
With an empty gym and no sign of the pandemic easing, YMCA Gym Manager Donna Ayre grabbed her smartphone, ventured into the garden and began filming some home workouts. When asked how it felt teaching classes in front of a camera, Donna responded
“It was a little nerve-wracking at first, especially trying to create a professional fitness video with my phone propped on a pile of books. I’m sure the unexpected contributions from my dog and children made things pretty entertaining for the viewers though.”
Since this initial online workout, The whole YMCA gym team have done their bit by recording classes from their living rooms, making them as versatile as possible by encouraging participants to grab tins of vegetables to use as weights and designing workouts that can be done in small spaces.
You can now access a whole host of online videos by visiting www.ymcagym.co.uk/at-home and from Monday, existing gym members can even start booking free one to one sessions. Donna will be going live on Facebook this evening to provide further information on this.
Going Retro
Although modern technology has allowed YMCA Gym to share these fantastic online classes, not everyone can access the internet as easily as others. This became particularly apparent with those who regularly attended the Healthy Hearts classes, so to avoid anyone missing out, the gym team went old school and began burning recordings of the classes onto DVD’s which were then safely hand posted by Donna.
The Healthy Hearts participants were extremely grateful that they could continue joining in with the classes and that YMCA Gym had gone above and beyond to improve their health and wellbeing.
Right now, our staff are giving their time to bring health and wellbeing to the local community.
Please donate here. And help us change the lives of vulnerable young people.

Read more news stories:
Half Term Fun
Our Jarrow youth group has had a busy time lately in the build-up to the end of March (more to come on that later!). During the last half term our youth workers held sessions with our young people, helping them finish off their Covid memorial clay work to be displayed...
RAF Leeming VS Airplay Youth Club
During the February Half Term, our young people from the Airplay Youth Club went head to head against staff from RAF Leeming in an exciting day of challenges. Six teams from various sections of the RAF base, along with SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity, turned up...
Halloween in Teesdale
Our community team successfully delivered the October half-term plan to our families across Teesdale without a hitch. The staff, volunteers, children and parents pulled together and created 3 spookily large puppets and some scarily good pumpkins, which were then...
Jarrow Animates LGBTQ+ Issues
Our popular Central Jarrow Detached Youth Project was successful in securing funds from the Violence Reduction Unit in a bid to create a short animated video on a subject they feel very passionate about…LGBTQ+. Many of the youth group’s participants identify as part...
The Start of Our Free Winter Community Meals
Last Wednesday saw the success of our first Winter Community Meal of the year, with over 19 people in attendance enjoying a big bowl of chilli, followed by cake and custard. The meal was kindly sponsored by Jacqui, owner of Children of the Revolution in Tynemouth who...