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Online health classes are here to stay

Online classes brought in during the pandemic by High Life Highland will remain in place after a surge in interest, the charity has said.

When health and wellbeing services were placed on an emergency footing, HLH swiftly moved to remote support for people attending the active health programmes.

The online classes have proven to be popular, with numbers rising from pre-pandemic levels, and HLH has decided to keep them going.

HLH Health and Wellbeing Manager Lynn Bauermeister said: “Before the pandemic we had delivered our active health programme face-to-face in our leisure facilities across Highland.

“The online classes proved really popular and have continued to grow and we’re adding classes to the programme to meet demand.”

Remote support initially started with phone calls and emails and progressed to online live interactive classes led by specialist HLH exercise coaches.

The classes include cardiac rehabilitation, Parkinson’s Disease exercise, cancer rehabilitation and falls prevention exercise.

Lynn added: “Evidence shows that even small increases in activity can help to prevent and treat health conditions and improve quality of life.

“The Scottish Government’s health survey in 2020 showed that people who were shielding or who were considered to be more clinically vulnerable, were less likely to be active.

“HLH took a priority focus to support people shielding and to help address the inequalities by offering opportunities for people who have various health conditions to be physically active by exercising safely online.”

Since leisure centres have reopened, face-to-face classes have resumed.

For more information visit www.highlifehighland.org/health-and-wellbeing