Tag: PureGym

PureGym partners with Social Bite to break the cycle of homelessness

• Led by PureGym Ambassador Sir Chris Hoy, PureGym is partnering with the Scotland-based charity Social Bite, which aims to raise £1 million to break the cycle of homelessness

• Social Bite’s Break the Cycle fundraising campaign includes a 60-mile cycle from Glasgow to  Edinburgh on Sunday 5th September 2021 as well as a number of other physical challenges. 

PureGym, the UK’s leading gym operator, is proud to be partnering with  Social Bite, a Scotland-based charity that aims to end homelessness through pioneering  employment, food, and housing initiatives, on its Break the Cycle campaign.

Led by 6x Olympic  champion and PureGym Ambassador, Sir Chris Hoy, PureGym’s Scottish gym staff and members will  undertake a number of physical challenges to help Social Bite fundraise £1 million to build two new  villages – and they need your help! 

Homelessness is a growing problem in the UK and the current provision of temporary  accommodation like hostels and B&Bs does not provide suitable, supportive, or cost-effective  environments to enable people to escape the cycle of homelessness. Social Bite’s solution is to bring  vacant land back into use by creating community villages with prefabricated housing and a  community hub.

The charity also invests in providing tailored support to upskill residents and  provide them with opportunities that enable them to sustain their own secure tenancies.

The first Social Bite Village was launched in Granton in 2018 and the charity has recently launched  a campaign, in partnership with PureGym and Sir Chris Hoy, to help build two more Social Bite  Villages, which are planned to be in Glasgow and London. PureGym will be supporting Social Bite’s  Break The Cycle fundraising campaign in three key ways:  

• Setting off from the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, supporters will cycle a challenging  60-mile route with Sir Chris Hoy across Scotland’s central belt, crossing the finish line in  Edinburgh – near to the flagship Social Bite Village in Granton. PureGym has built a team of  riders from across all of its Scottish gyms and is encouraging anybody to sign up to join the  team with an exclusive discount code[1]. 

• Supporters can take part in 60-minute charity spin classes every Thursday throughout  August in PureGym’s Scottish clubs[2]. 

• PureGym will be hosting a continuous 24 hour ‘spinathon’ on Wednesday 25 August,  involving gym staff in three of PureGym’s Scottish clubs[3]. 

For anyone not in Scotland, supporters can join the official Break the Cycle virtual challenge or do a  virtual challenge of their choice. Whether it’s being sponsored for 60 miles or 60 minutes of exercise it doesn’t matter – all of the money raised will contribute to Social Bite’s efforts to break the cycle of  homelessness.  

Sir Chris Hoy, PureGym Ambassador and Scotland’s 6x Olympic champion, said:  “The pandemic has exacerbated the already severe problem of homelessness across the UK, whilst  also demonstrating the importance of exercise in protecting the nation’s physical and mental  wellbeing.

“I can’t think of a better charitable campaign to support than Social Bite’s Break the Cycle campaign, which will raise funds to help rebuild people’s lives, whilst also improving the health and  fitness of the nation. We are looking for people across the UK to join in the fight, whether you’re  cycling 60 miles or doing 60 minutes of exercise at home you can help us to break the cycle of  homelessness.” 

Josh Littlejohn MBE, Social Bite co-Founder, said: “We are really excited to be teaming up with  PureGym. The amazing support of their clubs, colleagues and members will help make two new  Social Bite Villages a reality.  

“Since opening the first Village in Edinburgh, 39 people have been helped with a home and support  through the project.  

“The money we raise from our Break the Cycle fundraising campaign will enable us to develop  communities that will have a transformative impact on people’s lives in two more cities. 

We’re so grateful to everyone taking on a challenge – every effort you make and every penny you  raise will be helping someone break the cycle of homelessness. Thank you.”

Gyms reopen in Scotland

Gyms, swimming pools and indoor sports courts can reopen from today in Scotland, two weeks earlier than originally planned.

A spokesperson for PureGym said: “We are delighted to be opening our 25 gyms in Scotland today and welcoming back hundreds and thousands of members who want to get back to working out.

