Today is International Men’s Day, it’s a time when we can all celebrate the men in our lives. The theme this year is ‘Better Health for Men and Boys’. Nine months ago we started streaming live on Facebook and we now have hundreds of people joining us for live exercise and some of them are men.
Men have historically avoided our classes because they mistakenly believe they’re for just women. Thank goodness times have changed! Exercise is an important social factor and we are now seeing more mixed gender classes.
We asked one of our top fans, Barry Cutler to write few words on ‘International Men’s Day’
Barry Cutler
Well, there I was due to retire at the end of March 2020 and was looking forward to a new planned life of endless days out and weekends away with my partner Wendy. Then suddenly Covid19 lockdown was upon us! I didn’t really retire, I just stopped going to work that last week of March as we all sheltered, stayed at home, saved lives, and protected the NHS.
Locked down, we had nowhere to go except very cautious shopping trips until we could get delivery slots. We started walking for our daily exercise and we enjoyed finding many pathways and walkways around the village and immediate countryside. This gave us our exercise with easy options to avoid other people as this became the “new normal”.
FLexercise had started the daily 10@10 online on Facebook Live and Wendy, a long time member of the Oxford class, quickly joined in. It was assisting her to get the screen from the phone onto the television for a large picture that I had the opportunity to see FL in action and to join in the class. I have always been active in my work and my former hobbies where I practiced and taught TaeKwon-Do, a martial art, so I am aware of the benefits of exercise for both physical and mental well being.
Every Monday to Friday I look forward to joining the daily FLexercise 10@10 Facebook sessions, which gives me good motivation and starts my day off perfectly. I can see why Wendy has been a member for 58 years. Wouldn’t it be great to see more men joining in!
If you are interested in Men and Boys issues all year round – please look at the http://www.menandboyscoalition.org.uk/