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Health at home

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Let me introduce myself, my name’s Jack Slater, I’m the Sales and Marketing Executive for The Edge Sports and Fitness Centre.

Instead of the usual sales and marketing shenanigans, I’d like to tell you a little bit about my own story, what health and fitness means to me and why I personally believe in what we do.

The importance of health and exercise

I spend a lot of time encouraging people to exercise, it’s my job after all, but I find a lot of people don’t realise just how important a healthy, active lifestyle really is for both physical and mental wellbeing.

Sometimes we can feel bombarded with messages about sport, gyms, diets and questionable new revolutionary workouts that supposedly help you look like a Greek God in the space of a week. But behind all that, we can lose sight of just why health is so important.

We all like to look our best but what’s more important than anything is feeling our best. Feeling healthy is undoubtedly one of the most important necessities in life and now more than ever, our wellbeing should be at the forefront of our daily activities.

My history

I’ve had a rocky relationship with health and fitness to say the least.

Growing up I was something of a fitness nut, mainly because I was an avid martial arts enthusiast and, in my teen years, I was convinced I’d be the next Bruce Lee. I trained constantly for years, played sports, spent several hours in the gym each week and just loved getting out and being active.

Things carried on this way until my early twenties when I started to struggle with exercise. Initially, dismissing this as the mere consequences of one-too-many pints in my uni years, it soon became apparent it was something more serious as my stamina started to plummet.

Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry, I doubt many people have. One doctor summed it up by saying,

you're extremely fit, just as long as you're not exercising.

Great! Basically, the more I exercise and the harder I push myself, the more my airways constrict.

It seemed I wasn’t destined to be the next Bruce Lee after all. But worse yet, I came to realise just how much I’d taken for granted being able to go out for a nice jog, play football with my mates or push myself to reach a new PB (personal best) at the gym unlaboured.

This wasn’t an easy thing to come to terms with as you might imagine. I guess you could say I was well acquainted with fitness motivation slumps long before Coronavirus reared its ugly head.

Man half way up a climbing wall looking to the camera smiling

Starting at The Edge

Starting work at The Edge a few years later however, it seemed I’d found the perfect opportunity to immerse myself in a health and fitness environment and ultimately drive myself to regain some of my old stamina, fitness and strength.

I started taking advantage of everything The Edge had to offer, the gym, swimming pool, climbing wall, squash courts, exercise classes, you name it.

I even started to pick up my martial arts training again, regularly training with several of The Edge’s personal trainers.

I also made drastic changes to my diet, something I never used to think about much when I was younger. I still have a massive sweet tooth but moderation really is key as my girlfriend regularly reminds me.

I was taking baby steps, sure, but I was starting to feel better in myself and things certainly were looking promising for the first time in so long.

Then came lockdown

So, as you can expect, Coronavirus was a major spanner in the works.

When it became clear just how serious the situation was and that our facility would have to close, I realised that this could be an obstacle not just for myself but for so many of us who would feel lost without guidance and support in our health and fitness routines.

I was determined to make sure that that wouldn’t be the case and I knew that we had a responsibility to ensure everyone had a means of staying fit and healthy throughout lockdown.

Calling on many of the talented members of staff, personal trainers, instructors and wellbeing officers at The Edge, I set about creating our Your Home, Your Move Hub where we could share all the tips and advice at our disposal.

Much of the first lockdown was spent building a collection of on-demand content which people could use at home to help with fitness, health, nutrition and all areas of wellbeing. It was a tremendous effort from our team who managed to turn around a great selection with very short notice.

After this, came the introduction of live, virtual classes to allow our instructors to continue engaging with our community in real-time wherever they may be.

Keeping fit at home

The first lockdown was a strange period for all of us but, using a lot of the advice and instruction from our hub, my girlfriend and I were determined not to let it get the better of us. We managed to find a small patch of grass near to our flat where we regularly exercised together out in the sunshine. Her being a Physical Activity and Wellbeing Officer for Get Out, Get Active also helped as she knew a lot of great walking routes around the city!

Interestingly, the restrictions of lockdown also actually led me to explore a lot of new activities that I hadn’t thought to try before such as Yoga and Pilates.

And again!

After a brief teaser of a potential return to normality, we were, as you know thrust into lockdown yet again. This time however, with winter rolling in, exercising outside was becoming a less appealing option for many people.

Luckily, off the back of our Your Home, Your Move hub, we were able to offer a new and expanded timetable of live fitness classes that people could enjoy in the comfort and warmth of their own home.

Offering our classes out freely to everyone may seem like a strange move. But we realised that during this period, our obligation to supporting the people of Leeds was more important than sales and profits. I’m very proud we’ve been able to do this and I personally have found virtual classes to be a priceless resource.

If you want to try out any of our online classes, you can join or check out our timetable on The Edge website... Come on, I had to throw a little marketing in!

camera filming someone in an exercise studio

The road back

It’s certainly been something of a roller-coaster for me but I’m pleased that like many others, I’ve managed to overcome so many obstacles and challenges.

Now we’re seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and even though running towards it can sometimes feel like running on a treadmill, I know we will all reach it together soon enough. I for one can’t wait to finally get back to The Edge in April and once again tackle my fitness goals head on!

And finally...

In this day and age, many of us are obsessed with the extraordinary and often set unrealistic and impossible standards for ourselves. But I’ve come to realise that fitness isn’t about being better than others but about being the best version of yourself that you can be. If you can do something today that you couldn’t do yesterday, you’re winning.

Many of us have barriers to fitness and sometimes exercise is the last thing we feel like doing, but we never regret it if we push ourselves to do it anyway. The funny thing is, the more you push yourself, the more you find the motivation to push even further in future.

So whether it’s a high-octane fitness class, some light stretches or a steady run/walk outside, let’s all continue our journey towards being healthy and active. Because to have good physical and mental wellbeing is to be happy and content. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what we all strive for?

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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

We use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide our activity. Our work on health and wellbeing is linked to the following SDGs:

      • Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
      • Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Find out more about our impact on the SDGs.