Corporate challenge launched to boost mental health and wellbeing

In February, to support health and wellbeing we set up a Race At Your Pace Corporate Challenge and invited colleagues to walk, run, or cycle 3,000 miles in 29 days.

Thirty-seven team members joined in setting personal exercise goals, which included to improve their health, to train for various sporting and fundraising events, and as motivation to get outdoors in winter.

The competition featured some impressive performances including our North East regional manager Stephen Chesworth, who finished top of the cycling category after clocking up more than 550 miles!

We had 10 walkers who each racked up over 100 miles. Among them was Karen from our Yorkshire depot who averaged more than 8 miles a day, trekking 241 miles overall.

Top of our runners’ leaderboard was water design engineer Lewis Higham, who added an impressive 193 miles to the total during his preparation for a half marathon in May.

The corporate challenge went down well with our team, and it was great to see people spur each other on to smash our group target by travelling over 4,400 miles. The feedback shows that more than 90% of those who took part reported improvements in mental health and physical wellbeing. We hope everyone has been inspired to keep going!

As an additional incentive, Race At Your Pace offer to plant a tree for everyone who enters the challenge – we were delighted to receive a certificate confirming the planting of 39 trees in Canada following the event.

At our February Academy workshop we continued the wellbeing theme and invited personal trainer Ryan Maksymow to speak to members about health, fitness and diet. Ryan is a quantity surveyor at Aptus and is also a qualified personal trainer.

During the session Ryan focused on what he refers to as the ‘Pillars of Health’, covering sleep, diet, hydration, and exercise. Ryan had a fantastic approach, incorporating practical tasks into the talk and ensuring everyone remained engaged throughout the session. Ryan shared a wealth of interesting statistics and the group left armed with some practical ways to look after their physical health.

The Mental Health Foundation says that physical activity is a great way to improve our mental wellbeing. They suggest that even 10 minutes’ brisk walking can improve mental alertness, energy and mood. For more information visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mentalhealth/a-z-topics/physical-health-and-mentalhealth.

Corporate challenges can promote team bonding, boost wellbeing and inject fun into the workplace. For more inspiration visit www.raceatyourpace.co.uk/corporatefitnesschallengeideas.

Published on 4th March 2024