Harrogate RUFC set to launch online exercise platform that local community can use for free

The Harrogate RUFC Health Club plans to deliver live 15-minute sessions on a daily basis via Zoom and Microsoft Teams and also upload videos to its YouTube channel with the aim of helping to keep people in the district fit during lockdown and beyond.

“We are really excited about this,” said ‘Gate director of rugby Dave Doherty.

“We feel this will be a really useful online resource for everyone in Harrogate, and the best thing is that it is free to use.

“It isn’t going to rugby-specific. We will certainly use the Health Club to benefit our 1,100 members, however this is aimed at getting or keeping people generally fit and healthy. We just want to help the community get active.

“There will be sessions delivered every day with the focus on all kinds of different things such as aerobic exercise, toning up and building strength or speed.”

Supported by Harrogate RUFC’s main partner CNG Energy as well as Podium Performance and Sculpt Digital, the Health Club will feature a library of resources that will be accessible to users on demand.

“Our aim is to encourage an hour of intensive exercise or more a week,” Doherty added.

“A power hour is made up of four lots of 15 minutes of intense or cognitively challenging exercises.

“A new daily workout lasting 15 minutes called Workout of the Day (WOD) will be uploaded daily and previous sessions will all be available in the library under relevant section headings such as speed or HIIT.

“This is all part of our mission to be the best club in Yorkshire for players and the game.”

Helping to deliver a number of the sessions will be the club’s strength and conditioning coach, Kevin Shattock.

Boasting more than 20 years experience in the industry, Shattock is the founder and owner of Podium Performance.

Having started out as a personal trainer in the RAF, he has subsequently worked for a host of sports teams including Castleford Tigers and Yorkshire Carnegie.

“Kevin has a wealth of experience and is the perfect person to help us deliver this project,” Doherty added.

“Both Kevin and the club are really excited by the prospect of getting this up and running."