Virtual Royal Navy fitness sessions help crew of Portsmouth ship keep festive flab at bay
SAILORS forced to work from home have been keeping any ‘festive flab’ at bay – with a series of morale-boosting virtual fitness classes.
Men and women from HMS Duncan have turned to keep-fit sessions online to keep in shape during the third national lockdown.
Normally the £1bn destroyers physical training instructor Mathew James would start the day with a flight deck workout session for his shipmates.
But the hi-tech warship is currently undergoing maintenance work at her home base of Portsmouth, with just a small duty watch on board looking after her.
It means that most of Duncan’s 200-strong ship’s company are working from home.
So to keep them on their toes, LPT James is running ‘Virtual Wake-up with Clubz’, linking with shipmates via Zoom.
Squats, lunges, goblets and minute workouts are all led by the leading hand with shipmates (and sometimes their families, plus students from the destroyer’s affiliated Royal Navy university unit in Manchester) joining in the sessions.
‘These virtual circuits have been great to keep the ship’s company fit but also keep in touch with one another. We have been utilising body-weight movements, which allows you to take part anywhere,’ said Mathew.
‘It’s great to see how well the circuits have been received, the support and camaraderie has been amazing.’
Lieutenant Commander Michael Proudman, the Type 45’s executive officer and second in command, is delighted with the response.
He said: ‘During the early part of the latest lockdown, it was tough on the ship’s company. We were trying to regenerate a ship’s company ethos and build a team and had a lot of people working from home or in a watch system.
‘Because “phys” is such a big part of peoples’ lives, and most of the physical facilities were closed, we decided to try this out as a virtual session. It works remarkably well, and take-up has been great.’
Guided-missile destroyer HMS Duncan is one of six Type 45 warships based in Portsmouth.
The vessels are touted as one of the world’s best anti-air warships in the world.
Capable of destroying everything from jets to missiles, the ship’s are a key part of Britain’s seafaring strike group made up to defend aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales.