It is Caribbean Wellness Day on 8th September and this day kicks off a week of wellness activities to celebrate Caribbean Wellness Week.

Caribbean Wellness Day  started in 2008  following the CARICOM Summit on Chronic Diseases held in Trinidad in September 2007. This annual event was established to:

• increase the awareness of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) burden in the Caribbean;
• mobilise and strengthen public, private, and civil society partnerships for NCDs;
• promote multi country, multisectoral activities in support of wellness; and
• showcase national and community level activities to promote healthy living and encourage residents to develop good health practices.

Wellness Walk 

We attended the St Kitts Caribbean Wellness Week’s planning meetings organised by the Ministry of Health and are delighted invite you to the St Kitts Caribbean Wellness Day Walk on 8th September at 5AM (!).

The Ministry of Health will be partnering with Elite Fitness and other local gyms to spearhead the inaugural Caribbean Wellness Day Walk. This is just one of the many activities organised to commemorate  Caribbean Wellness Week which runs from 8th to 14th September.

Owner of Elite Fitness, Althus Herbert, said:

“The Elite Fitness Gym is glad to have been afforded the opportunity to partner with the Ministry of Health for Caribbean Wellness Week and honoured to be the leading gym to spearhead the walk. We pride ourselves in maintaining the physical well-being of our clients. We are also looking forward to this being an annual event and collaborating on future events with the ministry,”

The meeting point is at the Caribbean Cinemas  parking lot. The event will start with a warm-up activity and then attendees will make their way to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and back.

Registration is just $10EC for children who are 12 and under and $20EC for attendees who are 13 or older.  We delighted to say there is a special corporate registration package of $15EC per person for every 10 people registered from the same organisation.

Join us for an invigorating, fun walk to start your day on a healthy note. We hope to see you there!

You can listen to a short promo clip here

Public Health England is conducting the first national survey to explore the health and wellbeing of people working in the sport, fitness and leisure industry.  This is a large industry with around 630,300 people working in the field accounting for 2% of the UK’s workforce.

Similar surveys have been conducted on people working in other sectors to determine the reasons for sickness absence. This is a significant issue in the UK with about 131 million work days lost through sickness absence.  These surveys found that sickness absence was due to ill health caused by feelings of discrimination, stress in the workplace and lifestyle choices.

This survey is being conducted to understand the general health and work status of people working in the sport, fitness and leisure industry.  They’d like to use the findings of the survey to inform employers on how they can better support the health and wellbeing of their staff.

If you’re interested in taking part in this survey, please click here for more information.

If you’re black African, black British or black Caribbean, we highly recommend that you take part so that any issues related to race and be properly identified and explored.

Yesterday, Public Health England published its guidance on how to get adults more active. In their report they state the benefit of physical activity –  it improves the physical and mental wellbeing of individuals. Then they explain how much activity adults should take part in. They recommend that adults should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week, in bouts of 10 minutes or more.

They describe moderate-intensity activities as anything that causes you to get warmer and breathe harder and gets your heart rate up,  such as cycling or a brisk walk.

It is also recommended that adults aim to be active daily. Additionally, adults should include a muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days of the week to prevent loss of muscle mass.

Finally, their guidance stresses the importance of minimising the amount of time spent sitting for extended periods of time. This increases the risk of a number of health conditions.

They suggest the following to reduce the amount of time sitting:

• Reducing the time spent watching TV, using a computer or playing video games
• Reducing the amount of time sitting during work
• Walking part of the way on a long bus or car journey

Research has shown that many of the UK’s minority ethnic groups have lower rates of physical activity participation and do not achieve the recommended levels of physical activity. Therefore it’s very important that the black community takes notice and becomes more active. The Lake Foundation through its cycling club is aiming to get our community more active. Please do join us for a fun way to get some exercise. For more information email events@thelakefoundation.com

 

The UK’s Change For Life programme has once again teamed up with Disney for the 10 Minute Shake Up campaign. This campaign aims to get children active over the summer by encouraging them to do 10 minute bursts of moderate to vigorous activity throughout the day every day, so they meet the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity that children need.

The 10 Minute Shake Up was launched in July 2014 and is back this year. The campaign is inspired by Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory and it uses Disney characters like to get kids involved in a range of fun activities such as swimming,  dancing and ball games.

To find out more visit their website here and for resources to get you started click here

A new report has highlighted that today’s children are not active enough. Children as young as two spend much more time playing with ipads, computers and similar gadgets than exercising. UK guidelines recommend that children under 5 years of age should be physically active for a minimum of 3 hours a day. Those between 5 and 15 should be active for a minimum of one hour each day.

The report notes that over 80% of pre-school children do not exercise for  even an hour a day. Some of the reasons for the lack of activity include parents using ipads as modern-day dummies (to keep children entertained).  Children also do less walking and are more likely to be driven between locations. 

The health implications linked with low physical activity in children are numerous. It can affect brain, bone and muscle development. It is also associated with higher rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes.  Children who develop good exercise habits are more likely to maintain these into adulthood and therefore reduce their risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. This is of particular importance to people of African and African-Caribbean descent who already exhibit high rates of these conditions.  