“Better health and fitness is an important contributor in the fight against Covid-19. The safety of our members is our number one priority and so we have significantly enhanced our cleaning and safety standards in our gyms, in close consultation with medical experts, to ensure that they are safe places to work and safe places to workout.

“All gyms have sanitisation stations, contact-free entry and rigorous overnight deep cleaning and we’ve received highly positive feedback on cleanliness from our members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who have already returned for millions of gyms visits without incident.”

You can find information about PureGym’s safety measures for re-opening here, and pictures of what the gyms will look like here.

Health experts have encouraged the public to take more exercise during the Coronavirus pandemic. Excess weight puts people at greater risk of serious illness or deth from COVID-19.

Lucie Bennett, Chief Nutritionist at Fitnazz, said: “We’ve just published the Biggest List on the Internet for the Benefits of Exercise, which includes a free implementable Guide”.

Check out the Benefits of Exercise list below:

60+ Benefits of Exercise – The Ultimate List (updated)

Coronavirus closure: a statement from PureGym

We are extremely disappointed that the possible opening of gyms in Scotland has been delayed until September 14th.

We know that the majority of our Scottish members (over 120,000 of them across 24 gyms!) are desperate to get back to their gyms to improve their physical and mental wellbeing and they, and the whole gym and fitness centre industry in Scotland, will be as disappointed as we are.

We have a vital role to play in the fight against obesity which is a public health challenge in Scotland and right across the UK.

More broadly, it strikes us as truly extraordinary that, in the middle of a health crisis, the First Minister and her team have not ascribed any real priority to working with us and our sector to understand our capacity to help provide for the better health and well-being of the Scottish people at this time. 

Her approach seems to be in direct contrast to other countries. For example, our gyms in Switzerland are in their 12th week of opening and in Denmark we are in our 7th week after opening.

Across those countries, we have welcomed over 3 million visitors since reopening. We have been audited and visited by police and authorities in those countries on dozens of occasions and passed every test.

As far as we know, there have been no incidents of transmission or infection in our facilities – and both Denmark and Switzerland have good “track and trace” systems and tracing Apps operating.

Furthermore, we reopened gyms in Northern Ireland 3 weeks ago and in England this week and these re-openings have met with strong local support for the access to exercise and much consumer praise for the protocols, standards and safety processes that have been implemented. 

In prior speeches the First Minister has alluded to “evidence” that gyms are a problem and in her speech she referenced “clinical advice” that gyms pose a “particular risk”.

We acknowledge that there are problems, challenges and risks in all areas of society at the moment – and gyms have their own specific risks of course. That is precisely why we and the entire gym and fitness industry have invested huge effort and rigour in devising safety protocols and procedures that materially reduce the risk of viral transmission.

These protocols are now allowing hundreds of thousands of people in the UK and across Europe to reap the mental and physical benefits of exercise without exposing themselves to undue risk.

We urge the Scottish authorities to share openly relevant evidence and the cited clinical advice but above all to work with our sector to understand the approaches to risk mitigation which we have successfully implemented in other countries and which stand ready to benefit the people of Scotland. 

Our gyms at PureGym are, on average, the size of five or six doubles tennis courts and are exceptionally well ventilated, enabling people to work and exercise safely and securely.

Through our existing electronic entry system, we know the names and details of every single member in our facilities at any moment so can exercise tight control over attendance. As well as being staffed at all opening times we also monitor behaviour inside the gyms on CCTV so we are well prepared to oversee and enforce social distancing. 

We have developed detailed, industry-agreed guidance and are confident gyms are safe places to work and safe places to workout. The protocols which have been developed with the input of recognised medical experts – cover all aspects of hygiene, disinfection, access control, physical separation, number limitations per venue, monitoring and oversight, education and training. 

In summary, we urgently call on the First Minister to re-examine the current, factual evidence, engage with us and our industry bodies, and allow the Scottish people back into gyms as soon as possible so that we can support them in living happier and healthier lives.