SYKETTÄ Physical Activity Counselling helping along the way

Just over a year full of free SYKETTÄ exercise counselling between Savonia Moves partners.

Two customers who have visited physical activity counselling will now share their own experiences of physical activity counselling during 2025. The physical activity advisor at SYKETTÄ services is Alma Reinikainen. SYKETTÄ exercise counselling consists of a maximum of five meetings, 1-2 of which can be used at the Wellness Center’s physiotherapy students’ appointment. At the first meeting of physical activity counselling, the client’s situation is discussed comprehensively, goals are set and a plan is drawn up to achieve them. The sports advisor will help and support you throughout the process!

The first person to introduce us is Princess, a nurse who has already graduated from Savonia.

“I’m Princess, a 32-year-old mother of three. I was in an internship during the spring of 2025 and my mind had started to yearn to return to the level of activity I had been at before getting married and having my first child, because now I was tired and couldn’t really get myself to start moving. During the internship, I admired how the elderly, that is, closer to 100 years old, are still able to function, walk with a walker and walk stairs. That is what inspires me in particular.”

“I added walking to my everyday life during that internship. However, I was lost in terms of how to proceed from here, even though I knew what to do and had plenty of internal motivation. Then one day, I came across the free SYKETTÄ sports counselling service in Repu, an information channel for Savonia students, and I felt that it could be just right for me. I booked an appointment and was able to visit my first appointment even before the start of the summer holidays.”

Princess and I met at the Savonia Wellness Center for an initial assessment of exercise counselling, where we went through her current life situation and her attitude towards exercise in general. We also went through what kind of exercise is meaningful to her and what wishes and goals she has.

“The sports counsellor listened to me and focused on my wishes and needs. He shrugged off the belief that you have to be very active right away. He also told me to listen to my body and work with it. This was a so-called “game changer” for me. When I was younger and childless, I thought that I had to train every day, and I did dance training on YouTube at the time. Now, in this situation in my life, I felt like a failure when I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the energy to do the same workouts as before and my mind was completely down about it. A stimulating conversation with a sports advisor made me believe in myself again and my enthusiasm was awakened. My plan was that training three times a week would be enough.”

The enthusiasm and change that arose during the first visit was visible in Princess, so she confidently set out to implement the plan made together during the independent training phase. So what happened during the summer?

“I continued my daily walk and did 5–10 minutes of dance training at home three times a week. When I noticed that I was getting stronger and able to do it, I did the workout every other day and eventually daily. I also tried the workout I had done before. At first, I was only able to do it for 3–4 minutes, but I didn’t stress about it, but rather I knew where I was. I continued practicing and at the end of the summer I was able to do that 10-minute high-intensity dance workout completely. It was a great feeling!

“My daughters are my training buddies – they dance at home with me. This is more fun than training!”

“At the end of the summer, I noticed other things as well. The clothes that I was about to put away because they didn’t fit me anymore fit me! I had lost weight along with increasing my activity, which was a nice addition, even though it wasn’t my goal. My goal was to find activity.”

Princess is an energetic and inspiring person. Her loved ones have started to playfully call her a “walking activist” because she shares the good news of walking with her because she has experienced it working.

“Even if there is one bus stop interval before the destination, start small.”

“And really, I recommend exercise counselling to everyone! It’s free of charge, so you won’t lose anything. You can get a lot out of this. You will not receive any ready-made “one-size-fits-all instructions”, but the exercise advisor will listen to your situation and give advice that suits your life situation and thus it is easier to implement. I wish I had known about this already in the first year!”

Princess has used the Wellness Center’s inbody body composition measurement, which provides information on the body’s muscle and fat mass and fluid balance, among other things. Princess took the first measurement in the spring of 2025 before the start of the physical activity counselling and the second after the end of the physical activity counselling. The results of the latter measurement showed a positive change – and Princess noticed the same in her own well-being. With this, a new goal has also been found: to build muscle so that you can cope even better. With the help of good muscle mass, Princess will be able to work as independently, independently and inspiring her younger ones in the future, as the elderly people she met in her training. After all, he is already a role model for his own children.

