\n Angela Jones, from Alvechurch, said she had been attending Bromsgrove Sport and Leisure Centre for more than 20 years and was “devastated” when she found out two of the classes she attends have been cut.\n<\/p>\n
\n The sports centre, run by Everyone Active, has cut the HIIT classes on Tuesday and Thursday, which Ms Jones claims are attended by around 20 people at each session.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “I’ve been a member since it was the Dolphin Centre, so I’ve been here for over 20 years. I’ve been a loyal customer but when I’ve emailed to complain about the cuts, the management don’t want to know.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They operate a traffic light system to decide what to cut. We can have about 40 people maximum in our classes and they are saying we have to have 70 per cent attendance, but the room is just about suitable for the 20 people who attend.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The number of people mean we get a step each, a barbel each, a plate each – anymore would be overcrowded.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Jones said the class was in the amber for attendance and when it gets to “red” on the traffic light system it will be axed.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 62-year-old said: “Everyone is really upset. People rely on these classes for their physical and mental health. Everyone knows each other, and we feel comfortable and safe. The loss of the classes will have a severe impact on people’s physical and mental wellbeing.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Several group members have complained and we’ve tried to take it higher, but we’re not being listened to.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We are all absolutely devastated. The instructors even offered to put the classes on for free, but management put a stop to it and said we weren’t allowed to use the room.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Everyone Active said the HIIT classes have averaged a 33 per cent attendance capacity for the past five months, which has made them “unviable”.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Jones, who works as a receptionist at a veterinary practice, said there are no alternative classes for her to attend suitable for her work schedule and at the right intensity level.\n<\/p>\n
\n She has also raised concerns as the membership prices have continued to go up since she joined despite classes being cut.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “The membership rates go up and there’s nothing to show for it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I would welcome if the centre could reconsider their decision to cut the classes.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Another class member, Simon Crump, has also expressed his disappointment in the decision.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “We are all extremely disappointed by the decision of Everyone Active to axe our HIIT class. This is a class where the vast majority of us have been attending for many yearsand as such we would consider ourselves valued customers of this gym.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Appeals to the gym management from many members have been rebuffed with the excuse that the class is poorly attended. This is patently untrue. A solid core of us participate week after week and year after year.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The gym management have failed to acknowledge that the nature of the HIIT exercises means that the gym studio cannot be packed to the same density as with other activities such as yoga or Pilates.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Given the continued media coverage of the obesity pandemic and the spiralling cost to the NHS of many of us suffering ill health (both physical and mental) due to lack of physical exercise, I find the decision to discontinue this class on purely economic grounds very short-sighted.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This action has resulted in a degree of ill-feeling and disappointment to such a degree that many of us are considering voting with our feet and transferring our allegiance to one of the many other gyms in Bromsgrove that will serve our needs.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Ben Betteridge, contract manager, said: “HIIT has averaged 33 per cent of attendance capacity for the past five months, while boot camp has averaged 21 per cent over the same period.\n<\/p>\n
\n “While we acknowledge the disappointment of some of our customers, unfortunately this means these classes are no longer viable.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We are currently looking at alternative classes to fill these slots in the group exercise programme and will update our members as soon as we can.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angela Jones, from Alvechurch, said she had been attending Bromsgrove Sport and Leisure Centre for more than 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-807154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}