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Becoming more active: “I now realise the social benefits of exercise”

To mark the 100th year since the first British women got the right to vote, we are posting features on active disabled women. Since January, we’ve been hearing from Shona, a 20 year old disability, lifestyle and beauty blogger. Every month she blogs for us about her journey to becoming more active.

Shona's swimming gear; a swimming costume and goggles.

We are happy to welcome back Shona as part of a regular feature about becoming more active. In her third blog post, we hear how she has found the social side of exercising beneficial.

Shona's third blog post: Exercising with others

When I first started swimming at the start of the year, after not going for years, I was sure that it would be something that I did totally alone. I didn’t have any friends or family who would swim with me, and that’s something I’m okay with because I’ve always enjoyed my own company. Swimming on my own was relaxing, stress relieving and fun. So, when I ended up joining in with an over 50s session, I wasn’t quite sure how it would pan out!

I managed to go swimming every week throughout March, twice a week on one occasion, and during one of those sessions I arrived to find that three lanes were closed off due to a staffing problem. It was okay at first as the slow lane that I usually swim in was open. However, when I took a break after a few lengths I saw that the sign had been changed and the lane was now designated for older swimmers - a half an hour session for gentle swimming and conversation.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself as I couldn’t keep up with other swimmers in the medium lane, I must have looked quite lost because a few of the older swimmers invited me to join them in the designated lane. I joked about how I probably qualified anyway because of my hip replacement and soon enough I was chatting away with them all in-between lengths. The whole set up ended up being perfect for my pace and that session turned out to be my best yet.

I’ve since joined in with the older swimmers again, despite the closed lanes now being open, as the social side of exercise is something that I’ve really come to enjoy, which has surprised me. I can see now why there is a dedicated over 50s session as it really can make a difference when you’re exercising with someone else. The social benefits of exercise became apparent to me that day.

Since then I’ve found myself striking up conversation with fellow swimmers nearly every session, getting tips from more experienced swimmers and complaining about how cold the water is to the lifeguards that assist me! I really did underestimate the social side of exercise when I began this journey.

Over the next month I really want to focus on improving my form, currently I’m only able to swim a very modified breaststroke, so I want to focus on swimming less but better quality lengths, so I can really build up my strength.

If you didn’t catch Shona’s last blog post, you can read it here.

Keep a look out on our news section, Twitter and Facebook to see how Shona gets on achieving her goals next month.