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Mike Tindall shares important health message

Zara Tindall's husband encouraged his fans to take part in a special movement

mike tindall
Bridie Wilkins
Senior Health & Fitness Writer
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Mike Tindall has taken to Instagram to show his support for an important health movement. The royal, who is married to Zara Tindall, daughter of Princess Anne, championed Red January – a campaign encouraging people to get active every day in January in order to beat 'January blues'.

SEE: Mike Tindall shares wife Zara's honest thoughts on his mental health struggles

Mike's post showed a collage of people who have already started the challenge. He captioned it: "Let's get behind the @Redjanuaryuk team and get active every day in January redtogether.co.uk #redjanuary."

WATCH: Mike Tindall discusses dad's battle with Parkinson's disease

Red January replied: "Thank you for inspiring more people to move for their mental health, @mike_Tindall12," as well as Sport In Mind – an initiative that works to "improve the lives of people experiencing mental health problems through sport and exercise," who wrote: "We love to see this! Thank you @mike_tindall12!!"

According to the Red January website, more than 50 per cent of RED January 2020 participants "experienced less stress and reduced signs of depressive symptoms", while 32 per cent of them "moved from being inactive to fairly active".

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Interested? The website reads: "Whether you walk, swim, cycle or choose your favourite fitness activity, set your goal and enjoy support from the RED community every step, splash and pedal of the way!

"Kick start your 2022 in a positive way and take a step forward for people experiencing mental health challenges by raising funds for Sport in Mind, our official charity partner."

Mike is a big advocate of mental health, so it comes as no surprise that he is backing the RED January campaign.

In November, he joined Loose Men alongside Vernon Kay, Ore Oduba and Iain Sitrling to mark International Men's Day, and spoke out about his struggles with motivation after retiring from rugby.

He said: "There was a point where I was saying yes to everything, whether I wanted to do it or not, because I was used to having my days filled. It was like six months where I really didn't know what I wanted to do – Zara would probably say it was more like a year – I ended up going and doing Bear Grylls so that I was away when the Autumn Internationals were on, so I didn't have to watch the rugby when they played. I wanted to have a break from it."

Mike was a World Cup-winning England centre rugby player, and announced his retirement in 2014, aged 35. 

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