How does this look exercise challenge?

[dclpluto]

I’m going to try to start a exercise challenge at work nothing too hard but gives a challenge for most people.
It will be for the month of March a 1000 mile or points exercise challenge.

walking 1 mile equals 1 mile or point
Power walking 1 mile equals 2 miles or points
Running 1 mile equals 4 miles or points.

bike indoor or outdoor 1 mile equals 1 mile or point.

other exercise like weight lifting, rowing machine going up and down steps,etc one hour equals 15 miles or points.

what will you change? Do you like miles or points better? At first I was thinking miles but points might be better since some things don’t have miles. Of course I will let the people at work decide what needs adjusting but wanted some advice about what should be adjusted before I bring it to them. It will be all for fun and get some people some more exercise that they wouldn’t have. To me this 1000 miles or points exercise will be easy but I didn’t want to make it too hard. Or do you think it’s too hard? Most people are 40-63 years old. Comes out to a average of 32.25 miles or points a day.
I was also thinking of having something like
500 miles or points bronze award
750 miles or points silver
1000 miles or points gold There wouldn’t be any actual award thou.

Thanks for any advice

 

[Colleen27]

I'm not sure "too hard" would be the problem. I think it is too time consuming, though, since you're talking about an audience of middle aged working people. It would take a reasonably fit person 2+ hours per day to accumulate the 32.25 points they'd need to average to meet the goal of gold. And that's being relatively generous in my estimates - an hour of weights or other gym activity and an hour of biking at a moderate pace. I'm squarely in your target age range and I don't think I'm alone in having a job, kids, husband and house all making demands on my time that would make it hard to fit in 2+ hours of exercise a day.

If your target is people who don't work out regularly and/or aren't particularly active to begin with, the challenge should be difficult enough to have to work to reach it and feel like you've accomplished something if you do, but not so time-consuming that it is out-of-reach or burdensome to people who already have fairly busy lives. The sort of thing that would encourage swapping an hour or even half-hour of Netflix for physical activity, rather than one that is unattainable for anyone without a significant amount of time to commit.

Personally, I'd structure a challenge for people of average health/activity around habit-building - say, a 100 point lowest target, with one point earned per day of logged activity and bonuses for streaks. Mileage/activity points can build on that to make up the rest, so it remains a challenge to reach the target or achieve higher levels but is still accessible/motivating to the person who is squeezing in their workout at lunchtime or after the kids are in bed.

 

[_19disnA]

^^ I agree, asking people to devote 2+hrs per day to this seems like a lot to ask and you have no idea how busy people already are outside of the office. Seems it would also depends on your role in the organization. Are you in HR or do you simply want to get people to exercise? Some may be busy with their children's sports activities. Older workers may be spending time assisting elderly relatives or watching their grandchildren.

Some middle aged people you described as the workers in your company will likely have various medical issues that prevent them from a lot of physical exercise (think knee/back surgery, asthma, various chronic conditions.....etc.) I know where I work, if some random person was trying to get those who are overweight and/or not particularly fit to work out would not go over very well. Giving any type of award seems like a bad idea where people are expected to track their own progress. This could result in cheating and/or resentment from those who accurately track their progress. Perhaps your office is different, but I don't see this as being very well received.

 

[monsterkitty]

We did a challenge like this at work for years. We went on time only, not what was done.

An hour of walking for someone may be more difficult than an hour running for another.

What about workouts other than what you have listed? Someone who has an injury might do an aqua jog. Someone with arthritis might do water aerobics. What about swimming?

We did 15 minutes equals 1 point, regardless of the workout. We submitted our minutes on Monday morning to the PE teacher who was running the contest.

If a person runs a 10-minute mile and does 6 miles, that's 6 points. A person who can't run but can walk for an hour at probably a 20-minute mile would only get 3 points. Both moved for an hour, both should get equal points.

The idea of the challenges is to get people moving. If you structure the challenge in such a way it only rewards what people see as more difficult, running vs walking, it will turn people off before they even start.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I don't want to dissuade you from this idea, but here's food for thought: When my work did this sort of thing a few years ago there were obvious instances of cheating. People getting 30k steps and an hour of weightlifting EVERY DAY. They must have been doubling up or something, I dunno.

We didn't do the challenge after that.

 

[monsterkitty]

I don't want to dissuade you from this idea, but here's food for thought: When my work did this sort of thing a few years ago there were obvious instances of cheating. People getting 30k steps and an hour of weightlifting EVERY DAY. They must have been doubling up or something, I dunno.

We didn't do the challenge after that.

That happened the first year our principal ran the challenge. The next year, the PE department got a grant for staff fitness and used it to purchase a FitBit or other device depending on what people wanted to do. Some of us already had a device of some sort, I used my Garmin, and we used Strava to track. Only minutes that could be counted on the device and uploaded into Strava counted.

