was to review Durham County Council’s leisure estate and develop solutions for centres across the county to meet the needs of each local demographic,” said Sean Nolan,

business development manager at Alliance Leisure.

“Our research showed that Abbey Leisure Centre was not being used to its full potential.

“We therefore proposed to transform the site into a family focussed centre offering facilities for toddlers to teens alongside an expanded health and fitness offer.”

The centre’s four-court sports hall has been converted into a family entertainment area with distinct zones catering for toddlers, juniors and teens.

Attractions include soft play, a trampolining zone and an interactive Tag Active Challenge Arena including vertical obstacle towers that players must climb and descend in the quickest time possible.

Incorporating Tag Active technology, players’ times are recorded and displayed on a leaderboard.

The family entertainment area is

supported by a new cafe, adding a social space to the centre, as well as party rooms.

On the first floor of the building the gym has been relocated and doubled in size.

The existing gym has been converted to a group exercise studio, while the provision of a second studio allows the centre to offer a full programme of group cycling sessions. A new wellbeing suite has been created in one of the centre’s two squash courts.

Offering specialist power assisted equipment from Innerva, the suite will provide a unique exercise and rehabilitation solution ideal for older adults, people suffering from long term health conditions, and those recovering from injury or returning to exercise.

It is hoped the new suite will help people to become more active, improve their overall health and even

act as a stepping stone into wider leisure facilities.

The changing areas and sauna have also been refurbished as part of the project.

The project was delivered via the UK Leisure Framework, which is managed by Denbighshire Leisure LTD, with ISG as principal build contractor, Axiom as project manager and GT3 as architect for the scheme.

Craig Savage, Alliance Leisure Framework lead, ISG added: “It’s rewarding to work on projects where we are able to give leisure facilities a new lease of life, by providing the latest attractions that bring the whole family together.

“We are proud to have played our part in delivering this project and look forward to seeing the centre thrive for years to come.”

Alliance Leisure is currently on site on the redevelopment of Peterlee Leisure Centre.

Applications open for ukactive Board member to help drive commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion

ukactive has opened a new role on its Board for a non-executive director to support its commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion in the physical activity sector.

The successful candidate will provide advice and support for ukactive’s internal and external action plans for EDI as well as helping the sector to address health inequalities in communities.

The new role comes at a pivotal time, with ukactive recently publishing new milestones as part of its Vision 2030 strategy.

The long-term plan aims to get at least five million new users active in members’ facilities, from a greater diversity of backgrounds.

A central part of the strategy is driving positive change within the sector to improve access to physical activity for people from all backgrounds, ages, and abilities.

Mike Farrar, chair of ukactive, said: “We want the physical activity sector

to become the most welcoming sector, with inclusivity at its core. “This non-executive role will support

a key strategic priority for the business, reinforcing our commitment to Vision 2030 and ensuring that physical activity can be accessed and enjoyed by all –something that can improve the lives of millions and support the health of the nation in the process.

“Equal access to healthcare has been a guiding principle throughout my NHS career and this new position on the ukactive Board will ensure that diversity and inclusion runs through every aspect of our industry, organisation and the governance that we provide as a trade body.”

The new Board member will have a pivotal role in aligning ukactive’s inclusion programme, which includes: n Everyone Can, a programme that aims to narrow the disparities facing disabled people within the physical activity sector.

n The collaboration with This Girl Can, an initiative helping to engage more women and girls in physical activity and

creating safer spaces for them to be active.

n Life In Our Years, a programme that identifies what over-55s want from the fitness and leisure sector with recommended steps to promote their participation.

n And the musculoskeletal health hubs, a pioneering programme transforming leisure centres and facilities into health hubs for those with MSK conditions. ukactive is looking for an individual with expertise in inequality (including trends, developments in UK-based inequality and the impact of physical activity on health inequality), and an understanding of what it takes to make physical activity more accessible to under-represented groups and communities.

Strong leadership skills, with experience in providing strong governance and constructive challenge, are also key requirements for the role. Applications will close on August 31.

Mike Farrar

The top 10 worst UK cities for fitness enthusiasts revealed

DERRY has been named the worst city in the UK for fitness enthusiasts, according to new research.

Sports nutrition experts at Bulk. com analysed eight factors they felt contribute to a city being attractive to fitness fanatics and scored the 62 most populated UK cities out of 100 to create their Fitness Index.

A spokesperson for Bulk.com said: “This data offers a fascinating insight into the UK cities with the lowest number of amenities suited to a healthy lifestyle.

“It may come as a surprise that Birmingham is on the list of cities least suited to a healthy lifestyle, especially considering its size.

“However, closer examination reveals that it offers the lowest proportion of gyms to its population size.

“It is important to note that many factors contribute to overall fitness, but having access to a variety of fitness facilities is undoubtedly a great starting point for anyone looking to embark on a fitness journey.”

The factors analysed within the index included the number of gyms, healthy restaurants according to Tripadvisor, pools, and CrossFit facilities, as well as hiking, jogging, road cycling, and mountain bike routes relative to the population size of each city.

Derry ranked as the worst city for fitness enthusiasts with a Fitness Index

Score of 14.12 out of 100 across the eight examined factors.

Derry was found to offer the lowest number of road cycling routes (11),

jogging routes (22) and hiking routes (13) per 100,000 residents.

