HEALTH AND FITNESS
FEBRUARY - MARCH 2025
1. Health tip:
Small steps beat quick fixes
WELCOME TO 2025!
Serina Health & Fitness Manager
The new year is a time for fresh starts and bold decisions but also a time to slow down and think critically. In a world full of quick fixes and flashy promises, taking a step back to assess our choices - whether for personal training, healthy eating, personal growth, or swimming lessons— it’s more important than ever. Let’s explore some ways to start the year thoughtfully and with good intentions.
The new year often comes with the temptation to make drastic changes, but sustainable progress comes from small, consistent steps, not shortcuts. For example, instead of crash dieting, focus on building healthy habits like eating more whole foods or preparing meals at home. These changes take longer to show results but are far less likely to come with hidden costs.
2. Personal development thought:
Make thoughtful choices
The start of the year is about setting out your intentions, but it’s also a time for reflection. Instead of rushing to adopt the latest trend or gadget, ask yourself: Does this serve my long-term goals? For example, instead of spending on a quick-fix productivity tool, focus on building better daily routines. Thoughtful choices often lead to more meaningful outcomes.
3. What I should change this year:
The value of slowing down
For those who see me around the club, you will witness me walking around at 10mph, I keep being reminded of the importance of slowing down. In a fast-paced world, I should pause to reflect, whether it’s assessing a workplace hazard or deciding on a new habit, taking a moment to evaluate the bigger picture can often lead to better results. So maybe I will only walk at 8mph instead.
Let’s make this year a time of thoughtful actions, safe decisions, and meaningful progress. By focusing on what truly matters, we can set the stage for a strong and successful 2025, whatever that may be.
Solar Panelling
As you will have seen we are currently installing over 440 solar panels around the site. This huge commitment is an effort to become more sustainable and less impacted by the volatile pricing we have seen in recent years. Whilst the panels will not be able to provide all the electricity we need, they will certainly help.
The club has been shortlisted for a national award for our efforts on sustainability following projects we have
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undertaken in 2024. We have worked with the Woodland Trust to increase the native woodland on our land, manage our water resources to ensure we do not use any mains water on the golf course and made significant improvements in the segregation of our waste. None of our waste goes to landfill and we are proud of the significant improvements made in the volume of recycling we complete.
New Equipment
Body Pump Bars
We have now received our new body pump bars with easy-release clips, no more spring collars that are hard to pinch together, these bars are slightly smaller than we currently have, so should feel better to handle.
Ab Mat
We have now purchased an ab mat for the gym. Some of you may be thinking what is an ab mat? It is one of the simplest, yet most effective pieces of equipment ever made. Simply, an ab mat is a board covered with quality foam and vinyl, with a 30-degree sloping arch. The ab mat is designed to help guide and support your core so that you get a full range of motion while performing a sit-up.
The ab mat sits on the base of your spine and the
gentle padding cushions your spine while arching it back, giving you the ability to achieve the perfect form for a sit-up.
The biggest benefit of using an ab mat is that you get a full range of motion. What does that mean? The ab mat allows your spine and pelvis to pivot to optimal levels. That means when you do a crunch/ sit-up you’re utilising the entire group of muscles to contract fully from start to finish.
By performing a full range of motion, you’re also strengthening your entire core. This is especially important because it helps you perform other exercises that directly (or indirectly) involve your core.
If you have ever done a sit-up and feel the tension in your hip flexors, that’s because you have not engaged all your core muscles, or they are not strong enough to perform the exercise, so you start to engage the hip flexors instead. Using an ab mat helps focus the right muscles and activate them during a sit-up, which can alleviate some pressure that’s put on the hip flexors.
Lat Pulldown is Coming Soon
After a few years of the gym users nagging me, we are finally going to get a lat pulldown machine in the gym, which will be supplied by Technogym in the coming months.
R&R Area
The flooring in the R&R area is now completed and you will see less water accumulation towards the back of the benches, as the access water now flows towards the pool gully making the floor a lot drier.
Please can I ask that you put bags in the lockers and do not leave them on the benches or hotbeds, these areas are for all members to use.
A MESSAGE FROM...
Lisa
Hello everyone,
I put out a feedback and suggestion box back in December for the class timetable. We have had a lot of feedback and would like to thank you for all of the suggestions.
