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This is a nice surprise- a shiny new digital badge from Knowing Parkinson's awarded to those who completed the Parkinson's and physical activity & exercise online course from Parkinson's UK. The course enables the learner to:
 Last week, one of my ladies asked me, “What does FCIMSPA Chartered mean?”
I started explaining the pathway - CPD, experience, progressing from Member to Advanced to Senior - and I could see her eyes glaze over. To her, it was just jargon. So I changed tack. I told her the F stands for Fellow. It means that I’ve been able to prove my CPD, training, and breadth of qualifications spanning my 25 years of teaching exercise to older adults. It shows that I’m equipped to support participants with complex needs and that I’ve demonstrated professional competence well beyond the standard membership requirements. She experiences this in class when I instinctively adapt the sessions to suit individuals who needed a different approach. Every week, the exercise conversation and focus shifts depending on who is in the room- falls awareness, osteoporosis‑friendly exercises, the right delivery for Parkinson’s or dementia - all while making sure no one is pushed to the point of discomfort. That’s where training, experience, and judgement matter. A few days later, I was chatting with someone I hadn’t seen for a while. I mentioned that I was now Chartered, and she asked why. I started explaining, but I realised, I was giving sound bites- not actually explaining why it is important for an exercise teacher in a church hall to be able to show and prove professional status at that highest level- after all, who needs to be as qualified as an architect when they are ‘just an exercise teacher’? My membership body is incorporated by Royal Charter, granted by the Monarch on the advice of the Privy Council. That means CIMSPA can award postnominals in the same way accountants, engineers, and surveyors use theirs. It formalises my role in the physical activity and exercise sector and recognises the depth of knowledge and skill required to work effectively and safely with people who have complex needs. In a constantly changing fitness and health environment, FCIMSPA Chartered shows that I understand the impact my classes have for my participants physical and mental wellbeing and that I’m committed to delivering a class to the highest professional standard. Most importantly, it reassures the people who walk through my door each week that I know what I’m doing, and they are in safe hands. A bean bag- a prop or piece of apparatus? Saturday morning task is refilling bean bags, because funnily enough, you can’t put a split-pea-filled bean bag in the washing machine. 7oz. That's not heavy. 💪 It is not that heavy until you start throwing it from hand to hand- the sound of snatching and grabbing- and then the quietness of the plop into the palm of the hand. Remember the game of 5 Stones? Add pronation and supination, and the bean bag lands on the back of the hand and then the palm. Try a gentle up and over arc, moving the feet- add in a sideways step - challenging the posture, balance and hand-eye coordination. Walk around the room, passing it from hand to hand- and then change directions. The eyes track its trajectory, and the body shifts to be in the right position to retrieve it, and when sitting, you can feel how the body shifts so that your hands are in the right place for the bean bag to land in the palm. Working with a partner, you must ensure a good ‘aim’ and easy passing so it lands in their hands and does not fly overhead. The feet are moving so the weight is shifting from foot to foot like a goalkeeper ready to move into position to save the goal. Now add music- let it fly and land in time to the music- feel the impetus and flight- anticipate and move. The skill of using the properties of apparatus - weight, texture, sound and shape - for outcomes and not as a prop.  |
Exercise With TracyEXTEND Exercise and Medau Movement teacher. Keeping the muscles working, the joints mobile and having fun! Archives
September 2026
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