Two staff members of our performance team have had an exciting last month.

Firstly sport scientist Andy Lombard became the most recent employee at Oriam to be awarded accredited sport and exercise science status with BASES.

He joins Katrina Gibbon, Michael Williams and Neil Gibson as accredited members of the organisation that quality assures the work of sport and exercise scientists.

Secondly, Katrina Gibbon was over in Poland as part of the SFA Women’s backroom staff. The squad were playing in the under 19 qualifying rounds, competing against Bulgaria, Russia and Poland.

The squad won their first match 4-0 versus Bulgaria, followed by a 0-0 draw with Croatia. In their final match they defeated the hosts 1-0 to qualify for the elite rounds that will take place spring 2020.

Katrina’s role was mainly education based particularly for the new players coming into the squad. She also lead the warm ups, cool downs, recovery sessions and educational workshops. Katrina also assisted the medical team in the gym.

Well done to both!!!!!

Balanced physiotherapy are a combination of experienced physiotherapists, extensive range of services based in a world class facility.

Now with the introduction of Oriam parkrun, our onsite physiotherapists are here to help with any aches and pains from running and any other injuries.

At balanced they see a lot of injured runners and highlight a few of the common causes –

Inadequate strength and conditioning – Book with one of Balanced running specialist or Pilates instructor.

Poor Technique – Book with one of Balanced physiotherapists trained in running analysis.

Inappropriate footwear – A balanced podiatrist would offer the best advice.

Heriot Watt students, staff and Oriam members receive 15% discount when attending Balanced @ Oriam.

For more information please contact info@balancededinburgh.co.uk

We did it!! What a day!! What a run!!

Last Saturday we hosted our first official Oriam parkrun. We welcomed 306 runners from all over the country. We had runners of all ages taking part and running the course.

There were some great timings from the runners. The first male finisher was Evan Ross, Evan has ran over 60 parkruns and completed the course in a time of 18:18 minutes. The First female finisher with a time of 20:06 minutes was Elizabeth Leason, Elizabeth is another experienced park runner, with 201 parkruns under her belt.

Ronan Sinclair, aged 14 was the first youth runner to finish. Ronan is part of Corstorphine AAC, running the course in an impressive time of 22:45 minutes. It was a real family event as Ronan was joined by runners mum Moya, dad Mike and sister Ciara.

The day was a massive success and a big thank you to our volunteers and Sarah Robertson, health promotion manager. Sarah was influential in bringing parkrun to Oriam, overcoming a number of hurdles to make it happen.

Although this is only the first Oriam parkrun, below are some fun facts and statistics of the day.

Total distance run: 1,530km

Average run time: 00:30:46

Total hours run: 0 Years 6 Days 12Hrs 55 Minutes 18 Seconds

For a look at the latest results and more statistics from the race please follow the link https://www.parkrun.org.uk/oriam/results/latestresults/

Oriam parkrun will now be every Saturday at 9:30am, parkrun will launch an Oriam parkrun Facebook page for people to follow the action! This page will have updates, timings and all parkrun sign up information. Also an opportunity for all runners to share their stories and photos from their runs. Keep your eyes peeled for updates via our social media platforms.

Spread the word and get involved with Oriam parkrun!!!!!

September is always an exciting time of the year for us, we opened our doors to thousands of fresher’s as they embarked on Oriam for the first time.

Sports Union, sports union president Ben Graham and his team of ambassadors worked relentlessly throughout fresher’s week and again the following weeks for returning Heriot Watt University students.

September was real a team effort by everyone resulting in record sales of both memberships and club subs. BUCS and WATT Wednesdays are already in full flow as the sports teams start to take shape.

Keep your eyes peeled across both Oriam and Sports Union social media platforms for BUCS fixtures and club updates.

As we strive to improve as a facility we recently took on some feedback directly related to communication. We have taken this feedback and in conjunction with ongoing maintenance throughout the facility feel we have improved this level of communication via email member updates.

As areas of the facility have now reopened, please see below for the latest facility update:

Squash Courts – All courts are now open and bookable.

Street Change 3 & 4 – Will close 3rd and 4th October as minor upgrades and essential maintenance are carried out.

Street Change 1 & 2 – Will close 7th and 8th October as minor upgrades and essential maintenance are carried out.

Car Park Barrier – Awaiting network company to complete a site survey. We will provide further updates once this has been completed.

Accessible Toilet – Toilet at reception is now open after a new heater was installed.

Accessible Toilet/shower – A full refurbishment is nearing completion and is scheduled to reopen Saturday 5th October.

Fitness Suite Entry – From Tuesday 1st October there will be a £2 charge for anyone who forgets their card. This will help us monitor member usage and improve members gym experience by monitoring the flow of traffic.

