Health, Fitness and Exercise students from Forth Valley College are creating virtual exercise classes that staff and students can link into live, to help people keep active at home during the Coronavirus epidemic.
A group of seven first year HNDs from across the Forth Valley area have been filming everything from gentle stretching exercises at home to get people out of their chairs, exercise technique tutorials, to more demanding High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) sessions - either without equipment or with everyday household items to act as weights.
The sessions which are 10 minutes in length each, will be used to help the students complete their units as well as for distribution on the college’s Microsoft Teams Social channel to fellow students and staff.
The Royal Voluntary Service have also expressed an interest in using them to send out to their staff, users and partners. The sessions take place in the students’ homes and allows them to safely work with clients while being supported by their lecturer. These sessions give the students live experience of delivering online which could also form part of a work experience unit.
FVC Lecturer Gordon Manson who took part in the live online session, said: “I’m not a particular active person so was looking for a way to ease myself into gentle exercise. I saw the link on Microsoft Teams Social channel and thought that this would be a great place to start, it was a great way to get active and move after sitting at a desk for few days in the house.”
HND Health, Fitness and Exercise student, Caitlin Callaghan from Denny, said: “It was hard at first not having someone there in person as I prefer hands on. You could still see people and the instructor was able to correct them, but using the class virtually was different.”
Classmate Aileen Jack, from Alloa, said: “The FVC Virtual Fitness class was a good alternative and helped ensure that my technique was right with having the instructor live”
Fellow classmate, Jodie Paterson from Falkirk, added: “It was good to see everyone joining in and exercising. Smaller groups would be good, so that there might be more interaction with everyone. I enjoyed the session.”
Michelle Hamilton, the students’ Lecturer in the Department of Care, Sport and Construction, said: “All our students have stepped up to the plate to try and do something to help in this challenging time. They have all been contacting me about what they could do and they wanted to try this approach to see if it could help people and count towards their own qualifications as well. I am very proud of them all."