Welcome to the Beeston 2 Minute Exercise Club, where you will have the opportunity to learn and practice 8–10 simple lower and upper body exercises, all 2 minutes long, or less if you choose.
THE CLUB’S VENUE AND TIME HAS TO BE CONFIRMED. I AIM TO START FEBRUARY 2020.
The club is based on NHS rehab exercise programmes for people with lung support needs I attended in the autumn 2019 and very similar to a NHS heart rehab exercise group I attended in 2017. The programme is suitable for most people and you get to go at a pace which suits you. Some come for support in maintaining their fitness, others to improve their fitness in some way. The great thing is that nearly everyone will benefit in some way.
The provisional programme consists of the following 10x2 minute exercises (at the Club you will learn the purpose of each exercise and its potential benefits and be given postcard size exercise cards):
1. Standing, facing a wall, bend and straighten your arms using your elbows.
2. Bouncing a ball against a wall using both hands.
3. Marching on the spot, raising your knees as high as is comfortable.
4. In a sitting or standing position, holding a .5kg or 1kg handweight in each hand, bend each arm back and forth against your body.
5. In a sitting or standing position, clasp your arms on your chest or place one on top of the other in front of you, twist your body trunk first to the left, then to right and repeat for the full 2 minutes or as long as you can.
6. Step up and down using a platform, which looks like a stair tread, using a chair on each side as grab rails, just in case you lose your balance for some reason.
7. In a sitting or standing position, holding a .5kg or 1kg handweight in each hand, punch out from or chest from the left, then the right and repeat for the full to minutes or as long as you can.
8. In a sitting or standing position, push your shoulder and arm down to the left, back up and then to the right and back up again and repeat, letting your arms and hands hang straight down.
9. Sit on a chair, then stand, getting your legs as straight as you can, before sitting down, then repeat. This exercise comes with a caution. The moment you feel any discomfort on your knees STOP.
10. Walk for 10 minutes at a pace which you find comfortable. Whether or not this is possible depends on the exercise room (at home I use my hall and living room along which I can do 17–18 steps in each direction).
I prefer to sit where that is an option.
Each session will begin and end with a gentle 'warming-up' and 'cooling down' exercises.
At the end of the day everyone who comes along will know why they are doing what they do and will come to do these simple exercises as long as they can. To call them 'life transforming' is not an overstatement once you understand that they are, at best, of modest intent, with no purpose other than to make the our personal fitness and wellbeing such that we will notice.
NOTE: I call the above exercise programme 'provisional' because it is based on my experience of heart and lung rehab in 2017 and 2019 and I will not start until I have run through the programme with, preferably, a NHS professional, who will join Beeston 2 Minute Exercise Club sessions at least once a month to monitor that the Club is managing its exercise programme correctly. I also hope the monthly visit will be accompanied by a topical talk/presentation followed by a question and answer session.
This is why, initially at least, I am allowing 90 minutes for each exercise club session. 60 minutes for the exercises, including short breaks between each one, and 30 minutes for open discussion among those attending which will draw on the experiences of all those present and draw attention to topics we might like to discuss.
Above all this is about giving ourselves the confidence to help one another when it comes to exercise and personal wellbeing. No one should be excluded from support because it is difficult to access or is too expensive when, with a little help, we can do some things for ourselves — hence my attempt to found the Beeston 2 Minute Exercise Club.
Now I'm looking forward to the challenge, believing that the 2 Minute Exercise Club will be qualitatively different because it will be open, encouraging, supportive and, above all, something those who attend can take home with them.
10–12 of us and I'll be happy, just enough to cover our costs one way or another. The model is simple and builds on a partnership of professionals, the venue provider, volunteers and participants.
COST: Each exercise session will be free so that no one is excluded but there will be the cost of accommodation and, at the very least, some costs for professional support, even if no more than travelling expenses.
I want to keep the charge as low as possible, to ensure no one is excluded, and, if necessary, seek some 3rd party funding.
The Beeston 2 Minute Exercise Club is planning to open in February 2020 and to find a venue with good bus (and tram if possible) connections.
There will be more soon. I will add contact details shortly.
