13/01 - January Lockdown Newsletter
To all of our customers and colleagues,
We hope that you have enjoyed a restful holiday period and are entering 2021 with a feeling of positivity and optimism. Regulations for the third UK national lockdown instruct that all non-essential services are required to close. For this reason, Sport and Wellbeing facilities will be closed until these regulations have been lifted. However, there are still plenty of ways and opportunities for you to exercise whilst maintaining rules for social distancing.
As per UK Government advice, outdoor exercise is still permitted, though should be limited to just once per day. You can exercise by yourself, with your household, with your support bubble, with one person from another household, or any further conditions laid out by the previously linked government guidance. Exercise should not be conducted outside of your local area. Furthermore, we can assure customers that our staff are working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that Sport and Wellbeing can continue to offer as many alternative means of exercise as we can, all delivered in a safe and responsible manner.
Please find below a collection of activities and opportunities available to you until we reopen.
Personal Motivation
Personal Motivation classes are back! These sessions will be held virtually, with one-to-one sessions led by a member of our team who will provide you with advice personalised to help you get the most out of your workouts over lockdown. Personal Motivation sessions have begun as of Tuesday the 12th of January and are available weekdays, six times a day. The available times are 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 15:00, and 16:00.
To book, all you need to do is access the UoS Sport app’s homescreen and tap the Personal Motivation tile. You will be presented with a list of dates and times, wherein you will find the one that suits you best. Alternatively, if you do not have the app then you can access your account via Joinin and then make a booking onto a Personal Motivation session on the booking site. These are completely free, and a great way to keep motivated over lockdown. Once you have booked on, please fill out the online form provided in the booking description which will inform our team member of your needs and help them to prepare for your session. Please ensure that your booking is made no later than 24 hours before your session is due to begin, to provide our staff with time to put together your class.
At this current time, we are offering Personal Motivation sessions to University of Southampton students only. Anyone looking to partake must have a minimum of a free Sports Pass on their account in order to be eligible for booking. We also ask customers to make no more than two bookings per week. If you want to know more about what a Personal Motivation class is and how you could look to benefit from one, we have asked a member of our team to provide some insight as to what you can expect from a typical hour-long session:
What is a virtual motivation session?
A Personal Motivation session is an opportunity to talk 1-2-1 with one our qualified fitness staff about your fitness goals and how they can keep you motivated to stay on top of achieving them through lockdown 3.0. Sessions last up to 60 minutes are suitable for all abilities and level/experience with fitness and no equipment is needed for the sessions.
How will they run?
Once you have booked on to a personal motivation session there is a link to a questionnaire, please follow this link and complete the questionnaire as this will give your instructor the best insight into your goals and how it might be best to guide you.
At your online session, your instructor will really want to get to know what your goals, routine, limitations are around health and fitness. This could be - how you want to stay on top of your goals through lockdown or even how to be best prepared to get back into the gyms when they do re-open. From here your instructor will be able to give you specific advice and guidance tailored just for you!
How this could help you?
Back in November 2020 when we first offered personal motivation sessions. A student who was a regular gym user but also played lacrosse came to a session. The instructor was able to advise and demonstrate some more rotational movements to add to their workouts that would improve sport performance.
Your Active Story – New Year, New Stories
During the first lockdown, we introduced the Active Story feature on our website. Customers were encouraged to write a blog of how they have sought to stay active and motivated despite the lockdown restrictions. This feature brought out some inspiring stories from our community, and so with the return to lockdown, we at Sport and Wellbeing would love to return to hearing from all of our customers and followers about your fitness journey throughout the coming weeks.
Anyone whose story is selected and published to our website will receive a free water bottle and a pair of wireless earphones, which are perfect for wearing on the go. To take part, just email your story to us at sportandwellbeing@soton.ac.uk and include a photo of yourself that you would like attached to your article. If your story is successfully chosen, we will get in touch.
Virtual Classes
As before, Sport and Wellbeing continues to promote home-based activity through the presence of regular, scheduled virtual fitness classes. We provide a range fitness classes, from Latin Fusion, to Pilates, to Functional Fitness, all presented by members of our team. These classes are completely free and hosted on our Facebook social media page. There is no pre-requisite to book, all we ask is that you get yourself ready before the session begins and join in as you feel comfortable.
If, for any reason, you find yourself missing out on a session then there are still ways to get involved. All classes will be uploaded onto our Sport and Wellbeing YouTube account shortly after their initial streaming. Alternatively, you can access them via the UoS Sport app, where they can be access through the Fitness on Demand tile. These can be viewed entirely at your leisure, providing you with the opportunity to fit your workout around your lifestyle, all while staying in the comfort of your own home.
Be Active
Sport and Wellbeing’s Be Active programme officially began mid-December of 2020, providing students with an exciting means of getting involved with new sports and activities without fees or pressure of commitment. Though we have had to suspend face-to-face sessions for the time being, our team have strived to ensure that we continue to offer University of Southampton similar opportunities through our virtual sessions. We will be offering three online sessions per week, with various activities including Virtual Table Tennis, Virtual Boxing, and Virtual Badminton all conducted via Microsoft Teams.
As mentioned, all sessions are free without any required membership, and taking an hour’s break from your studies during this stressful exam period could go a long way to helping your wellbeing. To take part, all you will need to do is book onto the session that takes your interest via the form found on our website.
Furthermore, we have also introduced our Be Active Run Club via Strava! If you are unfamiliar with the service, Strava is an app which offers a multitude of benefits to runners of all levels of experience, tracking your time, distance, routes, allowing you to create challenges for yourself, and facilitating communication between other like-minded individuals. The Be Active Run Club invites experienced and aspiring runners alike to take part. We will be hosting regular challenges and competitions over the coming weeks, including prize giveaways. Sign up and enjoy!
RED January
From Sport and Wellbeing and beyond, why not join us in taking part in RED January? RED January is partnered with Sport in Mind, a mental health charity that “uses sport to empower and improve people’s lives”. The goal is to start 2021 with a positive mindset, improving both physical and mental wellbeing with the challenge of staying active at least once per day in a safe and productive manner. There is no strict framework, only what you feel is appropriate for yourself.
All willing participants can get involved in any way that you like, whether it be pushing forwards with a fitness activity you’re already confident in or trying something completely new. The goal is to keep active, putting in a little something every day. And, of course, it doesn’t have to end in January. Once the month is over, feel free to keep going with the momentum you’ve built up from the start of the year.