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Our other client, Liisa, tells about her own journey with physical activity counselling and the new kind of everyday life it brings as follows:

“In the autumn of 2025, I was visiting an FSHS nurse for a basic visit. We talked about well-being and the nurse asked me about my exercise habits. I told him that I was a so-called yo-yo in that regard, sometimes more, sometimes less. However, the hope was that exercise would become a habit and a part of life. The public health nurse introduced me to SYKETTÄ exercise counselling, which I had not even heard of yet. He asked if he could give my phone number to an advisor so that he could contact me. I agreed to this, and within a week the sports counsellor contacted me and we agreed on the first meeting.”

Liisa is a 4th-year student of social sciences at the Kuopio campus of the University of Eastern Finland. She already has one previous degree from Savonia, which has made her familiar with SYKETTÄ services: “I used to go to group exercise, but for some reason, I just didn’t buy a membership during my university studies.” He remembers the Wellness Center better as Viretori.

“I went to the physical activity counselling clinic five times. On the first visit, we went through the situation overview and my wishes for physical activity counselling. We came to the conclusion that investing in muscle fitness is justified, as I had previously mostly done aerobic and endurance exercise (running). We agreed on the next visit to the gym. I felt like an inexperienced gym-goer and I had no idea what to do there. We got to know the equipment and full-body muscle training with the help of equipment and weights.

On the first visit, we also planned suitable times for the physiotherapy students’ appointment, which would be my third visit to the physical activity counselling session. Physiotherapy students checked for neck and shoulder stiffness, performed mobility tests, and examined the body’s half-differences and weaknesses. I also received instructions on how to strengthen the shoulder area. The visit stayed in my mind as a positive experience and I was left with a good feeling that my body was not as broken as I had thought it would be!”

On the following visits, Liisa and I focused on ways to reduce the strain and increase recovery in the middle of everyday life. We also tried break exercise and brainstormed how Savonia’s Pomodoro time management tool or SYKETTÄ break exercise videos could help in everyday life. Methods that had already been learned also came up.

We had a discussion about where and what kind of recovery is needed at any given time; whether it is the need to recover from reading for exams and the flood of information, or physical exertion. There are different ways to do this.

“On the last visit, we met at the Studentia chapel and reviewed where we started and what had been achieved. I also felt a bit sad and unreal – do I have to cope with this myself? I had already gotten used to these physical activity counselling meetings, so coping on my own felt a bit wistful and unreal. However, in terms of quantity, there were just the right amount of these. During the journey to the sports counselling, I acquired a membership in SYKETTÄ sports services, and in the spring of 2026, I signed up for the SYKETTÄ swimming technique course, even though the starting level was that I was afraid to put my face in the water. Now I’m already practicing freestyle!”

Liisa recommends physical activity counselling to everyone. “Especially for those who think that they don’t have the time or energy. That’s when it’s really hard to get started yourself when you come up with the reasons why not. However, life starts to shape around the fact that it’s possible and I feel like I’m leaving now.

In my current everyday life, I try to remember the advice “a little is better than nothing”. So if I don’t go to the gym, I can do a few squats at home. And nowadays I notice the difference between a working and a non-functioning body, and I don’t want to go back to the old one. This didn’t happen like a magic trick, but has taken time. I feel that continuing this lifestyle makes sense, as the neck and head pain have decreased significantly.”

“It has helped me to build routines by finding someone with whom I can arrange these exercise moments. I am social and dare to approach others by suggesting a joint gym or swimming workout. Physical activity counselling could be developed so that there would be some low-threshold things that could be grouped.”

“A well-being act tip for everyone, that you can always go to the forest. It has been shown to have a calming and restorative effect on us. Picking up trash while walking is also a good deed for both nature and yourself.”

SYKETTÄ Physical Activity Counselling offers its customers a vantage point to get to know the university’s well-being and sports services and thus enable them to find their own way of moving. In addition, you can deepen your own hobby with weekly classes and courses, for example. In addition, it is possible to promote one’s own well-being at the Wellness Center’s physiotherapy students’ appointment, where you can also get help and support, for example, in the treatment of pain or ailments that restrict movement. In this way, taking care of oneself becomes part of the everyday life and community of higher education institutions.

If successful, physical activity counselling provides the client with tools and routines for a more energetic everyday life.

Article has been previously published at Savonian artikkelit, laitettu julkasuun samaan aikaan

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Authors

Alma Reinikainen, physical activity counsellor, SYKETTÄ, liikuntaneuvoja@opiskelijakuntasavotta.fi

Salla Lommi, Service coordinator Savonia Wellness Center, Savonia University of Applied Sciences, salla.lommi@savonia.fi

This article was prepared with the help of AI.