Active Bodies Active Minds is a group started to promote exercise and well-being giving people living with dementia the chance to try something new in a fun and supportive group.

Our first activity was box-fit ‌(queue the Rocky theme tune) and was run in partnership with Olympia Boxing CIC after the success of our taster session back in January. They are an organisation founded on the back of the London 2012 Olympics.  They, as England boxing coaches, believe there is a demand for Olympic style boxing from various organisations such as schools and communities.

Each session started off with a light warm up to get the blood pumping and muscles working.  Then it was time for us to get the gloves on and work on some combos as a group.  We all took it in turns to give the instructors our best 1, 2 … 1, 2, 3, 4 and it was clear that some of us had done this before!‌ We all then got into pairs and worked on what we had learned together, taking it in turns to hold the pads up.  As we became more comfortable with the sequences we added more moves and a couple of dodges!‌

As the group is promoting healthy living and well-being we thought what better refreshment to provide than a nice fresh fruit smoothie made with our new smoothie maker, although a lot of us couldn’t be coaxed out of having a good old cup of tea.

We had often had a chat about how we felt after the session, everyone agreed they had enjoyed taking part and a common theme was the increased confidence we all felt which was great.  A lot of people said that their hand-eye coordination had improved as a result of this group and would definitely like to try it out again.

The camaraderie between us is one of our favourite aspects of the group and although our boxing sessions have sadly come to an end for now and we will miss it, we’re really looking forward to starting our next activity together which is chair yoga, so watch this space!‌

A massive thank you to Olympia Boxing and to West Kent Housing Association’s Strawberry Hill extra care scheme in Stone for letting us use the amazing facilities you have.

“It was an absolute pleasure delivering the Boxing 4 Dementia programme with partners Alzheimer’s & Dementia Support Services. All the participants were fantastic and we saw great improvement in coordination, technique, fitness, strength and motor skills.” Wayne Smith – Olympia Boxing Director.

If you are interested in the joining the Active Bodies Active Minds group please give us a call on 01474 533990 or email info@alz-dem.org