As we all know from Legally Blonde, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy,” and we could all use a little extra happiness right now. In an effort to boost our endorphins and stay connected with one another during quarantine, Sain Associates sponsored the April Activity Challenge.
In this challenge, twenty participants selected how many minutes of cardio they wanted to achieve every day and were divided into teams. For each day they met their activity goal, they earned points for their team.
In the first week, the teams met via Zoom and decided on their team names. Team banners were created to accompany each team name and encourage team spirit.
Unlike our previous wellness competition, Walktober, this competition was more difficult to organize because I had to engage people virtually since we are currently teleworking. To accommodate our digital platform, I created weekly videos to announce battles. These videos unfortunately did not include the flattering Instagram filters. As one coworker remarked, “You’re brave! I would not be willing to post THAT!”
However, I soon had good company because participants also submitted pictures and videos during their weekly battles. The battles were extra wellness challenges that teams could complete for bonus points. Extra challenges included Desk Yoga, 10-minute Meditation, HIIT Workouts, and DIY Your Exercise.
As the organizer of the April Activity Challenge and its rules, I wanted to create a balance of both fun and educational activities to encourage wellness while at home. Although the competition focused primarily on aerobic health, the battles focused on other pillars of wellness as well. For instance, one of the battles let the participant pick their battle challenge: Physical, Mental, or Nutrition; the battle encouraged them to try a new activity in one of those categories. The battles encouraged people to look at all parts of wellness, not only their activity minutes.
One of my favorite battles included the “Exercise Your Way,” where the teams selected their own workout routine or video to complete. Submissions included a throwback with Jane Fonda’s Be Fit, a standing abdominal workout, and power yoga.
After meeting their weekly goals and tackling the weekly battles, I can finally declare which team made every activity minute count. Congratulations, Cool Cats! You worked together as a team, and it paid off.