Fitness Group

Looking after your own health is essential but it is hard to make time for it. That is why many of us get together in person at local leisure centres and online in a special WhatsApp chat group.

It is so much easier to take those difficult first steps to fitness when you are encouraged by other carers in the same boat. We cheer each other on and share tips and opportunities.

Some of us meet at the Eltham Centre for dance and strength classes on a Tuesday. Others prefer to do their own thing at the gym or at home, then chat about it online.

We are all ages, shapes and sizes and most of us have been putting our own fitness needs second for many years, so we’re taking small consistent steps together. It’s so helpful for our mental health and easy to enjoy.

As a group we have benefitted from schemes targeted to carers such as the recent Royal Borough of Greenwich/Better Leisure “Give it a Go initiative” which gave us exclusive cut-priced gym membership. We also get access to a special carers spa sessions.

Recently, we received RBG funding for some ‘Conqueror Challenges’ which are virtual long distance walks all over the world. Using an app on our phones we complete the route as we go about our daily life, recording steps and marking milestones with virtual postcards which we share online. It’s fun to get a medal at the end! Group activities like these make exercising really manageable and enjoyable.

This year carers in our fitness group have been given an amazing opportunity; each receives a series of ten hour-long sessions with their very own personal trainer. This opportunity for carers to significantly move forward on their fitness and mental health goals has been made possible with a grant from the Greenwich Healthier Communities Fund.,

We keep an eye out all the time for opportunities to pass on to CSG members, as well as developing our own.

Join us and find out more!