East London Irish Pensioners’ lively keep fit session
Cuimhne Volunteer Coordinator, Zibiah Loakthar writes,
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East London Irish Pensioners held a further lively keep fit session at Durning Hall, Forest Gate on Thursday 14 June led by fitness instructor Su Davis. Irish in Britain volunteer and Cuimhne Champion Chris O’Reilly does a fantastic job coordinating these activities. He raced back from the seaside in Clacton to join everyone, bringing iced drinks for all.
As a group we had a lot of fun again in our circle with chair–based exercises and free movement and stretching exercises, loosening joints and warming up muscles to great toe–tapping music.
Squeeze ball
In this session, Su introduced squeeze balls to help increase grip strength. These exercises can help with day–to–day activities such as opening jars and can be done anywhere at any time. Squeeze ball exercises can also increase strength and range of motion for people affected by carpal tunnel syndrome or by osteoarthritis.
The next session will be Thursday 12 July and again is open to people of all ages and all levels of fitness. In the group we have people who dance regularly and people with many years of yoga expertise, as well as people who may be trying out exercising again after a very long time.
Su, herself a qualified first aider, is great at making sure that the exercises we do are accessible for everyone. She carefully takes into account any injuries or difficulties balancing or bending and stretching that people may have. If you would like to find out more, please contact East London Irish Pensioners or email champions@irishinbritain.org
Irish in Britain is pleased to be supporting these activities with a special Cuimhne Treasure Chest award. If your organisation is interested to find out how you might be able to develop a similar project within your group please feel free to get in touch.