Neil’s 24 hour Swiss Ball-a-thon Challenge

Coxhoe, Friday, July 15, 2016

24 X 1 hour classes

Neil Sleeman

 

They think it's all over ...It’s about four and a half days since we finished our inaugural 24hr Swiss Ball-a-thon for CHUF, and we are all still buzzing (and a bit sore!). In a nutshell, the event involved 24 X 1 hour classes on the Swiss Ball, which as you may know is something we use for many of our patients and run a dozen classes weekly.

The ball provides the ability to bring in so many different exercises for all levels, and so to appreciate the difficulty of being a parent of a “heart-bub” on the Children’s Heart Unit, Freeman (CHUF) for a day we decided to do the 24 classes consecutively.

Starting at 1100am Fri, we were blessed with many Striders in the first group (Mums on the Ball group) who literally got the ball rolling. The atmosphere was electric as people did more than their usual weekly session, and as our staff were always participating at full intensity we knew some interesting times ahead! By 9pm more Striders had come and gone (including first-timer Jan Young with 2 consecutive classes, well done!) and by midnight, some 13 hours in, the place was as full as it had been at the start.

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0100-0500 Sat was special, as the amazing “Mum on the Run” Helen Rodgers joined my colleague Trevor and myself for 4 hours of non stop, intense, Swiss Ball madness! 128 different exercises were performed (our whole database) playing a game called Swiss Ball Bingo when random numbers are selected to choose the exercise. Check out the video on Facebook on the Platinum Physiotherapy page to see what we got up to, tough but fun!

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As the final stretch approached the Striders kept on arriving including the Hamills, Parkers (including kids taking part!), Kath Dodd doing two modified classes in her knee brace and finally Catherine Smith/Teresa Archer doing their first class ever. With one final (agh!) the last class finished and Trevor/myself collapsed after having done 15 hours each of intense Swiss Ball work covering the whole 24 hours. In total our staff did nearly 50 classes and over 160 classes were completed by our patients/supporters!

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Thank you so much to all those who took part and supported us for such a great cause, the Just Giving page with all the details is still live for anyone who wants to support the event even now.

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We can’t wait until our next challenge but for now my abs are ready to get me through the upcoming Brisbane Marathon as this has to be the best Strength and Conditioning I have ever done, it’s just a shame the 40 hours without sleep could not be a regular fixture as still shattered! Keep running strong!

Class of 2016

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