The Geelong community will push-up for better mental health and engage people through physical activity with the return of The Push-Up Challenge.
The nationwide event will involve participants doing 3,249 push-ups across 24 days from June 5 to 28 to raise money for mental health charities.
headspace Geelong and headspace Corio centre manager Tenille Favazza said the Push-Up Challenge helped “encourage meaningful conversations about mental health”.
“The challenge is great because it fosters teamwork and connection with the community in a really fun and engaging way,” she said.
“The target number of push-ups changes each day to reflect the different mental health statistics and encourage conversations about mental health.
“It’s so important that we continue to get conversations happening around mental health as we all need to put our hands up to access support at some time or another.”
Business owner Andrew Bews will participate in the Push-up Challenge alongside his team from Sync Fit Geelong to raise money for headspace.
“If we can get just somebody talking about it, then it’s going to grow bigger legs and be a bigger event than what we’ve seen so far,” he said.
“The team building, camaraderie, and community are all the big key things that lift this one above many other challenges.
“To be able to have conversations about the reason we’re doing the number of push-ups per day and the statistic that it relates to, brings it to life.”
The Push-Up Challenge founder, Nick Hudson, said it was likely that everyone would experience a mental health issue at some point in their lives.
“By getting down, pushing up and learning about mental health, we hope to break down the stigma attached to mental illness so that Australians don’t think twice about reaching out for help,” he said.
Visit thepushupchallenge.com.au to sign up for the Push-Up Challenge to raise funds and awareness for mental health.
Help is available in person at headspace Geelong or Corio, through Lifeline on 13 11 14, or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.
