Are you over 50? Volunteers wanted for BBC and University of Northampton exercise experiment

The BBC are looking for volunteers in Northampton to feature in a brand new exercise experiment, which will be broadcast on TV ahead of this summer’s Olympics.

The University of Northampton’s Tony Kay, Associate Professor of Biomechanics, is working with BBC Two’s flagship health programme ‘Trust me I’m A Doctor’ on a ‘thinking exercise’ experiment. The team require volunteers – aged over 50 years who are relatively inactive – to take part in the television filming.

The test will investigate how just thinking about exercise can help people rehabilitate from injury and enhance their strength, particularly important for those unable to regularly exercise.

Professor Kay explained: “There is good evidence that thinking about performing an exercise can be beneficial, and we are working with ‘Trust Me, I’m a Doctor’ to examine this phenomenon. We’re looking for subjects to take part in a ‘thinking’ exercise programme; this would involve coming to the laboratory at the University of Northampton for 30 minutes to undertake a strength test, and coming back again four weeks later to repeat the test. During the four weeks we would need the volunteers to perform 10-15 minutes of mental training three to four times a week, where they would visualise performing the exercise.”

If you are aged over 50 years, relatively inactive, and available for testing and filming on 28 or 29 of April and 26 or 27 May, then please contact Tony Kay.