While I endeavour to do my best to try and bring some of these suggestions onto the timetable, there are factors that will restrict some of the requests such as instructor availability and time slot availability on the timetable.
I have however already taken some of your suggestions and implemented new classes, including Burn, Blitz and a lunchtime spin class onto our timetable.
I am working on putting on an early evening Pilates class and currently looking at studio availability for something a little new, so please look out for future classes.
The waitlist is busy for certain classes at this time of year, and we have made some small changes to the timetable to help relieve the issue. Working from class attendance, we have moved some classes around and reallocated studios one and two to meet the demands of our members.
I will be continuing to monitor the class timetable and the waiting lists to find solutions where possible to help with the demand.
You can help us by cancelling your class and giving us as much notice as possible to help those on the waiting list have the chance to attend. If you are on the waiting list and no longer want to attend the class, please remove yourself from the list to enable someone the opportunity to participate. Do not book the same discipline on the same day, double bookings will be cancelled by us, this will allow someone else the chance to attend the class.
Congratulations to our members who have obtained their platinum status, Christine Bardoe who is running the Brighton marathon this year, Elaine Roles, Alison Middleton, Claire Davis and Steve Norton. Obtaining platinum status is such a big achievement, they have committed to 12 months of continuing to achieve 1300 MEPS points a month.
Ben Phillips is now on his bronze status, but he has a way to catch up with his wife Heather who is heading towards platinum.
I would like to also welcome John, our very own sales executive, who has just started his Myzone journey and has obtained an Iron status.
If you are interested in knowing a bit more about Myzone and how it can help your workout, please speak with a member of the fitness team.
Lynxight, Smarter Pool Safety
After a few years of finding the right product for us we have finally been given the green light to introduce an effective pool safety solution, which will maximise our swimmers’ safety. Lynxight is a company that has been endorsed by the RLSS “Royal Life Saving Society” so we knew it was a good product to invest in.
We have always had lifeguards and over the last few years, we have increased our lifeguard team and introduced a pool emergency response team.
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But now we are taking the safety of our swimmers to the next level by installing AIpowered technology that tracks and monitors our swimmers. It will instantly prevent incident acceleration by alerting our lifeguards and pool responders of potential drownings through realtime data on smartwatches that they will be wearing.
We will have non-intrusive cameras which will be placed around our poolside, collecting data and in the event of an incident it will send an alert straight to the watches, alerting the team of the potential risk and reducing the fatality of a drowning.
This will not replace our team of lifeguards, but it will support our lifeguards with AI-powered technology that will amplify their effectiveness on our poolside.
2025 Rookie Lifeguard Course Dates
Easter Course
£70.50 - Monday 14th – Wednesday 16th April - 16.00 – 17.00
Summer Course
£70.50 - Monday 16th –Wednesday 20th August - 16.00 – 17.00
MEMBERS STORY...
Clair
This year is my 10th anniversary of this illness. All had been going well, great job working in I.T. for a fashion website, was renting a fab place, couldn’t complain but then Encephalitis got me.
Encephalitis is an uncommon but serious condition in which the brain becomes inflamed (swollen). It can be life-threatening and requires urgent treatment in hospital. Anyone can be affected, but the very young and very old are most at risk.
I, thankfully, don’t remember the hospital as I have been told I was very unwell and in a semi-coma for almost a week. When I finally woke my memory was wiped. I didn’t even remember who my parents were.
10 years on, thankfully, my memory is up to about a year before the illness got me, but everything new now tends to live in a daily diary. I try and keep my diary updated throughout the day with what I am doing because, if I leave it until the end of the day, I will have forgotten most of it.
I also need a lot more sleep (if I have a busy day, I try to make sure I have time for a nap). Now I am unable to work I have a weekly routine to keep me busy.
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I now go to the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I was so nervous to start because of my memory being so embarrassingly bad but reception, gym crew and café crew have all been great and helpful and I have benefitted a lot from joining Mondays Young at Heart and Legs Bums and Tums classes.
All the staff at Birchwood Park are and have been wonderful, and I’ve not had to worry about forgetting what I’m meant to be doing because they have always been there for me if needed.
I wanted to share my story with you all and bring to light a condition that not many people have heard of.
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