Swansea City AFC Foundation’s health and wellbeing programs are in full swing this week, emphasizing the significance of movement in conjunction with mental health awareness week. The theme for this year’s mental health awareness week, as designated by the Mental Health Foundation, is ‘moving more for our mental health’, urging individuals to discover moments for movement to reap the benefits associated with exercise.
The Foundation administers a variety of programs centered around wellbeing through movement, such as FIT Jacks, Active Jacks, and Walking Football. This week’s Cwtch Coffee morning even integrated movement with a chair yoga session, with Shân Carver from The Beach Fit Club introducing chair yoga to the participants.
Participants engaged in the activity for the first time expressed their enthusiasm for incorporating low-impact movement into their routines at home. Sandra, a Cwtch Coffee participant shared, “I really enjoyed it. 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.”
In an effort to infuse additional fun into the walking football session, participants partook in a football Olympics, engaging in various games like football tennis, crossbar challenge, and a dribbling contest. Andrew, a walking football participant, exclaimed, “It makes me feel absolutely great. 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.”
Caroline Gwilym, Swansea City AFC Foundation’s health and wellbeing officer, expressed pride in the positive impact their programs have on the physical and mental health of individuals in the community. Gwilym emphasized, “Movement is really important for your mental health as well as your physical health. We’ve had lots of different opportunities throughout our programs 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 programs.”
Gwilym further added, “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 for everyone.”
