Let’s Move!
Kickboxing, Aqua Fitness and the running community in Adlershof
Taking the bike to work, yoga during lunchbreak, a quick run in the park after work or a football match with co-workers – there are many opportunities for the “brainworkers” of the Science City Adlershof to move and exercise. The companies support these activities with health promotion activities of their own.
Mondays: back stabilisation. Tuesdays: badminton. Wednesdays: kickboxing. Thursdays: floorball, also known as unihockey. Fridays: volleyball. Sundays: yoga. Fitness, weight training, ball games and dance – when it comes to exercising, the residents of Adlershof do not have an excuse to be lazy. The large gym on Merlitzstrasse reopened for the public in September after it was used as a refugee emergency shelter for one and a half years. In the meantime, the local athletes lifted their weights in the sports studio of the Studentendorf Adlershof and moved their training to other makeshift accommodations. The range of courses offered by the college sports department of Humboldt-Universität alone is enormous. These are not only available to students and university employees. The people working in the Technology Park also have a lot to choose from. Some programmes like PausenExpress or Business Yoga even come straight to your desk. College sports employees go to people’s offices and help them take an active break from their work.
Alongside the college sports department, the Science City offers many other opportunities for exercising with private operators or clubs. One of the latter is the Berliner Tennis Club Wista (BTC WISTA), which has seven courts on the corner of Wilhelm-Oswald and Volmerstrasse. In this green oasis, anybody can come to swing the racket – children, pensioners, beginners or advanced players. Those who do not want to become a club member are welcome as guest players or may purchase a day ticket. Thanks to an air dome, people can play all year long – even in Winter. Dance enthusiasts are welcome at the Theaterstudio Adlershof on Moritz-Seeler-Straße. They offer classic Pilates, ballet and jazz dance. The studio Bodystreet Berlin Adlershof on Rudower Chaussee tones bodies using electrical muscle stimulation, a form of fitness from astronautics and sports medicine. According to the Bodystreet website, twenty minutes of training per week are enough to lose weight, build muscle and get fitter. Around the corner at Albert-Einstein-Strasse 4, the ARZ rehabilitation centre is open to ambitious visitors. It has courses like active lunch break, aqua fitness, Zumba, machine training or sauna. Don’t let the name confuse you. Non-rehabilitation patients are more than welcome. One of the highlights at the ARZ is the hypobaric training chamber, which simulates the decrease in oxygen concentration in heights of up to 4,500 metres. The body’s reaction is to create red blood cells, while the lungs have to put in more work, which results in a rapid increase of performance and regenerative abilities.
Right next to the Technology Park Adlershof, you see the runners doing their laps in the landscape park Johannisthal/Adlershof. The park is home to an important event for the Science City’s growing running community: The Company Run Adlershof. Every year in September, teams of three from Adlershof-based companies and institutes compete on an almost 9-kilometre track. The running event celebrated a visitor record this year with 513 male and female participants.
Alongside the runners, the landscape park is bustling with skaters, BMX riders, football, volleyball and hockey players. Workout fans push their limits in the outdoor area dedicated to abdominal and back training. Whether you’re taking a walk or running – exercising is good for everyone’s physical and mental balance.
More and more companies and institutes strive to support the health of their employees and create their own health promotion programmes. Marina Weigel of the Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V., for example, offers her colleagues a daily 10-minute back training routine without changing and beads of sweat.
The Helmholtz-Centre Berlin (HZB) even has a company sports club. “In Adlershof, there are more than 50 employees active in badminton, Pilates and football,” says Martina Stephan, who coordinates the HZB’s sports programme. The companies don’t solely focus on sports. Many provide their staff with massages to prevent posture mistakes and muscle tension caused by sitting for a long time and putting strain on certain body parts, which are typical for office jobs. Adlershof also boasts several physiotherapists. Atos, an IT service provider, has an even better service: Anja Muhs from Köpenick, who runs a physiotherapy service on Wendenschloßstrasse, is the mobile massagist responsible for visiting ATOS staff in their offices.
In our fast-moving age, however, exercise and massages are insufficient to counter the increase in work absence due to mental problems among the company’s staff. They are increasingly focusing on burn-out prevention, stress management, nutrition counselling, manager training, safety at work and ergonomic workplace design. WISTA-MANAGEMENT GMBH, the Technology Park’s operating company, has signed an agreement with the Techniker Krankenkasse, a statutory health insurance provider, to create on-site cross-company health management. Both companies are currently negotiating implementation by an external health manager. The first phase will be about creating more awareness among companies for health promotion issues and facilitate their access to respective measures.
Moreover, patients in Adlershof have access to more than 35 doctor’s offices and other medical facilities. Health-related activities and sports are all over Adlershof.
By Sylvia Nitschke for Adlershof Journal
www.hochschulsport.hu-berlin.de/en/
www.theateradlershof.de/theaterstudio/kursangebote/
www.bodystreet.com/de/standorte/deutschland/berlin/bodystreet-berlin-adlershof/