Oxygym Redcar

Testimonials:

 Anne Mangham was born 69 years ago. Leaving school she worked in the health sector in dental work.
 Anne married Horden coalminer Tom and when he retired after 33 years they purchased a hotel in Scarborough. ‘We wanted to do something together and since we had friends in Scarborough in the hotel business we decided to give it a go’ said Anne. Tom and Anne moved back to Billingham to be close to family and for 3 years ran the Fish and Chip shop in Station road before Anne returned to dental work and then to a well earned retirement.

Anne had always kept herself fit through gym work and walking her beloved dog. Two years ago she joined Oxygym Fitness club where she regularly attended three times a week. ‘ I would do a mixture of cardio and resistance training using the bikes, steppers and cross trainers and keep toned and strong with resistance work. With excellent support from the instructors I was fit and enjoyed it’’.

Towards the end of May Tom had gone out for an after dinner stroll with his grandson Michael. A recent hip replacement meant that he had to exercise but needed support at that stage. Anne decided to wash up and standing at the sink felt a surging electric shock rush through the left hand side of her body. ‘ I knew immediately I was having a heart attack. Working in a hospital for so long I knew the symptoms. I went to sit down in an upright position and waited for Tom and Michael to return. When they did I said to Michael I’m having a heart attack can you take me to hospital.’

Eighteen-year-old Michael took charge and rushed his Gran to North Tees Hospital. ‘My Gran has had a heart attack’ he told the receptionist. Within minutes Anne was wired to an ECG and her condition was confirmed.

Anne says ‘The next day was Friday and I was tired and felt generally unwell but by Saturday I felt fine and a bit of a fraud and wanted to go home to look after Tom. I am so independent and a bit stubborn and just wanted to get on’. However on Sunday Anne woke with a very different feeling ‘I felt so ill and tired and spent most of the morning in bed, most unlike me. Then at lunchtime it happened, a second and far more serious heart attack. The pain was incredible, I had never experienced anything like it before.’

Anne was fighting for her life. Her daughter arrived ‘ I remember her slapping my thigh and saying your not leaving us until I was at least 95’. The superb team at the hospital got Anne through the worst but she had to be taken to the specialist cardiac unit at James Cook Hospital where she eventually recovered.

The doctor told Anne’s daughter that she survived a major heart attack because she was fit and strong and it is for that reason that she pulled through.

Anne’s relatives went to see her in hospital and one commented to Anne ‘ Anne all these people are like you, they’re slim and fit, gardeners, ramblers, line dancers and gym members, where are all the unfit and over weight people, then she thought for a moment and realised where they were and why they weren’t in the ward recovering.

Being fit and the prompt action of Anne’s grandson Michael certainly saved her life. As well as reducing the risk of a coronary heart disease by up to 50 per cent fitter people have a strong and better chance of surviving a heart attack. Get fit live-longer.

Stay healthy

Glyn Amos
Oxygym Health and Fitness Club

I LOST 5 STONE HERE’S HOW I DID IT.

Teesside girl Vicky Mulgrew 32, was born in Saltburn and grew up in Redcar. A trained Nursery Nurse she married a soldier and for a few years travelled the world. “fitness and dress size was never an issue for me, I always managed to stay around the 10/12 dress size”.

Events were to take a different turn for Vicky when her father contracted cancer. ‘My Dad was very ill and eventually died from cancer. It was a very stressful and sad time, and I put weight on very fast. Within eight weeks I had moved to a dress size 16. My self esteem was rock bottom and I suppose I felt depressed and sorry for myself.” Vicky was so despondent she stopped weighing herself and “I buried my head in the sand and hoped it would just go away, but of course it doesn’t until you do something about it.”

 At first I bought some fitness videos and I suppose like everyone else I tried them for a little while, jumping around in my front room at home, and then they ended up in the sideboard draw never to see the light of day again”

The turning point came when Vicky’s best friend asked her to be her bridesmaid latter in the Summer. “This was the incentive I needed. I thought I’m not going to be the ‘fat bridesmaid’. I decided to join Oxygym and do something about it.”

