Bannatyne Group

We caught up with one of our Solihull members, Joe Bird, 28, who has been enjoying getting back to his routine in our health club since we reopened on 12 April.

Joe, who has cerebral palsy, has been coming to the gym to improve his day-to-day mobility and mental health.

He has found that training his legs has been the biggest challenge, as he has had to find alternatives that work around his disability for some exercises. This was his main focus when it came to having personal training sessions, as Joe used to be a wheelchair user.

We asked Joe what motivates him daily to keep up with his training and how he managed to continue throughout lockdown.

Joe said: “I do it to improve my circumstances and my lifestyle. Living with cerebral palsy is challenging, and I have made a commitment to improve my mobility, strength, and coordination.

“Luckily during lockdown, I had a spare room that I turned in to a gym, so I was able to keep up my training without any setbacks. However, it is great to be back at Bannatynes with my trainers again and back to my normal routine.”

With help from the team at Bannatyne Solihull, and Personal Training with Mark Lisle and Sophie Faulkner, Joe has managed to improve the long-term effects of his disability. Joe currently focuses on using the resistance machines, exercise bike, free weights, and bench press.

At the start of his journey, he was unable to use some of the machines but throughout his time at Bannatyne’s, his strength and confidence have improved greatly, enabling him to branch out to other exercises and equipment.

We asked Vicky Ratcliffe, an in-house personal trainer who frequently works with Joe, about his improvement since coming to the gym.

Vicky said: “The staff always look out for Joe and make him feel comfortable when he is here.

“It’s great seeing Joe’s improvement during his time at Bannatyne Solihull, and I’ll look forward to seeing his future progression.”

Keep up the hard work Joe!