David From Firhouse Men’s Shed Shares A Piece For Men’s Health Week
All this week we have been celebrating Men’s Health Week, and to continue with the theme, these week’s blog post is from David Norris, a member of the Firhouse Men’s Shed. Siel Bleu has been working with the Shed since October 2017 delivering our Exercise for Shedders programme which is specifically designed for men in conjunction with the Irish Men’s Shed Association.
“Firhouse Men’s Shed was founded in early 2017. l was gently coerced to join by Mick McFadden, one of the original members and have not regretted joining since. Well that’s not strictly true, l regretted it one night when l couldn’t sleep with aching muscles but that soon passed off. The Tuesday morning keep-fit classes (Exercise for Shedders) are an excellent way of keeping fit (well for one day a week anyhow !) with Paul and Sean being good-cop bad-cop.
The Men’s Shed not only improves physical health, but mental health as well. One of the scourges of getting older for many men is loneliness, especially for widowers, single, separated or divorced men. (maybe the odd married one too !) The Men’s’ Sheds promote friendship and companionship, especially in activities that don’t require copious amounts of alcohol to make them interesting. That’s not to say that the members are all po-faced teetotallers, far from it, but part of the enjoyment of the morning, or indeed any days activity we have, is having a cup or mug of tea or coffee with an artery-hardening fry-up or sinfully sweet confectionery afterwards.
l have nothing but the height of praise for Sean and Paul from Siel Bleu, they’ve made us realise we’ve muscles that we never knew had, and pains in places we never knew existed. Keep up the good work lads!”
-Dave Norris
David’s piece is particularly poignant with the release of the Loneliness Task Force Report on Wednesday. For more information on your local shed log onto www.menssheds.ie
The World Health Organisation recommends men get at least 150 minutes of exercise per week with 60 minutes dedicated to resistance training for the major muscle groups. The Exercise for Shedders programme offers the members of a shed to practice resistance and cardiovascular exercise in a safe environment, guided by professionals. For more information about the Exercise for Shedders programme follow the link
Thank you David for your input!