Vicky had never stepped foot in a Gym before “I was just too terrified. I had preconceived ideas about fit young women trotting around in lycra and men with bulging biceps.”

Vicky spoke to one of the fitness team at Oxygym and joined on the spot. “I was reassured that these days most people exercising are doing it for precisely the same reasons I was and that Oxygym was not full of poseurs”.

“I was shown how to use all the equipment which set me at ease. I was also offered an exercise plan but I preferred to do my own thing. I started by speed walking and then jogging on the treadmill, which was great because you can go at your own pace and in the comfort of the gym rather than slogging it in all weathers outside. I really enjoyed it, the buzz you get from exercise is amazing. Even when I was tired I would come to the gym for the buzz. I now go five times a week.”

Vicky has lost nearly 5 stone. “ The gym now it is part of my life I love it. The endorphins (the buzz) you get from exercise is a million times better than a chocolate biscuit”

Vicky weighed under 10 stone at her best friends wedding and she felt great “I feel much sexier, I wear different types of clothes and I feel confident wearing them. My whole attitude is different. People used to walk by me in the street and not recognise me I had put on so much weight.”

Vicky is getting married again this summer. “I’m so looking forwards to it and you can bet I will be in great shape”

The truth is that if Vicky can do so can anyone as she said “You should make time to exercise. I have two kids and a job and I’m a full time mum so if I can make time most people can. Stop making excuses stop watching Coronation Street and East Enders and join a Gym and lose weight and feel great”
REAL RESULTS REAL PEOPLE

A ‘Bobbie’ dazzler now Debbie’s lost 25lbs.

 

Bubbly Debbie Morgan is 44 (“but you can say I’m 25 if you like”). Debbie joined Oxygym Fitness Club. At the time she was already a member of another gym but was dissatisfied with equipment and facilities and not at all impressed with the staff, “ there was absolutely no interaction and the equipment kept breaking down”. “Even though I was working out I was still over weight (“by at least 2 stone”) and I didn’t feel great about the way I looked either”. Debbie decided to look for another gym.  It was Debbie’s ex partner who recommended Oxygym  “So I thought nothing to lose Ill go and have a look”.

Debbie was given a tour of the Oxygym facilities and “I joined on the spot. I hadn’t realised just how different gym’s could be. What a difference. The staff are so friendly, they greet people by their first names, prepare exercise plans for anyone who wants help and there is a good spread of ages so I didn’t feel out of place. The whole place felt just right. No poseurs putting people off, just people getting on with their own fitness programmes. Great I thought so I made a start”.

The driving factors for joining Oxygym were that Debbie had put on weight and was struggling to move it; she had also rejoined the police and needed to get fitter as well as losing weight. “ I wanted to get fit and maintain it. I was unhappy with my size and it was affecting my confidence”.

“For the first month I did my own thing, I just exercised using the bikes, treadmills, cross trainers and steppers, just cardio really. But I wasn’t losing any weight; I guess I was taking on more calories than I was losing so the weight just wasn’t shifting, either that or I was doing the wrong type of exercise or not enough, I was confused”.

“After a while I asked one of the Oxygym instructors for help. They suggested preparing a structured Exercise Plan that including some weight training to compliment my cardio training. I had always hated weight training; I found it boring and monotonous. I was misguided and under the misconception that I would develop huge ugly muscles, I did not want to turn into one of those female bodybuilders, not for me that! Kate also varied my Cardio with increasing amounts of interval training (shorts bursts of high intensity exercise followed by short periods of slower exercise). Not only did the weight start to drop off but also to my amazement I actually enjoyed the weight training and realised that what I was developing was lean muscle tissue that helped with burning calories, even at rest. Not only did I lose weight but also my shape changed. I was much firmer; bits that had wobbled didn’t anymore. I was stronger, fitter and far more confident than I had been for years.”

