Fitness and wellbeing have gone digital during the coronavirus crisis and one North-East company is ready to help.
EVERYBODY has been thinking about cleaning homes and offices recently, but this year it’s not your home that needs a spruce up. Taking care of your mind, as well as your body, is doubly important when the whole country is in partial lockdown.
Psychologists agree that we humans are social animals and isolation is bad for us. Shutting ourselves off from the outside world – as necessary as it is right now – leads to boredom, frustration and loneliness. This is unlike anything many of us have experienced before and it feels strange, confusing and overwhelming.
Throw in fears about your health, your employment and, inevitably, money and you have the perfect recipe for stress.
To stay fit and healthy, the NHS says we should do at least 150 minutes of moderate physical exercise per week. That’s about 20 minutes per day. Easy when you can go for a run after work, or stop by the gym for a workout during your lunch hour; but what happens when you can’t go out?
Our physical health plays a big role in how we feel about ourselves. But when you’re stuck at home with nothing to do it’s all too easy to fall into patterns of behaviour that make you feel worse.
Corporate Personal Wellbeing, the Darlington-based mind and body wellbeing group, has years of experience running bespoke wellbeing classes for corporate clients.
So, when the coronavirus lockdown forced the company to close its fitness studio and micro-spa at Darlington’s Business Central last month, CPF put its expertise to good use by remodelling the business as an online provider of fitness and wellbeing services. So now its clients can stay away from the gym and workout from home.
And the pivot has been hugely successful. CPF has seen a surge in demand for its online wellbeing videos from clients large and small.
Director Patrick Masheder explains: “We’ve certainly seen an increase in users due to social distancing and self-isolation, especially since the lockdown. People are aware of the need to stay fit and well while they are at home and clearly want to keep their workout and wellbeing regimes.”
CPF has launched a series of wellbeing videos ranging from tips for good posture, workstation set up at home, how to cope with stress, easing isolation, eating the right food and how to exercise right at your desk.
More than 1,000 people have already signed up.
“Corporate clients tell us that it’s a nice way to keep in touch with staff and do something nice for them while we are in this strange situation,” adds Patrick.
Among the most popular online resources are CPF’s wellbeing webinars, hosted by one of its specialists, for groups of up to 20 people.
“People don’t realise how much of a social fix they get from work – until it’s taken away. Webinars are a fantastic way for members of a team to re-connect over the internet while getting together to do something positive.”
Organising teamwork while working from home may be new to many businesses but technology like Teams, Skype and Zoom make it easy to organise virtual meetings. You can even have a 15 minute coffee break.
Team-building during a lockdown increases productivity by reminding people what they are doing and why. “The feedback has been really positive,” says Patrick. “We’ve had loads of emails from people saying how much they appreciate the chance to meet up with their colleagues.”
CPF employs a team of mental health specialists, physiotherapists and fitness trainers. This allows the company to tailor bespoke programmes according to a client’s needs.
“For instance, if a company wants to do something to help staff keep fit we can offer everything from three minute fitness boosts, stretching exercises to a full one-hour workout with a personal trainer,” explains Patrick.
“Our lead sports nutritionist has also drawn up a new programme with loads of good advice about the kind of foods people need to eat in order to boost their immune system. It won’t prevent you from getting the coronavirus, but we all need to do everything we can to give ourselves the best chance of getting over it quickly. Staying fit and eating well are two of the most important things we can do while in isolation.
“All you need is a computer, laptop, tablet or a smartphone and an internet connection.”
And that could be the key to making sure people maintain social distancing until it is safe to go back to work again.
One hundred years ago, when the Spanish flu was wreaking havoc across the world, lengthy lockdowns were impossible to maintain because people had no way to keep in contact with the outside world. After a couple of weeks, they went stir crazy.
But now the internet has become our umbilical to the outside world. As well as a source of entertainment, it is the way we do our work, talk to friends and relatives over video and, now, keep healthy and well. All in the name of staying at home, protecting the NHS and helping to flatten the curve.
And even when the lockdown comes to a complete end it’s unclear how many of us will go back to our old ways. Experience from previous pandemics shows that a change in behaviour is sometimes permanent. So will people flock back to gymnasiums – or will they carry on working out from home? Whatever the outcome, Corporate Personal Wellbeing will be ready with the solution.