{"id":35743,"date":"2025-01-23T17:53:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T22:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35743"},"modified":"2025-01-23T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T22:53:09","slug":"push-up-challenge-is-new-way-to-get-moving-for-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/push-up-challenge-is-new-way-to-get-moving-for-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Push-Up Challenge is new way to get moving for mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are you looking for some motivation to keep at some of your New Year\u2019s fitness resolutions while helping the community at the same time? Well, some simple moves to strengthen your core can make a big difference in \u201ccore\u201d mental health programs in York Region and South Simcoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canadian Mental Health Association of York Region and South Simcoe (CMHA-YRSS) is set to participate in The Push-Up Challenge, Canada\u2019s largest mental health and fitness event, which runs from February 11 to February 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the Challenge, participants will be tasked to complete 2,000 push-ups, representing the approximately 2,000 lives lost to suicide each day around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pledges collected by the participants will stay local, supporting critical care mental health services and programs in the community, with a particular focus on youth mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Push-Up Challenge is a national fundraising event\u2026 and we\u2019re joining Canadians all across the country in an extraordinarily difficult [task]. Sometimes we need to challenge ourselves to do something that is really hard for something that is meaningful \u2013 to raise money for local services,\u201d says Rebecca Shields, CEO of CMHA-YRSS. \u201cSometimes we do the hard things because it reminds us how important it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Challenge was first initiated in Australia by people who lost someone they loved to suicide, Shields notes, and has since spread around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CMHA-YRSS\u2019 participation in the Push-Up Challenge replaces what has previously been one of their flagship fundraisers for their programs and services, Mental Health in Motion, which they are looking back on as a success story spanning more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think all events have a good life span and we really wanted to try something different,\u201d says Shields. \u201cThe incredible supporters, donors, and volunteers have been so great over the years, but we really felt it was time to refresh our event strategy. We wanted to be part of this national event and we felt we really couldn\u2019t do both, so this was a really exciting opportunity for us to work with all of our branches across Canada and do something that is really important together for mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor us, we always support where the funds are needed the most,\u201d says Shields, noting their mobile mental health unit for youth, MOBYSS, will benefit from these funds. Other youth programs, and recreation opportunities for people of all ages \u201cliving with really serious, persistent mental illness, to have a chance to do something they otherwise wouldn\u2019t be able to do\u201d will be supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If push-ups aren\u2019t right for you, however, you can still be involved. In addition to sponsoring a participant or group, people can register for sit-ups, squats, or other alternative exercises \u2013 and you can also aim for 50 per cent of the push-up target if 1,000 sounds more inviting than 2,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s important, notes Shields is keeping eyes on the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love a good goal \u2013 and I\u2019m going to be joining our Board\u2019s team and we\u2019ll do it together to raise money for CMHA,\u201d she says. \u201cAs last year was the last year with Mental Health in Motion, this allows me to ask friends who supported me in that physical activity to support me in this physical activity, so we can continue to support the really important programs \u2013 and that\u2019s motivation enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the Challenge, visit www.thepushupchallenge.ca\/home?lightbox=\/register-select&utm_term=cmha-62.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you looking for some motivation to keep at some of your New Year\u2019s fitness resolutions while helping the community at the same time? Well, some simple moves to strengthen your core can make a big difference in \u201ccore\u201d mental health programs in York Region and South Simcoe. The Canadian Mental Health Association of York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9iv","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 09:46:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35744,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35743\/revisions\/35744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}