“I have lost over 25 pounds. None of my cloths fit me anymore. I feel fantastic and the whole thing has boosted me and my confidence is sky high. I went out on a works night out and I felt fantastic. I treated myself to some new cloths all of which were two sizes smaller than I had previously worn. It was lovely. For the first time in ages I felt attractive and sexy”

“As happy as I am at the moment my journey is not yet completed I still want to lose another 6 to 8 lbs. When you’re young and in your 20s or so it’s easy to shift weight and normally you can get away with eating just about anything. But get into your 40s and it a whole different ballgame. Your metabolism slows down and your enthusiasm for exercise diminishes, you try diets that don’t work or work for a limited time and you get despondent. I got to the point where I honestly did not think I could lose this weight and feel this great, I suppose I had given up before I gave I one last try at Oxygym. It was hard to begin with but when I got going it was great. Now I rearrange my schedule to make sure I can get to Oxygym. I’m a lot bouncier and happier in myself after all if you look better you feel better.”

“When all said and done if I can do it so can anyone else, especially with the support and the expertise of a good gym like Oxygym. The levels of obesity in this area can be over turned, we can lose weight get fitter and feel happier about our bodies. I firmly believe that if we are serious about losing weight then we need to burn more calories and this means exercise, diets are not a substitute for exercise. I would encourage everyone who felt like I did and is determined to lose weight and get fit to make a start today and join a gym, and feel and look great again like I did”

 

HOW I BEAT DEPRESSION AND LOST 5 STONE.

Supply teacher Nikki Fothergill was looking forwards to the birth of her first child. “My husband and I were so excited but when I gave birth, bang, it hit me. For some reason it didn’t feel as great as I thought it would. I had put on 5 stone in weight and felt depressed. In front of me was this crying baby dependant on me as its mum and I wasn’t sure that I wanted that responsibility”. Nikki was suffering from postnatal depression and was prescribed a course of drugs to deal with it. “The drugs made me feel numb. I was prescribed a second set and they made me feel as depressed so I stopped taking them. I couldn’t be bothered and I had mood swings”

After yo-yoing with her diet Nikki decided to join Oxygym Fitness Club. “I had a free trial and realised that exercise could help with both my weight and depression. I joined up. For the first few months I did my own thing even though the fitness team offered me an exercise plan. I got to January 2008 and decided that enough was enough and literally through all the junk (food) out of my house and went on a healthy eating plan. I also increased the amount of exercise I was doing. In two months I lost over a stone. Just as important I was feeling better than I had for ages. I was doing something right and decided to carry on.”

Nikki now trains three days a week at Oxygym and gets up early morning to go for a run three days a week. “I believe that you need to get out of yourself it that makes sense. A boost in your life and exercise is definitely the key.”

Nikki recently finished the Race for Life and is now entered in this year’s Great North Run. “ I remember being on the treadmill at Oxygym and watching a woman running next to me. I noticed how fast she was running so I decided to try and keep up. I made up my mind that what ever distance she ran I would run further, and I did. Afterwards I though ‘my god’ where did that come from. A few months ago I would never have dared to dream of doing that. I felt great.”

Nikki has now lost over 5 stone but her greatest battle was with depression. “Exercise is definitely the answer better that any drugs available, you just have to make the effort. My friends say you are so confident. I go out fighting tooth and nail. Before I would be happy to shrink into the corner and let others do the talking. I am much, much happier now. In fact my husband Paul’s wallet has never recovered because I buy so many clothes because I feel so much more comfortable and confident in them now”

“If I have a message to women like me who are overweight and a bit depressed it is join a gym and exercise. Its great for losing weight and it makes you feel good about yourself again especially when you start to see the weight dropping off. A good gym like Oxygym will help you and encourage you every step of the way. It’s worth it, after all if I can do so can everyone else”.