By Victoria Goodwin-Barlow, Belgravia Group Health and Wellbeing Manager
We make many choices in our lives, and one of those is the career path we endeavour upon. We spend a lot of time at work – far more than at home – so of course it’s better that our work has purpose and meaning. Even better still, when it makes a difference to the lives of others. Then, our work becomes a privilege, not a job.
When we see reports showing that 60% of Australians suffer from long-term health conditions and that we rank second in the world for adult male obesity, it’s clear that managing community aquatic centres, gyms, and group exercise studios is not just about offering leisure. It’s about championing preventative health and promoting wellness.
We know that our lifestyle choices – we’ve largely designed physical activity out of our daily lives – are significant contributors to cardio-vascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes and cancer. With fewer than one in ten children meeting activity guidelines, the challenge is clear, and we all know that moving more, eating well and taking care of ourselves can considerably reduce the onset of such disease burden.
That’s where Belgravia Leisure’s health and wellbeing ‘B Active’ approach steps in. The B Active approach has been developed to help counter some of these health statistics that shock us, with a mission to inspire healthier, happier lives. At Belgravia Leisure, we say that it’s more important to understand why 85% of people don’t exercise, rather than understand why 15% do.
The strength of the B Active approach is in its delivery of the things that really matter to our communities, whilst encouraging them to make exercise a habitual part of their lives, especially those that are inactive. It’s about how we encourage our teams to think and feel about health and wellbeing, the way we deliver programs and group exercise and how we interact with our members.
Throughout our venues we aim to inspire both those that are already putting in the work, and those that are just at the beginning of their journey. Starting out on something on your own can be tough, so we strongly encourage our group exercise classes and coming along with friends. Why? Because we know that exercising together encourages members to exercise more frequently, and they keep their membership for longer. In fact, our recent Belgravia Leisure Outcome Measures survey of over two thousand participants revealed that 90% of group exercise participants reported improved mental health, and 75% reported feeling less lonely.
Self-esteem is also a big reason why many people don’t exercise – how many times have we heard the phrase “I’ll join the gym when I’m a little fitter?” We’re trying to challenge the convention that our places are intimidating and that you must do a vigorous workout to meet the ‘standard’. That’s why the B Active approach promotes the idea that ‘Together we move more’. We want to encourage people just to do the something that they think is manageable and works for them – no matter what it is, where it is and for how long, and it’s our job to create an environment that is comfortable and non-judgmental.
That self-esteem can be buoyed by the care, compassion and empathy that each member receives from us, every time they visit. Every interaction counts, whether it’s a front desk, the cleaner in the changing room, the lifeguard around the pool deck or the instructor in the gym or group exercise studio. That’s the opportunity for our team to be ‘Brilliant’, to really show a member that they’re welcomed, and we care that they’re moving in a way that suits them – that’s us making the nation that little bit healthier every single day, and that’s a privilege.
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