Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Kaiser Chiefs put it best when they sang Ruby, Ruby, Ruby.

The 2007 banger could have been the theme song for the recent Ebrington Square launch of the newest fitness App in town, Inclusively Fit’s ‘Ruby’s Fitness App’.

Inclusively Fit is a local service, which provides one-to-one personal training and health and fitness classes to children and young people with a learning disability.

Speaking to Derry Now at the glitzy launch, Bronagh McNamara and Sinéad Lynch, the brains behind Ruby’s Fitness App, explained it was named after Sinéad’s daughter, Ruby, who had Down Syndrome and passed away very suddenly four years ago.

Bronagh said: “The launch was really to gauge how many people might be interested in using Ruby’s Fitness App. We had 15 members of Inclusively Fit, who we currently train, here today and it was really, really packed.

“Our members were here to show the impact of what we do on the ground. Basically, the App is trying to bring what we do on a physical level in Inclusively Fit to an App, so people can access it wherever they are in the world or wherever they live, whether it is in a rural area or whatever.”

“The members of Inclusively Fit, were able to tell everyone at the launch how the training impacts their life,” said Sinéad.

“We decided to combine an indoor and outdoor launch. We had a festival feel outside. “We had the ‘Lo and Slo’ food truck there so everyone could get a wee bite to eat and then we had different stations which showed different parts of Ruby’s Fitness App interactively.

“We had a specialised play tent. We had a fitness section. We had our nutritionist there to answer questions. It was just to give people a wee feel about what is going to be on the App.

“The App at the moment is in prototype stage, through which people can get an idea of what the full App is going to look like. What we were able to do today was to have QR codes in different places, which people were able to scan and see what it would look like in-app.

“Then up on the big TV we had a lot of the videos which we have already produced for the App. They show Bronagh and me teaching different parts of the App, including, exercise, baby massage, and tree babies,” said Sinéad.
Tree Babies is baby massage and yoga which takes place outdoors.

Bronagh said: “Having it outside means it is more sensory lead and being at one with nature. It is called Tree Babies because the youngsters are lying looking up at the trees at the changing shapes and listening to the sounds.”

Bronagh and Sinéad wholeheartedly acknowledged the fantastic help they had received from LAB.

Inclusively Fit / Ruby’s Fitness App received Leadership, Ambition and Belief (LAB) funding, a philanthropic crowd-fund which kickstarts the best new initiatives emerging from Derry.

The funding enabled them to access premises free of charge in the AMP for three months, for which they were very appreciative.

The AMP is the first privately funded growth incubator in Ebrington Square, funded, designed and built by local entrepreneurs.

Sineád said: “Today’s launch was a brilliant opportunity to show everybody the prototype of Ruby’s Fitness App and its tremendous potential. We are hopeful, going forward, we will receive the funding to enable us to bring it to completion,” smiled Sinéad.

Explaining the origins of Inclusively Fit, Sinéad said: “I was always into fitness, even at school, so I went on and did my sports' degree. I was managing sports' facilities in Dublin for a while, but I quickly realised I wanted to be more hands-on, so I went back and did my personal training qualifications and weight management consultancy. I have been running my own personal training business for more than 20 years in Wicklow and Dublin and now back in Derry.

“When I moved back to Derry five years ago, I was not personal training because I had two young daughters, Anna and Ruby.

“A wee while Ruby passed away, a friend said to me, 'Why don't you get back into personal training?' So, I started back just personal training the general public.

“I had known Bronagh years ago but met her again through her work with the Foyle Down Syndrome Trust, where she would have looked after Ruby. Bronagh approached me one day. She had had the idea of combining our joint experience in the fitness field, with her experience of working with people with additional needs, and exploring the idea of starting up our own business to train people with additional needs.

“That is now Inclusively Fit, which is going brilliantly. We do personal training and group exercise with different groups throughout Derry. It has really taken off. The need for it is unbelievable. Anyone who is interested can find us on Facebook and Instagram,” said Sinéad.