As with any contest, there will be cheating. Some figured out the could swing their arm with the fitbit and get steps while sitting in a chair.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I agree with all the other posters - your program isn't gonna have the intended effect b/c all of your not-working-out folks will never work out under the paradigm...

I suggest 1 hour/day 5 days/week should be worth your bronze award.
One hour/day 7 days/week should be your silver award.
90 minutes 7 days/week should be your gold award.

Workout can be anything. Moving is the goal.

 

[morgan98]

The 1000 mile or points just does not seem realistic in my opinion. I am 52 and work at a full time plus job. I run about 17 miles a week and do two days of weights (45 minutes each time) which would yield me about 90.5 points a week. I am very much of a high intensity workout person because I do not have time to exercise for a few hours a day.

However, people who only walk really have little chance unless they are walking for HOURS a day which seems near impossible while working full time.

 

[dclpluto]

I don't want to dissuade you from this idea, but here's food for thought: When my work did this sort of thing a few years ago there were obvious instances of cheating. People getting 30k steps and an hour of weightlifting EVERY DAY. They must have been doubling up or something, I dunno.

We didn't do the challenge after that.

actually that’s not that hard.

 

[sam_gordon]

actually that’s not that hard.

Really? If you honestly think 30k steps every day isn't that hard, I suggest you rejudge your audience. IMO, a good baseline is 7k steps per day, with a reachable goal of 10k.

My company gives us HSA money for performing various tasks each qtr. We get 10 pts for every 1k steps/day or 70 pts for 15 minute workout, 100 pts for 30 min, and 140 pts for 45 min. Then we can get bonus pts for doing so many days in a month (500 pts if you hit 10k steps and/or 30 minutes for 20 days in the month).

Think about what your goal is with this challenge. Are you trying to get people interested in exercising, or are you trying to show off how much YOU exercise?

ETA: 32 miles/day (for 1k miles in a month) is more than a MARATHON. Every day. For a month. There is no way I would even think I could accomplish that. Therefore, I wouldn't try.

Sorry OP, you're dreaming.

 

[monsterkitty]

actually that’s not that hard.

Tomorrow my run is an easy 10k in 60 minutes.

I take 88-90 steps per minute. On the low side of 88 steps/minute, that will put me at 5,280 steps for the 10k.

As Sam said, 7-10k is a reachable goal. 30k is really on the high side even if you have a job that allows you to move around a lot as you work. I'm pretty sure that I never got close to 30k after teaching all day without sitting (I didn't have a desk or chair) and then going to the gym after work to train for an Ironman. I bet the most steps I ever recorded were around 20,000 and that was training 20-25 hours/week in addition to work.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Realistically a "challenge" will generally read as "a requirement" those that don't really want to do it, those who just don't have the time, those who have their own workouts they do, etc it all ends up looking like those who don't want to do it are singled out.

The most amount of walking I've done in a day was 30+K and it was at Disney lol

When my husband's prior job had these types of things built into their wellness program where you needed X amount of points to get the lower premium sure people did it but then they would drink pitchers of beer bowling, or trap shooting then getting beers. IDK was that a cheat? Not really but it sure didn't do the actual body much good. What was a cheat is filling out the survey which was a requirement because most of us are not tracking how many servings of veggies and fruits we have in a day. They eventually dropped the requirement to have to do activities and just had you do a survey and bloodwork.

What I do like is the idea of asking if there's a group of people who are interested in this who can collab, share in the motivation with each other, etc. People who are like minded in their exercise goals but that it's more about getting to know people who want to do this vs presenting a challenge.

If you're looking for ideas for employees to get more active at work you could look for ways to encourage that like a small gym, taping lines on the ground to make a "track" of sorts and make it a mile or something like that if your building has that (my old company did that and people would walk around the building on their breaks) or just ask employees if there are things that they may want and keep in mind budget.

FWIW I have my own workout routine I do every day (or nearly every day), I'd think "it's the thought that counts" for your challenge but would decline as I prefer to do my own thing with my own limits known and my own fitness goals in mind.

Hope you don't think we're all trying to rain on your parade though

 

[focusondisney]

The most amount of walking I've done in a day was 30+K and it was at Disney lol

Yep, I get about 27,000 steps on our first day, when we’re walking thru the airports, hitting a park until our room is ready or late afternoon. And it takes me hours to do it, surely not something I could do after working. I’m a hospital based RN consultant, I usually get 10K steeps in a 12 hour shift. OP, do you really mean 32 miles a day? I think that is ridiculously over ambitious for the average American. Anyone who can walk or run 32 miles a day while working a full time job probably doesn’t need a fitness challenge to motivate them. Casual exercisers or people busy outside of work will get discouraged thinking there’s no way they can ever complete the challenge. And the average couch potato will have a good laugh & think the organizers have lost their minds. 32 miles a day for a month.

