Old school gym class nets positive reviews
By Craig Westcott
It kind of has the feel of an old-fashioned high school gym class, but without a Physical Education teacher barking instructions.
According to the Town of Carbonear’s director of recreation, Rob Button, a new program called Adult Open Gym bodes to become fairly popular.
Button said staff have been getting positive feedback from the seven to 12 people who have started showing up for the sessions.
The update led Deputy Mayor Fred Earle to encourage Button to use the platform of last week’s public council meeting “while you have active audience watching us” to share more details and possibly draw more participants.
Button said the sessions are held Wednesday nights at Carbonear Academy.
“It’s a drop in thing,” added Button. “Adults can come and choose what they want to do – it’s participant led. They’ve played badminton, they’ve done some walking, played a little bit of basketball – again it depends on the group that’s there and what they want to do. There’s nothing set in stone as to what we’re going to offer, but we will try to accommodate what the participants wish to do.”
Button said the future of the program looks positive.
“Every week there are new people,” he noted. “So, it seems like it should get a big enough number to keep it growing.”
Button said another program, called One Step Forward, geared towards people with mobility or balance issues, is also growing. It was developed with a physiotherapist from Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services.
“We do a fundamental program where we work on their strength,” Button said. “There are a lot of chair exercises, there is some standing and band work and things.”
Button said some participants have related how before they joined the program, they couldn’t stretch far enough to take a can of soup from the cupboard, or stand at the sink to wash the dishes, and now they can.
The Town has offered the program four times so far and is preparing a fifth session to start this month.
“We take around 20 (people) per session and they’ve all been full,” said Button. “We’ve had some repeat individuals, but we’ve had a majority of new individuals each time. And because of the success, people are looking for more. Now that they can get up and stand up and wash their dishes or reach for a can of soup out of their cupboard, or just getting up and doing their regular activities, they want to continue on and grow stronger, so we’ve tossed ideas around and put a few things together ourselves for a ‘Second Step Forward’ and we’re in contact with the same physiotherapist from NL Health Services and she’s looking at our program. Hopefully, we’re going to offer that soon as a pilot and see how it goes for graduates who went through the One Step (program) and became stronger.”