Stay fit with National Men's Health Week

As much as we'd like to think otherwise, there aren't many health benefits associated with computers. We're just as likely to talk about the problems of being sedentary for long periods or getting repetitive strain injury. This week is Men's Health Week 2011 and is giving computers a chance to redeem themselves by providing a way to find out about staying healthy and spotting illnesses.

The centre of the week's activities is the NHS website Men's Health Forum. This website covers a wide range of health and fitness issues. I was pleased to see that most of the articles cover starting to live a healthier life and are very realistic in their aims. There's no expectation of going on 10 mile runs after a fortnight.

There's also plenty of help for finding out about health information on the internet in general, so it's a good opportunity to get friends online for the first time as well.

I also recommend the malehealth email newsletter (click here to sign up). It's had some helpful advice over the last few years that I've been reading it.

Health ecard

If you're looking to help motivate someone to become more healthy, you can send them and e-card from the Get a man online page. There are five messages covering losing weight, eating better and getting fit. As well as giving you a chance to send a message, each e-card has links to online resources.

The get fit card links to the Health and Fitness page on the NHS Choices website. There is plenty of useful information on these sites. I thought that the Couch to 5K podcast series is a particulary good idea. The podcasts are designed to be listened to while running so it's easy to run and walk for the correct times during the nine week course.