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18 March 2021

Active Wellness Scheme: Liv's Story

King's Sport

The Active Wellness Scheme is an initiative to help anyone within the King’s community who suffers from any mental or physical health issues through the use of exercise therapy.

Strand Gym
Strand Gym

I am currently working as a Student Experience Officer in King’s Business School, where I would usually be based in Bush House, Strand campus. Outside of work my interests include fitness and wellbeing, electronic music and education politics.

Regular training at King’s Sport Strand campus gym is a core part of my routine and maintaining good mental health I knew it would be important to stick with this during the social distancing measures.

This is why I signed up to the Move Your Mind programme. I view fitness as a social activity and although I intended to maintain my activity levels whilst the gyms are closed, I knew it would be more mentally challenging whilst being isolated.

Having weekly catch-ups with my MYM coach I felt motivated to continue training as usual and was also able to discuss physical and mental challenges with her.

During this time I was able to set new fitness goals, including long-distance running targets to replace my usual weight training routine, and talk about challenges around nutrition and mental health to keep myself focussed on maintaining a good relationship with food.

My coach was incredibly friendly, approachable and great to speak to about all of this. I achieved a new personal best time for a 5-kilometre run and achieved a new maximum distance of 7 kilometres.

 

The support from my coach has helped me to allow my body enough rest and slowly work my way towards achieving a 10-kilometre distance. I have also reconsidered the importance of recovery time and started practising Body Balance regularly between high-impact training sessions. Working with my coach has made me realise the benefits of focussing on supple strength as well as high-intensity cardio fitness and hypertrophy training.

If anyone has the opportunity to participate in a programme like this whilst the gym is closed during the current situation, I would hugely encourage it.

I think feeling part of a community has a significant impact on our fitness and wellbeing goals, and the motivation to continue to stay mentally and physically well. I would like to say a big thank you to King’s Sport for everything that has been offered throughout the current period, from the Move your Mind programme to the online class access, it has all been extremely helpful.

Find out more about the AWS 1-2-1 Online Coaching programme

The Active Wellness Scheme is an initiative to help anyone within the King’s community who suffers from any mental or physical health issues through the use of exercise therapy.

Click here to find out more, or to sign up.

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