Futures Life Skills Centre at Chailey Heritage Foundation houses a gym unlike many, if any, other in terms of accessibility and inclusivity. With so many people trying to get fitter this January, we’ve asked them to explain what goes into making their gym so special:
This time of year many of us struggle to stick to health and fitness promises we made for ourselves when the New Year midnight bells chimed. For some, those promises will slip by the wayside and old habits will return, leaving health and fitness levels just as they were for the previous year. Excuses can be inevitable. Comments such as “I just haven’t had time to go to the gym!” will be heard across the land as the year progresses, and so, the cycle continues…
But what about those with a legitimate excuse? For anyone who spends much of their time in a wheelchair, getting to the gym for a workout can be an impossible task, sometimes due to general access issues, but, even if a building is wheelchair-accessible, your average gym equipment isn’t designed for wheelchair-users. Health and fitness can be just as important to a wheelchair-user, yet this is one client group that, some might say, is neglected when it comes to accessible fitness equipment and well-being facilities.
One organisation in East Sussex seems to have come up with a solution. Registered charity, Chailey Heritage Foundation, has recently opened a state-of-the-art leisure and life skills facility, offering activities not readily available to people with disabilities elsewhere in the local community, including a fully accessible gym and spa. It’s called Futures Life Skills Centre and was officially opened last summer by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. The Centre was created, primarily, to offer support and day facilities to young people with physical disabilities in their transition to adulthood, but older people are welcome to visit. It operates on a pay-as-you-use basis.
Accessibility of the Centre’s gym goes far beyond the wide, automatic doors at the entrance. Gym equipment includes an exercise-roller for wheelchair users, a total body exerciser, an elliptical walker, a recumbent stepper and other fitness products, many of which can either be accessed via electronic hoist or the seating can be removed to allow use from within a wheelchair.
One particularly special piece of equipment is the ‘Thera Trainer’, a combined ‘active’ and ‘passive’ machine which can work both the upper and lower body for someone without the strength or muscle tone to actively push against a foot peddle or arm rest for themselves. In essence, the motor on this machine can create movement for users, meaning their lower or upper body will be taken through the motions to allow exercise of the relevant muscles.
All of the adaptable equipment at the Life Skills Centre gym has been carefully selected with disability in mind, to help users improve such things as circulation, muscle strength, flexibility, stamina levels and more.
Using the latest ’fit-key’ technology, the Gym Instructor can design a programme to suit an individual’s needs. Each user receives their own ‘fit-key’, a special memory stick, to be inserted into relevant machinery to instantly recognise the personal programme created for them, each time they visit.
There are also fun circuit-training classes to help develop or improve motor skills, build strength and improve stamina.
Using a gym for the first time can be daunting for anyone, irrespective of ability. Futures Life Skills Centre offers a relaxed, safe environment and all new gym customers attend a registration meeting with a qualified physiotherapist, so that, when they come to attend gym sessions, they can relax in the knowledge that their abilities, limitations and special needs are fully understood by the qualified gym staff, and they can work towards their required fitness goals with confidence.
What’s more, if a person’s gym visits are for reasons of physiotherapy or rehabilitation, a physiotherapist may work directly with them to meet their health goals.
If all of these ground-breaking, accessible gym facilities aren’t enough, the Life Skills Centre also offers a specially adapted spa bath and sauna, enabling customers with physical disabilities to enjoy the same relaxation and therapeutic effects as able-bodied people who visit their own health spa. For many, it’s a great way to help relieve chronic pain, muscular aches and stress.
Having undergone the initial registration meeting, as with the gym, first-time spa and sauna customers can relax in the knowledge that their needs are fully understood by the staff.
Some regular customers opt for the combined gym and spa memberships which start at £60 per month. Alternatively, individual session prices are usually between £10 and £20, with the added bonus of free access to the spa and sauna for the customer’s accompanying carer, and additional family members are allowed to enjoy a joint relaxation spa session for half the normal fee.
Add to this the accessible café on the premises where customers can linger for a drink, snack, full lunch or afternoon tea, and you have the perfect trip out to a beautiful location in rural Sussex. Chailey Heritage Foundation’s 18 acre site is set in the heart of a beautiful nature reserve with views of the South Downs, and parking is free.
So, for anyone with a physical disability within easy travelling distance of the charity’s new Life Skills Centre, the New Year offers one less excuse. If you fancy a no-obligation look around the state-of-the-art facilities, ring 01825 723723 or email futureslifeskills@chs.org.uk
It could lead to a turning point for your fitness and well-being for this year and for the future!
For more details see their website ( www.futureschailey.org.uk )or connect with them on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/FuturesChaileyHeritage ).
Futures Life Skills Centre also plays host to an accessible ICT Suite, Arts & Crafts Facilities, a Living Skills room with a state-of-the art kitchen for cookery training and more. It all sounds brilliant and well worth checking out for anyone in the area.
If anyone knows of any similar gyms elsewhere in the country please get in touch!