Health

Move your Mind!

Dorset Mind launch their new ‘Move Your Mind’ wellbeing initiative for January, following on from last year’s successful £6,000 fundraiser

Last Autumn, local mental health charity, Dorset Mind, launched their ‘Move Your Mind’ initiative, with the aim of inspiring everyone to get moving to help get through the traditionally daunting period after Christmas and plan a positive start to the new year. A range of online classes and activities were offered that helped encourage people to improve their wellbeing, by getting active for at least 30 minutes, EVERY day, throughout the month.

Move it in January

The theme this year is ‘Move your body, to free your mind’ – emphasizing the positive benefits of regular physical movement to our collective mental health and wellbeing. Restrictions permitting, the charity aims to run walks in person every weekend at various locations in Dorset as part of their January timetable. Did you know that regular exercise has a direct impact on mental health? It can help manage anxiety, stress and intrusive thoughts by releasing cortisol which helps manage stress. It’s also known to reduce the likelihood of experiencing a period of depression. Importantly, by concentrating on your body and movement, that act gives your brain something else to focus on and can be a positive coping strategy.

Togetherness

We also witnessed a continued sense of community last year as people pulled together through the pandemic and emerged from multiple lockdowns. It’s this togetherness that ‘Move Your Mind’ hopes to continue by encouraging people to sign up together and help each other through the notoriously tough first month of the year. ‘Move Your Mind’ proved to be a huge success in 2021 – and has raised over £6,000 to help fund the charity’s 1-2-1 and group support across Dorset. As last year, it’s FREE to take part, with the opportunity to donate or fundraise a minimum of £31 - that’s just £1 for every day in January. As a non-profit, don’t forget all donations go towards helping the charity support local people in need.

How to join in

Registration opens midNovember 2021, and the charity invites everyone across the county to join in. It’s open to individuals, teams, schools and businesses and people can get active in any way they want. This makes it suitable for anyone who wants to plan their positive start to the year with a change in their usual routine - or with a bigger challenge for themselves or a team. You’ll find a registration form and extra resources to download at https://dorsetmind.uk/moveyour-mind/ Participants are encouraged to share their stories, efforts and progress online, by tagging the dedicated Instagram account - @move_your_mind_dorset. This will also help encourage a supportive online community - and inspire other people to take part.

To help encourage participants, Dorset Mind is appealing to local businesses to help sponsor the campaign. If your organisation wishes to help support the charity, please email Hannah Garrett at fundraising@dorsetmind.uk

Your winter wellness checklist

Much has been written this year about keeping our immune systems in good condition, and it is something I’m asked about regularly in clinic. Even if your immune system is compromised there are things you can do as a self-help measure.

Look after your Gut

It is said that 80% of our immune system resides in the cells that line our gut. This means we need to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables to keep our immune systems humming along. Rich in vitamins and minerals, choose whatever fruit and veg is in season and organic if possible. Fill half of your plate with vegetables or fruit and try to ‘Eat the Rainbow’ - each colour brings its own benefits and the wider the diversity, the better for your gut bugs.

Get your vitamin D levels checked

Along with good gut health, vitamin D is the cornerstone of a strong immune system. During a UK winter, there is simply not enough sunshine to make vitamin D through the skin (how we normally obtain vitamin D, though we can get a small amount through certain foods). This means that we should all supplement through the winter. This is also recommended by the NHS, although the amount they recommend is barely enough to maintain current levels. In studies, vitamin D deficient individuals were found to be at higher risk of COVID-19 infection compared to vitamin D sufficient patients. An optimum level of vitamin D is between 75nmol/L and 100nmol/L. You can get an athome test for £29 https://www. vitamindtest.org.uk/ and you can calculate how much you may need here. You can read more about the importance of vitamin D in an article I wrote last year here.

Sleep

Disordered sleep promotes inflammation, and healthy sleep supports an anti-viral immune response. As part of your wind down routine, deploy the twohour rule for healthy sleep: • Leave two hours between eating and drinking before bed • Leave a two-hour gap before intense exercise and bed • No devices two hours before bed and start to reduce your exposure to light.

Stress

Stress chemistry is inherently inflammatory. Cortisol is released in response to stress and it has an immune suppressive action. We all have stress in our lives, some of it useful, but we can certainly help ourselves by: • switching off the news and limiting social media. • Take time to relax and laugh • Find one thing a day that brings you joy.

Reduce things that may depress your immune system

Sugar, refined processed foods, alcohol and cigarettes all rob the body of nutrients, create inflammation, damage your gut and give you nothing in return.

Exercise

Inactivity is associated with a higher incidence of infection, slower recovery and poor antibody response. Try to get outdoors in the fresh air, even if just for a daily walk. Be aware that excessive exercise can lower immunity, so be sure to find balance.

HEALTH

Mel Mitchell is a personal trainer, group exercise instructor & sports massage therapist based in

Sturminster Newton.

Keep it all moving

Simple mobility is a really important aspect of being healthy - but it is an area often neglected in a regular exercise routine.

I am definitely guilty of not giving mobility exercises the attention they deserve - and I 100% feel the benefits when I do! I would be the first to admit that it is often not until I have a stiff back that I realise I should incorporate a bit of mobility into my routine!

A full range of motion

Maintaining a full range of motion is important for so many reasons. Firstly, good mobility decreases your chance of injury. Any restricted movement in a joint can cause dysfunction, which in turn could lead to injury. Having good mobility also gives us the potential to become stronger in the full range of motion. For example, if you have limited mobility within a squat, you will become strong but only within that limited motion, rather than in the full range of movement. Working on good mobility first will then allow you to train and strengthen through all phases of the squat.

Quick and efficient

The beauty of mobility exercises is that they are time efficient and easy to do. Even as little as 5-10 minutes per day can be massively beneficial, and will be enough to see real progress. Plus mobility exercises can be done almost anywhere - most can be done using just bodyweight or minimal equipment.

Cat Cow

One of my favourite mobility exercises is known as a spinal roll down (see video left), which I find massively beneficial for my back. Not only does it release tension but it also increases mobility in the back, neck and legs and leaves you feeling inches taller (which is always a bonus when you feel a little vertically challenged!). Spinal roll down is an easy exercise - simply rolling down, vertebrae by vertebrae, letting the head and arms hang. Another great exercise is known as the cat/cow (see video above) which helps relieve stiffness in the hip, back, shoulders and neck. This is performed on all fours, moving the spine from an arched position, lowering the belly button toward the ground, to rounding the back toward the ceiling. Always happy to answer your questions - send them to me on melmitchellmassage@gmail.com 89