Last week, if you wondered what that mild tremor was in your coffee, or whether there was thunder or a stampede somewhere near the Methodist Church, never fear, it was simply a new drumming-based exercise class!

Sophie, one of new members of the website team, decided to join the first session. She reports back.

"Having seen the advert for the Drum2Fitness taster session on Bishop Monkton Today, I decided to go along and give it a go. Although I looked at a few examples online, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Cardio drumming involves moving around and banging an inflatable exercise ball, which is sitting in a bucket, with drumsticks in time to music – it felt to me like a dance, music and exercise class all rolled into one.

As a Mum to a young child, I spend a lot of my time tip-toeing around the house trying not to wake a sleeping baby – it was really refreshing just to get to make some noise and dance about a bit. While, of course, my opening line exaggerated how much noise we produced (no coffees were disturbed in the attendance of this class), it was a lively and fun session with great music and lots of laughs. The soundtrack varied from Queen to The Black Eyed Peas, with singing along optional but encouraged.

I am far from a natural dancer, and I sometimes find it hard to copy a move accurately, but Sara Trewhitt, who runs the class, helpfully explained the individual moves in each routine before the music started, so I didn’t feel like I was running a beat behind everyone else. It was also a relaxed atmosphere, in the sense that it didn’t matter if you got it “wrong”, as long as you were moving and enjoying yourself. Sara was keen to emphasise that we should only do what we wanted and felt able to do and was happy to suggest alternative actions where needed to keep it inclusive and adaptable.

I came away feeling like I’d had a good workout for my body and my brain (keeping the rhythm and co-ordinating all the moves) and I was smiling for a good while afterwards. It was fun to try something a bit different – there were definitely a few curious heads popping into the door to see what was going on as they walked past!"

There will be a regular one-hour Drum2Fitness class on Thursdays at 11:15 a.m. in Bishop Monkton Methodist Church for £10 a session, but spaces are limited. If there is enough demand then the session could run on another day as well. So, if you are interested, please click to email Sara or telephone 07814 199367.

N.B. For one week only, the session is cancelled on Thursday June 12th.