A successful Sheffield fitness scheme aimed at getting sufferers of coronary heart disease and diabetes to improve their health has been rewarded with a £12,000 grant from Sheffield City Council to carry on its good work.
Concord Sports Centre ran the 12 month fitness project for patients on the centre’s GP referral scheme and offered participants free swimming, five free sessions in the gym, free fitness classes, use of the health suite and free personal training sessions.
The scheme, run at the Shiregreen Lane centre, proved such a huge success it has now received the funding from the council to allow it to continue.
Dave Birds, fitness specialist at the Sheffield International Venues (SIV) managed facility, said: “Projects of this nature are a great way of showing that health can be improved greatly through a simple fitness programme.
“When the participants began the programme they took part in fitness tests and after 12 months a repeat test showed a huge amount of improvement. All the participants had reduced blood pressure, body fat measurements and had lost body weight.”
The average weight loss was 12.48 pounds, the average body fat measurement was reduced by 4.5 per cent and the average waist measurement was reduced by three inches.
Out of 67 patients that were recruited onto the scheme, 62 successfully completed the project and reached the desired weight loss and fitness targets set by Sheffield City Council.
The initiative has had a lasting affect on the participants – all are still active in the sports centre, either through taking out gym memberships or attending fitness classes and swimming sessions.
Dave added: “The fact that all participants are still attending the centre shows that they see what they have achieved as extremely valuable. This shows that the project was worthwhile and a complete success.”
The GP referral scheme has been running at Concord Sports Centre since 2005 and has so far seen more than 400 patients enrol. The scheme focuses on patients’ conditions and provides them with training goals to achieve over a period of time.
For more information on this scheme call 0114 257 0053 or visit www.concordsportscentre.co.uk
