Quarantrain – Staying fit during isolation

Staying fit during isolation – new online fitness programme Quarantrain launches today.  Staff and students from the University of Nottingham are part of an international team of experts who are today (2 April) launching QuaranTrain – a student-led healthcare project to help provide information and resources to stay fit and well during periods of isolation.

Covid-19 is preventing people from doing the activities they would normally enjoy, and the enforced self-isolation and lockdowns throughout the world are creating huge challenges to staying physically and mentally well.

QuaranTrain is led by physiotherapy students and has rapidly developed collaborations and networks world-wide with universities, hospitals, and specialist exercise institutes – Exercise-works promote global physical activity initiatives and are our key partner.

From its beginnings at HAN University, Netherlands, the project has reached out to a broad range of health care professional students and workers across the globe. The five core educational institutions are HAN University of Applied Sciences; the University of Nottingham, UK; Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway; HESAV Lausanne, Switzerland; and the University of Malta. However, many other student-bodies are now a driving force for the project.

A team of 12 undergraduate physiotherapy and sports rehabilitation students from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham are contributing to the content, admin and technical support for the programme. There are also five international physiotherapy postgraduate students developing content.

Quarantrain:

Aims to provide evidence-based, meaningful, effective information and support material in the form of videos and blogging. The team is providing video content through YouTube, and the website acts as a portal for huge amounts of additional and external physical activity resources.

It recognises a key factor of isolation is mental wellbeing, and although its remit is primarily physical activity, the holistic health and wellbeing of the global population is at the heart of what the team does.
Its’ aim is to bring people together, ensure they feel safe and welcome, and become a part of a team. The resources are informative and their purpose is to make change. Language is not a barrier. Culture is not a barrier. Humanity and honesty transcend everything. With this in mind, the team also use music as a medium to connect. Musician health workers are uniting to build a series of music projects which develop inclusion, participation, and enjoyment.
Dr Roger Kerry, Associate Professor in the Division of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Nottingham, is co-founder of numerous international networks and groups which promote global physical activity and well-being.

He said: “My involvement in the project came about through my international, academic, and private partner connections and I am now able to support our students to drive the project forward.

“This project is important because there is a lot of fear and uncertainty about being isolated, with significant impact on physical and mental health. The project aims to provide key evidence-based information, advice, and support for those in isolation. In response to covid-19, there is huge amounts of information suddenly becoming available, and much of it is not evidence-based nor consistent. We are trying to provide a trustworthy platform where anyone form anywhere can access, engage in, and be supported by. Our main aim is to promote physical activity, which has known benefits for many physical and mental health condition, in terms of prevention and rehabilitation. Beyond this, we want to make people feel connected, and recognise that although we may all be physically isolated, we can still connect.

“The project extends beyond covid-19, and is concerned with isolation in general – covid-19 is giving us all a taste of what many people live with due to their social, physical, or mental state. Telling someone to do exercise is not enough, we need to belong and we need to support each other. The project also is using other media, such as music, to help reach-out and connect”

Visit https://quarantrain.org/ for more information.

Photo: Dragana Gordic/ Shutterstock.com