Parents can encourage physical activity in their children in a variety of ways including short walks and playing traditional physical games.

You can read more about this report and gain tips for increasing physical activity in children here.

From 7^th November 2015 a new fun, holistic fitness classes will be held at the Salvation Army every Saturday morning at 7:15am and 9am.

During each session not only will you take part in a group fitness session but you’ll be given nutritional advice, a health assessment and 1 on 1 personal training.
All fitness levels and age groups are welcome.

For more information and to book your place please contact Eunice Adu Appiah (euniceaduappiah@yahoo.co.uk, 07943 460 522)

All details can be found on the flyer which you can download below.

May is National Walking Month and organisers, Living Streets, are encouraging the general public to get out of their car, get off public transport and walk everywhere in an effort to get more active this month.

You can get involved in this fun campaign by taking part in the many activities that are planned for this month such asWalk to School Week from 18^th to 22^nd May and Walk to Work Week from 11^th to 15^th May. They have lot of resources to get you started such as a carbon buster calculator, walking report cards, walking tips, posters, flyers and an events calendar. Visit their website for more information.

Get involved for a fun way to get some exercise and improve your health. #WalkThisMay!

A study published this week in JAMA has shown that vigorous physical activity is better for our health and enables us to outlive those that just take part in gentle or moderate exercise.

This was a large study including 204,542 people who were followed for just over six years. Researchers compared participants who took part in moderate exercise such as gentle swimming, housework and social tennis to participants who engaged in some vigorous activity such as jogging or aerobics. They found that the risk of premature death was 9 to 13 percent lower in those taking part in vigorous exercise.

As a result of their findings researchers concluded that “vigorous activities should be endorsed in clinical and public health activity guidelines to maximize the population benefits of physical activity.”

This study is useful as it helps us understand the type of exercise that we need to take part in to reap the maximum benefit. We encourage everyone to introduce some vigorous activity into their exercise plan.

Macmillan Cancer Support has commissioned TNS BMRB, an independent research company, to explore the barriers and motivations for physical activity for those living with and beyond cancer. This research will help inform the development of interventions to help those living with and beyond cancer engage with the benefits of physical activity. TNS BMRB is an independent research agency which conducts work for a range of government departments and charities.

In April, TNS BMRB will be conducting one hour face-to-face home interviews with people living with and beyond cancer. This can be at a date and time most convenient for the individual.  TNS BMRB will be conducting additional research online later in May, which will be conducted through a smartphone app and online. This may be more appropriate for those who do not wish to have a face to face interview, or prefer to participate remotely.

In the interview participants will be asked about their attitudes towards physical activity, after treatment and at other times.  Participation in interviews is flexible – we can pause or stop the interview at any time for any reason. Taking part in this research is  completely confidential and anonymous, and the information provided will be used for research purposes only. We offer all participants a £40 gift as a thank you for their time.

We wish to include a broad spectrum of people living with and beyond cancer as part of the research – so we are interested in speaking to everyone. However, we are also aiming to reach some particular groups:

• People aged 14-20
• Aged 75 and over
• People currently receiving treatment
• People post-treatment, who have a non-curable cancer, or an advanced cancer and are in palliative care
• Those who do not have very active lifestyles

If you are interested in taking part or would like more information please contact Rebecca Paton (Rebecca.paton@tns-bmrb.co.uk, +44 7831 702513)

Between the 2nd and 13th of March 2015, UK Active, Public Health England (PHE), the County Sports Partnership Network (CSP Network) and the Local Government Association (LGA) will deliver the second round of the Moving More Living More Physical Activity Fora.

Physical inactivity is the fourth largest cause of disease and disability in the UK and action is required by a collaboration of partners at a national and local level in order to address the problem and create a more active nation.

The Moving More, Living More regional physical activity fora were established to provide national insight into what can be done to tackle physical inactivity from a national level, as well as fostering conversations and producing partnerships at a local level to make an impact on local outcomes.

The second round of Moving More, Living More regional fora will present the most recent developments in the national movement for a more active England  and develop tangible actions that will make a difference at a local level.

The events will move the local agenda for physical activity forward and drive down into the details of how we can begin to tackle inactivity and create happier, healthier societies.

They will explore the evidence behind physical activity interventions from across the country – as well as giving a more localised focus to individual initiatives – and begin to assess the next steps for how local partners can work together collaboratively to combat physical inactivity.

Events news you:

Taunton: Monday 2nd March
Somerset County Cricket Club,
The County Ground,
Taunton,
Somerset,
TA1 1JT
South East Region: Wednesday 4th March
Etc venues (The Hatton),
51-53 Hatton Garden,
London,
EC1N 8HN
London: Friday 6th March
The Grange St Pauls,
10 Godliman Street,
London,
EC4V 5AJ
Blackpool: Wednesday 11th March
Winter Gardens
97 Church Street,
Blackpool,
Lancashire,
FY1 1HL
Birmingham: Friday 13th March
The Studio,
7 Cannon Street,
Birmingham,
B2 5EP
For more information and to book a place please visit  UK Active’s website. The Lake Foundation will be attending and we hope to see you there!