Making Time To Exercise: New Campaign To Get Black Country Workers More Active

• 2018 Active Workplace Challenge launches January 8th
• Campaign aims to tackle inactivity amongst workers across the Black Country
• Get involved and track your activity online

Are you finding you don’t get time to exercise in a busy working week? Do you go long hours without even standing up from the desk, even over lunch? A new campaign seeks to tackle inactivity amongst workplaces across the Black Country – and this is your chance to get involved.

Alarming statistics show the average Brit sits down for 8.9 hours every day (1) and one in four of us do fewer than 30 minutes of physical activity a week (2) – contributing to around 131 million working days lost to sickness in England each year (3).

Now Workplace Challenge, in collaboration with Active Black Country is tackling the issue head on with the launch of its latest campaign designed to break down the culture of a desk-bound lunch. It is designed to help address and break down the barriers we all face in fitting physical activity into busy work/life schedules.

The 2018 Active Workplace Challenge will include a series of initiatives, events, inspiration and advice over an eight week period, starting January 8th.

Sign up to the campaign and you can track physical activity online, easily comparing activity levels to other participating individuals and organisations.

The focus this year will on bitesize chunks of activity, encouraging workers to step away from their desks and out of the office during the lightest and brightest part of the day. Active Black Country has set a target for everyone to walk, jog, run or cycle one mile each day during the eight week period.

There are also a series of workplace offers from National Governing Bodies of sport, available on the Workplace Challenge website to support physical activity in and around the working day.

Ian Carey, Interim Director for Active Black Country, said:

It’s all too easy to stay at the desk over lunch, or to work late in the office to meet a deadline, but this is contributing to a worrying trend of inactivity amongst the working population. Too many of us aren’t getting the recommended 150 hours of exercise in a week – and it’s having a serious impact on our mental and physical health, not to mention the productivity of workers.  The 2018 Active Workplace Challenge is about giving people the support and inspiration to get up on their feet and bring physical activity into and around their working day.  With the Workplace Challenge online activity tracking resource, it couldn’t be easier to get involved.”

Find out how you and your workplace can get involved in the 2018 Active Workplace Challenge and make every minute count - visit www.workplacechallenge.org.uk/2018challenge.

ENDS

1. http://www.getbritainstanding.org/

2. https://www.sportengland.org/news-and-features/news/2017/january/26/active-lives-offers-fresh-insight/

3.https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/labourproductivity/articles/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket/2014-02-25