New gym a smash hit in its first year

IT HAS been 12 months since the new BH Live Active gym opened at Pyramids, Southsea. And city residents have been snapping up the new facilities to help them get active and enjoy better wellbeing.

The team has recorded a successful year, attracting close to 2,000 new members.

And with 70 group exercise classes taking place inside its purpose-built studios every week it’s no surprise there have been more than 120,000 attendances to exercise classes over the last 12 months.

“Pyramids is so much more than a gym. We are a thriving hub at the heart of the community enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities,” said centre manager Sam Roberts.

“We’ve spent a lot of time this year getting out into the community to share the benefits of being regularly active and how we can help those who might not have considered stepping inside our doors before.

“We’ve encouraged customers and staff to take part in fitness challenges who have, through exercise, helped raise much-needed funds and smiles for other local charities including Macmillan, Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK, the British Heart Foundation, Naomi’s House and Jacksplace hospices.”

Over the year the BH Live Active team has supported lots of community events too including the Love Southsea Fitness

Festival, Victorious and Race for Life.

And working with local colleges and education providers, the fitness team is encouraging more young people to get into regular exercise for better physical health and mental well-being.

There are family yoga sessions to promote exercising together.

And for those living with long-term health conditions such as COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), there are lots of guided sessions at Pyramids to help improve health and manage symptoms. There is an exercise referral scheme which offers discounted access and there are classes such as low-impact circuits which gives all the benefits of a challenging exercise routine but without the stress on joints.

Sam added: “To enable more people to use the facilities we have worked closely with the council to get free customer parking for 90 minutes, something which wasn’t available before.

“And we also offer free one-day passes so people can come along and see what we’ve got here and try out a gym session and class.

“We are so proud of what has been achieved this year. Our thanks to our customers who make every day so rewarding, the BH Live team who give care and support to so many people with such enthusiasm, and of course Portsmouth City Council and our community partners, without whom we would not have had such a wonderful facility and encouraging year.”

Pyramids is managed by registered charity BH Live in partnership with Portsmouth City Council.

The new gym facilities were part of a Portsmouth City Council investment to transform the ageing Southsea facilities into a new attraction for community benefit.

Councillor Steve Pitt, Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure, and Economic Development said: “We’re pleased to work in partnership with BH Live to provide the gym facility at Pyramids to support people to live active, healthy lives, in line with our priority to create a happy and healthy city for our residents.”

Over the next 12 months there are plans to grow the facilities and activities at Pyramids further.

BH Live will be launching a new HIIT (high Intensity Interval Training) programme, with new classes in Pyramids’ dedicated HIIT studio.

A new café area with refreshments and hot drinks will open.

And there will be new classes too including Les Mills’ CORE™ and BODYATTACK™, plus more functional fitness and gym classes.