HOW OUR LEADERS ARE GETTING ON

LIAM DOYLE

Liam here I hope everyone enjoyed the Christmas celebrations and is ready to start training for Hope and Dream 10 2020. So to get the ball rolling we all done a beep test with Sean in Nolan Health and Fitness and had a 3D body scan done as well. Unfortunately I missed the first gym session with the group due to family commitments. Sean and the lads in the gym have been putting us through our paces with the bootcamp sessions and I’m definitely feeling the aches and pains after them and last Saturday we all met up in Nolan Health and fitness for another session which involved a shuttle run training. The training is tough but you feel so much better in yourself afterwards. Looking forward also to seeing what training routine Kevin has in store for us as well it should be fun.

HELEN RYAN

Happy New Year everyone! We’ve already been working hard over the last few weeks meeting up in Nolan’s gym where Sean has been putting us through our paces. It’s been tough but great to get back training and with the beep tests and body scans we’ve had with Sean we have something to work towards. And I’m looking forward to seeing in a few weeks how far we’ve come!

I hope you are all going to join in the training for the big day in April. Always remember to work to the best of your own ability and to go your own pace.

BERNADETTE BUCKLEY

So we have commenced the initial start of our training for Hope and Dream 2020. Before Christmas we gathered at Nolan Health and Fitness in Enniscorthy.

There we met with Kevin, who will be a driving force in our training, and Sean, the owner of the gym. Sean set up a Bleep Test for us outside to help ascertain what level of fitness each leader is at. I hadn’t been to the gym or ran in several months so was dreading the outcome, however I was happy enough with the results knowing there will be a vast improvement by the time we finish our training.

We also had a 3D scan courtesy of the gym. Sarah, an employee at the gym, completed this for me. It involved standing on a rotating machine in my leggings and sports bra while the technology scanned my fat and muscle mass.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results as I had been expecting much worse...However along came Christmas as did the addition of 5lbs!! The Saturday following Christmas Day we all met at the gym where Sean had devised a programme for us based on the results of our previous fitness test.

My workout included a 2km run on the treadmill, 10 minutes on a machine called Jacob’s Ladder and 1000m on another machine called the Skier.

We also had to do a 5 minute warm up before the main exercise and a cool down following it. The 2km run I found pleasant enough ( I did this at a light pace)...the Jacob’s Ladder however was another story! This machine is basically a ladder which is at an angle and you climb it using your arms and legs. It rotates based on your movements.

I found this really tough so at moments when I felt it was really difficult I would take a 20 second break and then continue. As hard as it was I did not want to let it beat me and was delighted to have completed the full 10 mins without wasting too much time.

Then it was onto The Skier. I didn’t find this too strenuous once I got the hang of the fact that your body moves as if you are actually ski-ing.

You pull two handles using your hands to each side of your body whilst squatting. Again I kept the pace quite light as it is the start of our training...and I was bet from Jacob’s Ladder!! The following Saturday we had another session at the gym. Sean set up a course for us using cones and informed us we were doing Shuttle Runs.

This is similar in structure to a Bleep Test however the 3 cones you had to run to were at different distances so you would have a starting point, run to the first cone, back to starting point, run to second cone, back to starting point, run to third cone and back to starting point.

This was counted as one “go” and you would then tag the person you were partnered with to do the same thing, and when they completed they tagged you and you did it again and so forth. We did 20 of these each. Coming up to the 18th go I could feel a stitch coming on but I battled through and it disappeared. Once this was completed we had to run three laps of the outside of the building and then cool down. I enjoyed this exercise, I felt I could keep the momentum going as each person had a few seconds to catch their breath when their partner was tagged in. As I am writing this it is currently the 7th of January and I believe the programme is about to take off in regards to running, nutritional advice etc.

I’m very pleased I trained in the gym over Christmas as it is the one time of year I am generally at my laziest. Sean is very good at keeping you motivated so I am looking forward to what is to come.