The Albion Foundation’s ‘Fit Baggies’ programme is a 12-week health, wellbeing and fitness programme to help Sandwell residents focus on making better lifestyle choices – leading to a more active life.
It aims to reach inactive people whose health will benefit from the sessions, which are ran in tandem with a wider EFL-led initiative, which has already been successful with thousands of football fans across the country.
Each session, which takes place on a Tuesday evening - includes a health and wellbeing education section - before at least 30 minutes of exercise with local instructor and Foundation partner TCFit.
Participant Hayley Oldfield, mother of two children, joined the sessions alongside a friend with hopes of increasing her fitness levels and decreasing her BMI (body mass index), but that wasn’t Hayley’s only reason for joining.
“It was the camaraderie and being able to be with people of all abilities,” Hayley admitted. “At first I found it hard but now I’m walking at least twice a day and going to an additional gym class as well so it’s improved my fitness.
“It was a bit scary at first but everyone has been helpful and very professional. All of the team are smashing, there’s no judgement, they’re really professional and super friendly.
“The workshops are really interesting, they’re fun and everyone engages in them. We’ve learned all about food labelling, diet myths, we’ve also had to watch some really good documentaries about health and fitness to try and inspire us.
“I think it helps, especially the mixture of ages, we’ve got people in their twenties all the way up to their seventies. I definitely think the walking and doing exercise will stick with me, as well as keeping a healthy balanced diet.”
Keeping those at the session interested and motivated has been the primary focus of session lead Jordan Hall, who has been impressed by the ‘buy in’ of the participants, and particularly Hayley.
“They’ve really bought into the homework tasks and this has shown in their amazing weight loss so far, and also with their blood pressure,” Jordan said. “They were measured at week six, but by the time week 12 comes around, we’re going to see an overall happier lifestyle for everybody.
“Hayley has been a standout participant in terms of how engaged she’s been in the theory side of the course. She’s always wanted to learn more and been really consistent with her diet, constantly trying to up her steps and push others to do better.
“Hayley’s always been confident and outgoing, but she’s definitely glowing and radiating a lot more in the face. Her physical appearance has improved a lot, I feel as though she’s finishing the sessions quite easily now.
“She’s managing to hold her own, whereas in the first few weeks she was struggling and had to take long breaks, so we’ve seen an improvement from her. She’s made an incredibly transformation since joining us.”
For Hayley and her Fit Baggies peers, the final session wasn’t the end of their fitness journey, as they decided to go above and beyond by completing The Albion Foundation’s 2025 Colour Run – a true litmus test for how far they’d come.
“We’ve also taken part in the Colour Run, and raised over £200, it gets put back into the charity and supports the area. I’d never done one before, but we all really enjoyed it.”
You too can sign up for the next cohort of Fit Baggies by completing our expression of interest form which is HERE.
