LiFT your mood - Yard Fitness
Using physical activity to improve men's mental health
The Lift Your Mood project has been running since October 2024 and is for men over the age of 30, specifically targeting and supporting men with mild to moderate mental health issues, with the aim to help them be healthier, happier, fitter and stronger.
Gyms can be quite intimidating places for newcomers and can often put people off from exercising, I wanted to provide an alternative and a safe space for men to exercise and improve both their mental and physical health. The LiFT project provides a weekly exercise session for men, they can either take part in the circuit class or follow their own workout programme.
The project provides an informal weekly fitness session for men. It is held outdoors and in a relaxed environment. Men have a choice of either doing their own workout or joining in the circuit class. There are roughly half a dozen participants that do their own workout with the rest of the group opting to do the circuit class. The participants work in pairs which provides social interaction with others taking part, so no one is left on their own.
2 million people are currently stuck on waiting lists for NHS mental health services. Real people, being left behind by a broken mental health system. As a result, every day in the UK we lose 18 people to suicide. In 2003, 5656 suicides were registered, with the male suicide rate being more than 3 times higher than females. It was found that men aged 45-49 years to have the highest suicide rate and is one of the biggest killer in men under the age of 50, and yet suicide is preventable!
The founder of Yard Fitness, Andy Knight’s brother committed suicide 5 years ago. His brother didn’t talk about the struggles he was having. He had no outlets, no groups or sporting environments which he enjoyed and that had previously been good for his mental health.
It's a really sad place for someone to be in and to feel that they can't talk to someone. Andy wanted to make sure that his memory does live on, and it will live on through this programme. The aim is that the programme will develop and create a network for men to support each other. If it helps one person to LiFT their mood, to talk to somebody and reach out, that's what it's about.
The participants are male and are predominantly white British. The average age of the participants is 44 and ranges from 35 to 67 years old. As stated above 90% of the participants stated that they were inactive (0-30mins of physical activity a week) prior to starting the session. This means that they are now undertaking at least 60 mins of physical activity. Around 50% of the participants now attend additional sessions, other than the LiFT class each week which has had a significant benefit to their physical and mental health.
Active Essex funded 12 weeks of sessions through the Find your Active fund, this enabled the sessions to be free, removing price as a barrier and encouraging more individuals to attend.
