Often office fitness challenges are a great way to encourage employees to take control of their health while improving morale in the workplace. Keeping your office fitness challenge fresh can increase motivation and engagement. Additionally, consider rewarding participating employees with a points system, allowing them to earn rewards as they take part in each challenge. Below are 7 office fitness challenge ideas for your business to consider.
This challenge is a great way to promote fitness and reduce pollution at the same time. The aim of the challenge should be to walk or cycle to work for a set number of days each week or month. If hosting a cycle-to-work challenge, ensure your workplace has a secure area for employees to store their bikes during work hours, and possibly a shower facility depending on how far employees commute. For each day an employee cycles or walks to work, they earn a point and whoever has the most by the end of the challenge period wins.
With this challenge, each participating employee should aim to walk a set amount of steps each day. This can be a relatively easy challenge, especially as steps at work can count towards the total. To start, set a steps goal, and a time period for that goal. For example, you could have a total of 100,000 steps in two weeks which averages to 7142 steps per day. You can offer points for completing the average per day and points for hitting the total at the end.
The 7-minute workout is a great challenge for those looking to get active while at work. Each day, post a list of exercises and times for employees to join. Use an app like Vantage Fit to design and set each day’s workout. These should be simple exercises that do not require extra equipment like lunges, planks, star jumps, and mountain climbers. Employees can earn points for every workout they attend. Additionally, employees can help create and set workouts.
This is a great challenge, especially for offices on the 5th floor or above. Simply encourage your employees to use the stairs over the elevator whenever they come to or leave the office. Whoever climbs the most stairs at the end of each week will win.
As you may know, the plank is an effective core-strength workout. Better yet, it doesn’t require a lot of time to be effective. When hosting a plank challenge, set specific times each day for employees to attend, then set 3-4 duration milestones. Consider 1 point for 20 seconds, 2 points for 40 seconds, and 5 points for 1 minute, etc. If employees don’t last the minimum duration they get no points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the challenge period wins. Furthermore, you could also have a most improved award, or most consistent.
This challenge involves introducing a new exercise to your employees every day. Each employee that participates in learning and doing that exercise gets a point. Ensure you set a challenge timeframe for points to accumulate, then announce the winner. These do not need to be strenuous exercises, instead, they could be exercises you can do at your desk.
Consider entering your workplace into a fun run, charity marathon, or walk. All employees can take part to work together to hit the charity target. This is a great way to boost fitness, team morale and encourage teamwork. Consider runs or walks that offer relay options, or group entries. As a business, you then donate on behalf of your employees to the charity of choice.
These seven office fitness challenge ideas are easy to track and easy to participate in without needing fitness trackers and special apps. In fact, the step challenge can be tracked on a smartphone in the standard health section. The easier it is to participate, the more employees will join. Remember to make each challenge optional, and consider a points-based system to help keep employees motivated through the challenge period.
