Neuro Heroes: Three years on
Some of the Neuro physiotherapists in the Neuro Heroes Team
It’s three years to the day since we hosted our first online exercise class. The session was a pilot for six people with Parkinson’s, allowing us to test out some ideas and get feedback from people who were already converts to the joy and importance of exercise - but maybe not online. I was both excited and nervous to see if the dynamic and motivating style I had in my head would be realised over Zoom… I’d laid in bed night after night during early covid days thinking there must be a way to give my clients an opportunity to exercise without seeing them in real life. After that first pilot class and starting one session a week, things changed pretty quickly!
Three years on not much has changed with regards to the values and vision Anna and I shared in those early days. What has evolved hugely is the content in classes, breadth of ability levels we work with and styles of the 17 sessions we now put on each week. We’d always hoped that putting sessions online would allow us to group participants by ability, moving away from the days of people worrying they wouldn’t keep up with others in the room, or being put off by a group that looked and functioned in a very different way to them. And that’s where we are proud to say that Neuro Heroes shines.
We started out with dynamic, high intensity exercise sessions for people with Parkinson’s, but we are so much more than that now! Neuro Heroes has always focussed on a person centred approach (and we were recognised for this with a 2021 Parkinson’s UK Excellence Award), attempting to solve a problem by catering to the needs and wants of our growing community. Demand has led us to now host four seated classes each week, open to people with any neurological condition, which are attended by those with limiting mobility challenges, as well as others recovering from illness, injury or surgery. All our original classes attempted to tick lots of exercise boxes within an hour - now we have some sessions focussed on cardio, functional strength and yoga, to allow people to concentrate on elements of exercise they may not achieve elsewhere in their week.
We passionately stand by our mission to get people moving at an intensity that has a beneficial impact on the health and development of neurons in the brain. With an expert neuro physiotherapist guiding, supporting and motivating this can be achieved at most levels of movement and function, so offering classes for different levels of ability was indisputable. Then came the fun bit…what do we do in each class to keep people on their toes, smiling, challenged and working to their full potential? If you don’t know, it’s time to come and find out!
We had the joy of meeting in real life with some of our growing team of neuro physiotherapists at a study day last week. We all share a common goal to improve people’s movement and well being, and Neuro Heroes classes are one of many ways to support this. Each and every one of the team is a born motivator - logging in to a class is the major step your end, and once you’re there we’ll do our utmost to maximise your time with us by encouraging you to work at the right level for you, energising from afar, lifting spirits and raising heart rates through the power of music, encouragement and careful (some might say sneaky) planning; combining exercises together and working in a multifaceted way. If you want to meet the exercise guidelines for your condition but don’t know how to get there, we promise to build you up and get you going - and we’re confident you’ll feel great for it.
