Community exercise
It is recognised that exercise benefits people living with chronic disease. The CRF at St James's Hospital exercise physiology suite is used by research studies examining the role of exercise training for patients with chronic disease. These exercise trials support patients to exercise during structured supervised exercise classes and encourage participants to exercise in their local community. Community gyms are an ideal location for participants to continue exercising however many patients lack the confidence to attend gyms and are often unsure if gym instructors have the necessary training to supervise their exercise.
This research programme aims to enable patients who are participating in exercise training programmes to exercise locally by addressing patient-reported barriers to exercise in the community. Our training programme will be designed to address two main issues. Firstly, patients who participate on exercise trials at the CRF will identify local gyms and exercise facilities and asked to identify any barriers or concerns that they have that would prevent them engaging with these facilities. Secondly, gym instructors will be surveyed to identify their concerns about supervising exercise programmes for patients with chronic disease.
Following instructor training, patients will be introduced to their local gym and provided with four months'gym membership to enable them to transition to community facilities. It is hoped that this project will enable gyms to become illness friendly and welcoming to patients with chronic conditions.
- Award Date
- 28 September 2017
- Award Value
- €58849
- Principal Investigator
- Professor Michael Gill
- Host Institution
- Trinity College Dublin
- Scheme
- Knowledge Exchange and Dissemination Scheme