Bistro Opening – Our Bistro has extended their opening hours. Weekdays Monday to Friday 8:30am – 7:00pm & weekends Saturday – Sunday 9:00am – 5:00pm.

Sports centre reception – We recently removed the desk up at our sports centre reception, this space has recently transformed into our spin class area. With the extra space spin classes we can now cater for 13 spin bikes. We plan to further develop this area in the coming months.

Free Weights Area 3 – Discussions are ongoing as we continue with the best resolution. After flooding this area suffered damage to flooring and weight rack platforms. This is likely to be a long term project and as yet don’t have an estimated time of reopening. We will however keep you updated as work progresses.

If you have any questions in regards to the above areas, please contact hello@oriam.hw.ac.uk and we will be happy to assist.

We are continuing with ongoing work throughout the facility and below is the latest update on how we are progressing.

Changing Rooms – Repairs have been ongoing this week and will be completed by Friday 6th September.

Gym Equipment – There are still two pieces of equipment to arrive, a dual pec fly and back fly machine, also hip abductor/adductor. These are due in the next few weeks and an update will follow.

Squash Courts – Courts 2-6 will reopen by the end of this week. More updates to follow.

Studio 1 – Work progressing well, estimated time of opening Monday 9th September.

Sports hall 2 – Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances there has been a delay in the opening of the sports hall and the new estimated time of opening is Friday 6th September.

Free Weights – We are still working on a resolution for this area and are liaising with the insurance company at present. More details to follow.

If you have any questions in regards to the above areas, please contact hello@oriam.hw.ac.uk and we will be happy to assist.

Last week two of our Bistro staff were called up to Shelley Kerr’s Women’s squad. Jamie-lee Napier and Sam Kerr were both part of the squad that defeated Cyprus 8-0 in last weeks Euro 2021 qualifier.

Hibernian F.C., Jamie-lee recently represented Scotland women’s under 19 squad at the UEFA championships held in Scotland. Injuries to the women’s national squad last week meant Jamie-lee earned her first call up at the age of 19.

Glasgow City’s F.C. Sam Kerr, who has previous experience with the squad was an unused substitute during Friday’s clash. Both girls have the UEFA Women’s champions league football to look forward to.

Jamie-lee and Hibernian ladies take on Slavia Prague while Sam and Glasgow City F.C. travel to Russia to take on Chertanovo.

Well done to both girls and good luck for the upcoming fixtures.

This week we welcome both the Men’s A and under 21 squad. Both squads will use Oriam to prepare for their upcoming qualifiers.

The Under 21s take on San Marino and Croatia in a bid to qualify for the European championships.

Steve Clarke’s squad have an important week ahead, two crucial home fixtures versus Russia and Belgium.

As always its great to be part of preparation and a massive good luck to both squads in their quest for qualification.

After the installation of the new fitness suite we have recently installed 7 pieces of outdoor gym equipment kit on the trim trail around Oriam.

The equipment includes:

Balance Beams

Body Raise Bars

Step Up Logs

Chin Up Bars

Monkey Bars

Parallel Bars

Tyre Run

The outdoor gym equipment is designed to make training fun, accessible and encourage the local community to get involved in exercise.

Whether its a walk with the dog or a jog round the track, we would like our members to get involved with equipment and spread the word, no Oriam membership is required.

Send us your photos of exercising on the equipment and let us know what you think!!!

Oriam sport scientists Andy Lombard and Katrina Gibbon have this week been on international duty with Scotland women’s squads, Under 17s and under 19s respectively.

Katrina is currently over in Belfast with the 19s for two friendly matches versus Northern Ireland. Tuesday the squad won 2-0 and yesterday picked up a second victory winning 1-0.

Its the start of a new campaign for Katrina and squad as they prepare for the under 19 UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying round in October.

Katrina’s role is mainly education based, not only to help the players while they are on camp but also to educate them and help away from national camps in their day to day lifestyle and training routines.

Her responsibilities include collecting GPS data at all training sessions and matches, daily well being data and rating of perceived exertion (RPE’s). Katrina also delivers workshops and management of all things nutrition and hydration.

Andrew Lombard hasn’t had to venture far, the under 17 squad have been based with us at Oriam, defeating Slovenia 3-1 on the indoor synthetic on Wednesday and will play them again Saturday on the indoor synthetic, 10am kick off.

Andrew’s role is quite similar to Katrina’s, mainly focusing on educating the younger players about the habits of the performance lifestyle of a pro player.

He has helped the players learn about the correct nutrition preparation as well as recovery strategies on and off the pitch. This is Andrew’s first camp with the SFA and he has found it to be a learning experience for himself whilst being integrated with the squad for the full week.