The human body evolved for walking. But the more mobile our society becomes, the less people walk. For adults half an hour of continuous physical activity per day is enough to improve health, wellness and performance. Physical activity has continuously been shown to have a positive impact on mental health and motivation.In the workplace we see an even bigger problem, according to new research by private health firm BUPA, 1 in 5 employees admit to barely leaving their desk during working hours and the average person walks for only 10 minutes a day during the working week. This against a recommendation by the Chief Medical Officer that adults should do at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week to accrue cardiovascular and other health benefits.But on the positive side individuals and staff are progressively adopting new technology both web and mobile and this creates a new platform for novel services that can both engage employees, educate and motivate them to do more physical activity.
One such service Activity4Charity goes one step further by giving participants the option to link their daily steps to raising money for charity. The benefit being to widen the appeal of the programme and enable companies community projects to be linked with health and wellbeing.In the summer of 2012, 550 participants from 25 companies completed the Activity4Charity challenge and the results were pretty astounding:
- 63% reported it had improved team relationships and/or the office atmosphere
- 93% reported the challenge had benefited their personal health and wellbeing
- Before the challenge just 34% met the UK government activity guideline, this increased to 82% at the end of the challenge
- 30% lost weight
- 95% intended to maintain higher levels of activity.
For more details please contact Seema.Bennett@mmvsense.com.
This article and the slides above have been provided to Engage for Success courtesy of Luke Murrell, CEO of MMV Sense Ltd owners of the Activity4Charity trademark and service.
