Swansea City AFC Foundation’s health and wellbeing programmes get moving for mental health awareness week
Swansea City AFC Foundation’s health and wellbeing programmes have been highlighting the importance of movement this week as they mark mental health awareness week.
The theme for this year’s mental health awareness week, set by the Mental Health Foundation, is ‘moving more for our mental health’, encouraging people to find their moments for movement so that everyone can experience the benefits which can come with exercise.
The Foundation deliver a range of programmes which focus on wellbeing through movement including FIT Jacks, Active Jacks and Walking Football, with this week’s Cwtch Coffee morning also incorporating movement with a chair yoga session.
Shân Carver from The Beach Fit Club introduced chair yoga to the participants, with many of them taking part in the activity for the first time. A number of the group expressed how they are now looking forward to taking what they learned forward, incorporating low impact movement at home.
“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I really enjoyed it,” said Sandra, a Cwtch Coffee participant.
“Many years ago I tried traditional yoga but I’ve been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my shoulder so I found this more enjoyable and found I could open up and relax more, so I will definitely look to try this at home too.”
To add an extra element of fun to this week’s walking football session, participants competed in a football Olympics, which consisted of a variety of games including football tennis, crossbar challenge and a dribbling contest.
“It makes me feel absolutely great,” said walking football participant Andrew.
“I had a period in my life when I didn’t do any exercise, but I’ve started doing FIT Jacks and walking football and it has changed my life.”
Swansea City AFC Foundation’s health and wellbeing officer Caroline Gwilym is proud that the programmes they offer have such a positive impact on the physical and mental health people across the community.
“Movement is really important for your mental health as well as your physical health,” said Gwilym.
“We’ve had lots of different opportunities throughout our programmes to spread the message about the importance of movement and we’ve been trying to encourage people to move more in their day-to-day lives and through our programmes.
“It’s important for us to be as inclusive and open to everyone as we can be, and that’s no different when it comes to movement and physical activity.
“We try to offer a range of different opportunities, from very low level to pushing people that little harder to help them achieve their goals. We want this to be inclusive, we want our exercises to be adaptable for all levels to suit each individual.”
To find out more about all of the Foundation’s health and wellbeing programmes, click here.