Men's Health Awareness

Throughout November, Ole Miss Campus Recreation sponsored several events and activities to promote men’s health awareness.

The goal of the campaign was to push the different mental, physical, and spiritual benefits of men’s health and wellness. During the duration of November, male students and men were invited to participate in activities like battle of the beards basketball, no shave November, and yoga classes called broga geared toward men. 

Most of the activities and promotions took place in the Turner Center and were advertised on the campus recreation website. Each Monday and Wednesday were deemed Mustache Mondays and Wellness Wednesdays. Men were encouraged to take a picture with fake mustaches or show off the progress of growing their own on Mondays, and each Wednesday featured a booth that focused on a different aspect of men’s health. 

Personal trainer and group fitness instructor Chelsea Stacks said it was nice to see so many students and men get involved with a good and healthy cause. She believes the project was a huge success overall.

“I think people kind of forget about men’s health sometimes because men are supposed to be viewed as macho,” Stacks said. “Dedicating a month toward health and wellness for men is fun to see and I think everybody really enjoyed it. I’m glad I can be a part of something that educates people and helps get them get healthier!”

Men’s health awareness month was started at Ole Miss about five years ago and has continued to grow in success. Many of the ideas and promotions at Ole Miss correlate with the national men's Movember movement which helps to raise awareness of men's health and stop men from dying too young. 

Fitness coordinator Andy Karch helped promote and direct many of the events during the campaign. Karch said his favorite part of this project was the battle of the beards basketball game because the students got a chance to play against the faculty and staff.

“Everybody playing got a free fake beard or mustache and it was hilarious,” Karch said. “We had games and stuff going on for the crowd too. It got really intense for everyone involved and our director Peter Tulchinsky actually shot the game winning three-pointer. People went nuts! The crowd was stellar.”

A large portion of the campaign at Ole Miss involved men’s prostate health. As a leading cause of death among males, prostate cancer is very intimidating.  Karch said it was a major focus of the promotion and they tried to provide prevention information and statistics surrounding cancer among men, such as the facts discussed in Men's Health Magazine.

Staff member Landon Wadkins participated in most of the events and said he learned a lot during the campaign. 

“The booths on Wellness Wednesdays were really cool,” said Wadkins, “I actually found out a good bit of information related to cancer and prevention that I didn’t know”.

With so much success, the staff of campus recreation hopes to make the men's health awareness campaign even bigger and better next year! Getting the word out around Oxford and other departments on campus is the ultimate goal. Staff member Zach Howard said he believes everyone can make a difference in this movement.

"Even women are important to men's health awareness and we really tried to push that this year," Howard said. "They can pass the info along to their brothers, fathers, boyfriends and husbands. Even if just one life is saved or one guy started early screening, we did our job."