‘Yute Gym’ making a healthy difference

by Shamar Blunt

With Barbados experiencing two separate periods of island-wide lockdowns over the last year because of the hike in COVID-19 cases, many health professionals have warned of the indirect side effects to the health of citizens, because of the lack of socialising and exercise.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and other entities have all agreed that prolonged periods of time spent indoors has led to significant challenges for persons seeking to remain physically fit and active.

No such group has been harder affected than school age children, who after being used to the social settings of their respective schools and extra-curricular activities, have now been home for most of the last 12 months without the usual space to socialise and work out.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB) has for the last five years been running a ‘Yute Gym’ programme where the aim is to get young children who were referred to the organisation for being at risk to heart disease and other complications, to lead healthier lifestyles. Yute Gym co-ordinator nurse Teon Waithe and fitness trainer at HSFB, Falicia Goodridge, recently sat down with a team from Barbados TODAY to have a chat around the current state of fitness around the island’s youth, predominately those who suffer from a Non-communicable diseases (NCD).

According to Waithe, though many children do enjoy fitness activities, they often become self-conscious when placed into groups of their peers, and with the move to a strictly online format for the weekly online workout sessions, the children were now slowly adjusting to the new normal.

“Self-esteem is a big problem in children who are overweight and obese. So because of that, they are not comfortable being on camera as yet with the recently started online classes. They are thinking that the other children will look at them funny, so some of them are reluctant to turn on the camera and participate,” she explained.

Though children within the programme may be apprehensive at first, eventually the sessions grow on them, with many children refusing to leave the programme, even when they reach the age of 18.

“We start at age eight, so we have some children who would have started with us in 2015, and they are still with us, some of them don’t want to go anywhere. Our initial plan when we first started was to have a programme where they graduate out into other activities, but these children don’t want to go anywhere. They thoroughly enjoy what we offer.

“Then we have children from various schools coming and forming friendships with other persons within the programme, and that is our aim really. We want them to come here, we want them when they decide they do want to leave that they are fully rounded, and can go out there and continue to be fully healthy individuals and make wise choices,” Waithe said.

Goodridge also agreed with Waithe, saying that because of the competitive nature within schools, children who are most in need of healthier habits and exercise, often don’t receive the attention they desperately need.

“A lot of these children who come here are not very enthusiastic to be active. Nothing against teachers because they deal with way more kids than we do, but they don’t have the pressure of competitive sports when they come here. While here, we teach them that exercise can be something that is enjoyable, and we have fun with competition. We don’t want them to see exercise as a task, rather we want them to see it’s something they can easily take into their adulthood,” Goodridge insisted.

The best way for children to keep fit at home, is for parents to also join in on the fun, as according to Goodridge, family oriented group exercises are often fun and interactive for kids.

“It starts at home, it starts with the parents. I would encourage the parents especially to have that active environment since kids tend to copy what their parents are doing. So whether it’s playing music at home to encourage some dancing, or friendly competitive exercises between family members, children and adults still have ways they can keep active at home, despite the challenges,” she said.