Usually when it is said that “Invisible Fitness” the following two reactions are usually these:
- What makes it invisible? We don’t do anything? Then I do it every day too… or
- You are not there or you are invisible? What it means? …
but in reality, Invisible Fitness is a weekly workout where visionaries and blind people train together with their own bodyweights or crossfit equipment. Since the spring of 2018, we have been holding these workouts every Wednesday – with a few weeks of summer and Christmas breaks – with the support of the LÁSS Sport Club and Decathlon. For the participants, it iscompletely free and fortunately there is more interest.
There are two main goals for this program (along with many other positive effects):
1.Development of the condition, kinesthesia and confidence of the blind
2.Sensitization and improving in help giving with well seeing participants
But in general, the focus is on developing strength and balance, improving posture. In addition, it is important to mention the power of community building, as anyone can come, regardless of gender, age or level of education (even regardless of language, there was a participating lady who could not communicate with her in English or Hungarian at all, but we solved it absolutely). 70% of the team is returning as a result, the mood is always good, but almost every time there is a new face. It is not a problem to miss a few trainings or come only every few weeks, as we usually have 3 but at least 2 coaches present and there is usually a maximum of 12-15 people, we can pay attention to everyone and we can differentiate accordingly.
I would not choose the realization of the two goals mentioned above in the trainings separately, as in most of the tasks both are realized. Since there are both sighted and non- sighted people in the class, we try to pair them, for example: when a visitor helps the blind person to go from one station to another, so confident help and sensitization are constantly present.
Coaches always tell the tasks in the most detail, and there is a lot of directness, because in the absence of visual communication we have to help with the physical contact to carry out the exercises. We try to put in pairs and group exercises every hour and there are even tasks to be performed for music on occasion. They are always welcomed and never frightened by it, they always try everything and encourage each other, it has an extraordinary community building effect. In addition to these, we also incorporate balance and coordination tasks, as the visually impaired really need it. In most cases, asymmetrical exercises, the task is to coordinate the work of the arms and legs on the opposite side
Usually 50-50% of sighted and visually impaired people are present in the class. The ratio of men to women is also the same. At the beginning of workouts, we always ask if there is anything that hurts because we don’t want an accident to happen. Some people have pain in their knees or are unable to perform supportive tasks due to their wrists but this is not usually a problem because we usually say more variations to a task or just tell them a task separately at that station. Differentiation appears from the beginning of the lesson both in the location (together we help to adjust exactly in the right direction, the sighted people adjust to the blind), in the use of equipment (eg we put more weight on a weight station) doing chairing or if a visually impaired participant is not confident about the task then we support it for example), etc.… Here I would like to address the need for equipment in the topic of
differentiation. Here, because it is a matter of general strength development with a rather variable level of training and health condition, fewer but more types of strength tools are needed.
Of course, the more equipment there is, the more varied the training, but because of the differentiation, it is more important that there are 3 types of strength from a rubber rope and not 3 other types of equipment.