 

[GreatLakes]

My first question is what is the goal? If the goal is to find the most active person at work a system like the one in the OP might make sense. If the goal is to encourage everyone to get an hour of physical activity a day I don't think the plan laid out will accomplish it.

I'm also not a fan of basing the points on distance. It skews the results towards the employees that are already fit which I wouldn't think was the goal. Why should I get more points for going out and running 9 miles in an hour than a sedentary coworker that is trying to improve and does 2 miles in that same amount of time?

I'd make it easy and do the following:

1 point if you walk 10,000 steps in a day
1 extra point for each 5,000 steps beyond that
1 point for each 30 minutes done doing an activity that involves movement. That could be anything from yoga to sprinting.

In that scenario I'd set a minimum average of 2 points a day to get a bronze award, 4 for silver, and 6 for gold. Gold is hard but not out of reach, especially if the weekends involves a couple hours of activity, and you don't want everyone to get gold anyway.

30K steps a day every day is a lot of steps and would not be easy for anyone to get even if you hung out with ultra runners. I took a look at last year, a year in which I did more running than I ever have before, and the month with my most mileage (50 mpw average) I was averaging 16,000 steps/day. My record is 77,000 but it required running a marathon and then doing Epcot open to close. It isn't something I could repeat all that often.

 

[dclpluto]

Yep, I get about 27,000 steps on our first day, when we’re walking thru the airports, hitting a park until our room is ready or late afternoon. And it takes me hours to do it, surely not something I could do after working. I’m a hospital based RN consultant, I usually get 10K steeps in a 12 hour shift. OP, do you really mean 32 miles a day? I think that is ridiculously over ambitious for the average American. Anyone who can walk or run 32 miles a day while working a full time job probably doesn’t need a fitness challenge to motivate them. Casual exercisers or people busy outside of work will get discouraged thinking there’s no way they can ever complete the challenge. And the average couch potato will have a good laugh & think the organizers have lost their minds. 32 miles a day for a month.

I never said anything about 32 miles a day. I said 30k steps in one post I never said anything close to 32 miles in a day.

 

[focusondisney]

I’m going to try to start a exercise challenge at work nothing too hard but gives a challenge for most people.
It will be for the month of March a 1000 mile or points exercise challenge.

walking 1 mile equals 1 mile or point
Power walking 1 mile equals 2 miles or points
Running 1 mile equals 4 miles or points.

bike indoor or outdoor 1 mile equals 1 mile or point.

other exercise like weight lifting, rowing machine going up and down steps,etc one hour equals 15 miles or points.

what will you change? Do you like miles or points better? At first I was thinking miles but points might be better since some things don’t have miles. Of course I will let the people at work decide what needs adjusting but wanted some advice about what should be adjusted before I bring it to them. It will be all for fun and get some people some more exercise that they wouldn’t have. To me this 1000 miles or points exercise will be easy but I didn’t want to make it too hard. Or do you think it’s too hard? Most people are 40-63 years old. Comes out to a average of 32.25 miles or points a day.
I was also thinking of having something like
500 miles or points bronze award
750 miles or points silver
1000 miles or points gold There wouldn’t be any actual award thou.

Thanks for any advice

The OP clearly says 32 miles a day.

 

[threeboysmom]

That’s way too much! I thought I was doing really well with my 2 miles per day! There is absolutely no way I could do 32 miles every day!!

 

[sam_gordon]

I never said anything about 32 miles a day. I said 30k steps in one post I never said anything close to 32 miles in a day.

You said 1000 miles in the month of march. With walking 1 mile=1 point

1000miles in 30 days = 33 miles per day. So yes, you did say that.

You ALSO said getting 30k steps in a day isn't hard. Assuming 2k steps is a mile, that's 15 miles. Possible? Yes, depending on your day. Repeatable multiple days in a row? Maybe on a Disney trip. Your average day? Not so much

 

[dclpluto]

The OP clearly says 32 miles a day.

well It’s not all walking. Bike is easy to do

 

[dclpluto]

You said 1000 miles in the month of march. With walking 1 mile=1 point

1000miles in 30 days = 33 miles per day. So yes, you did say that.

You ALSO said getting 30k steps in a day isn't hard. Assuming 2k steps is a mile, that's 15 miles. Possible? Yes, depending on your day. Repeatable multiple days in a row? Maybe on a Disney trip. Your average day? Not so much

I didn’t say that. You do walking, bike, etc to make up the miles not all in walking.