It also had no CrossFit facilities and low numbers of gyms and pools, with one pool and 26 gyms per 100,000 residents.

Scoring 26.46 out of 100, Bradford ranked as the second-worst UK city for fitness enthusiasts.

It was found to offer 10 gyms per 100,000 residents, the fourth-lowest figure of all UK cities.

Bradford also offers 23 jogging routes and 23 hiking routes per 100,000 residents, the third-lowest city for hiking routes and the second-lowest city for jogging routes.

Wolverhampton was found to be the third-worst city for fitness enthusiasts in

the UK, with a score of 28.42 out of 100.

The city has 14 hiking routes per 100,000 residents, the second lowest in the UK. It has no CrossFit facilities.

Doncaster is fourth on the list, scoring 30.52 out of 100 across the eight factors.

The city has 3.89 healthy restaurants per 100,000 residents, the second-lowest number of healthy restaurants relative to its population of any city in the UK.

Doncaster also has 25.27 hiking routes per 100,000 people, ranking fifth-lowest for this factor.

Sunderland ranked as the fifth worst city for fitness enthusiasts in the UK, with a Fitness Index Score of 34.06 out of 100.

The city has the second lowest number of pools relative to its population of any

city in the UK, with less than one pool per 100,000 residents.

It also has 36 hiking routes and 49 road cycling per 100,000 residents, ranking fifth-worst for both factors.

Wakefield ranked sixth, with a Fitness Index Score of 34.25. It has the lowest number of pools per capita of any UK city with one pool. It also has 11 gyms per 100,000 residents.

Peterborough ranked seventh with a score of 34.56 out of 100. The city was found to offer two pools, four healthy restaurants, 195 road cycling routes, 13 mountain biking routes, and 10 gyms per 100,000 residents.

With a score of 36.17 out of 100, Dundee ranks as the eighth-worst city for fitness enthusiasts.

The city offers 93 road cycling routes, six mountain biking routes, two pools and six healthy restaurants per 100,000 residents.

Birmingham ranked as the ninthworst city overall for fitness enthusiasts, scoring 36.23 out of 100.

The city has the lowest number of gyms relative to its population, with nine gyms per 100,000 residents.

It also has a relatively low number of healthy restaurants, pools and CrossFit facilities.

Southend-on-Sea is the 10th-worst UK city for fitness enthusiasts, scoring 38.14 out of 100.

The city has two pools and 20 gyms per 100,000 residents. It also has eight mountain biking routes and 18 healthy restaurants per 100,000 people.

Operator delivers more than 87,000 lessons to support Drowning Prevention Week

THE Royal Life Saving Society UK’s Drowning Prevention Week 2023, which took place from June 17-24, was considered the biggest and most successful yet, with an estimated 1.85million children learning lifesaving skills from water safety education during the week, which included more than 1.3 million lessons that were delivered at leisure centres or by leisure centre staff. One leisure operator that got fully behind the campaign was Parkwood Leisure, who manage more than 90 venues on behalf of public and private sector partners throughout England and Wales.

Throughout the week their staff were busy visiting schools and local community groups, sharing water safety skills during their timetabled swimming lessons and delivering water safety workshops to the general public.

A range of activities for customers were also organised including colouring competitions, CPR demonstrations, distributed water safety activity sheets and created informative displays in their reception areas, as well as sharing water safety messages across their social media channels.

In total, across all their sites during the

week’s activities they delivered water safety lessons to more than 87,000 children.

Alex Godfrey, operations director at Parkwood Leisure, said: “As a leading leisure operator it is our responsibility to support Drowning Prevention Week by creating as much awareness as possible about water safety.

“Our Learn to Swim programme prioritises survival techniques in water

and we run The RLSS Rookie to Lifeguard programme which we hope plays significant roles in minimising drowning incidents across the UK.

“I am proud of what our teams have achieved for Drowning Prevention Week this year and we’ll continue to support our partners, The RLSS, in future campaigns.”

Drowning Prevention Week is the RLSS UK’s flagship awareness campaign and

is designed to support everybody across the UK and Ireland to enjoy water safely by sharing the skills and knowledge to make the right decisions about water safety, and make memories that will last a lifetime, for all the right reasons.

Jo Talbot, commercial director at RLSS UK, added: “We are delighted that the leisure industry got behind the RLSS UK’s Drowning Prevention Week campaign, especially at the moment when the industry is facing so many challenges themselves.

“Leisure centres, swimming pools and swimming lessons are critical in ensuring that all, but especially the next generation, are educated in water safety so that they have the knowledge and skills to enjoy water safely.

“It’s great to hear about Parkwood’s commitment to the campaign and we would like to thank all leisure operators for their efforts during Drowning Prevention Week to get these vital messages to their customers as their support is vital to making the campaign a success.”

To learn more about Drowning Prevention Week or tips on how to stay safe this summer visit www.rlss.org.uk/ water-safety-information

NOMINATION FORM

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Supporting information must be sent to via email to events@scriptmedia.co.uk (tick if evidence sent)

Please see overleaf for the rest of the form

Please return to: Megan Prince, Script Events, Script Media Group LTD, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS

NOMINATION FORM

Please state, in 300 words or less, why you are entering the category indicated and why you think that your gym/centre/individual should be shortlisted:

Please see overleaf for the rest of the form

Please return to: Megan Prince, Script Events, Script Media Group LTD, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS