Last year I caught shingles and I went to the doctor who was very kind, gentle and approachable.  While there I asked to be referred to the National Exercise Referral Scheme. (NERS). My OH and our friendly next door neighbour were both participants each had encouraged me to request that I be referred on it.  This scheme is sponsored by the County Council and lasts 16 weeks.

A similar scheme operates in England lasting 12 weeks. I was assessed on 21 June last year and the trainer stated that what was required by each person was commitment. Initially we had two sessions a week and the choice was between aqua aerobics, a session in the gym and  circuit training. Each session lasts an hour. After the initial sixteen weeks, sometimes longer, we are reassessed and proceed on to Actif4Life.

I started on it with an hour of Circuit Training on 5 July and an hour in the gym. On 3 January I was invited for a further assessment and was given the go-ahead to go on to Fit4Life which my OH was on.  

The gym session is no longer supervised and we attend on Tuesday afternoon unless I have something else on in which case I will go on the Monday. Our Thursdays are earmarked for an hour session of Circuit Training which is a series of exercises after the warm up. We do two sets of the exercises lasting about 3 minutes each, with a break in between the first and second set of exercises. We then have a cooling down period lasting about seven minutes.

A couple of friends have seen the beneficial effects on me from this exercise scheme. It also provides me with a structure to my week. I needed to do something constructive to improve on my fitness.

Orangeblossom

A Moodscope member