Check out the latest article about the benefits of short bursts of higher intensity activity over a longer, less intense workout! It all comes down to quality over quantity.
The number one reason why people are not active today is that they say they do not have enough time. The 7-minute workout helps solve that problem! Who doesn’t have 7 minutes to spare?
At Sprout we are all about making time in our day to be active! Incorporating activity into your daily routine will provide numerous benefits to your life – at work and home.
Excerpt from the Globe and Mail
Making time for the 7-minute workout
Roger Bannister discovered in the 1950s as a busy young medical student that “interval training” (running hard, running easy, running hard) could make his lunch-hour workouts more efficient. In 1954 that self-devised training program helped him run the first four-minute mile.
A variation on the Roger Bannister story is happening today, as a private fitness centre for “high-performing professionals” in Orlando has developed a seven-minute workout based on the notion that intensity matters more than duration. If it no longer matters how long you work out for, just how hard you’re breathing, people’s lives (or at least their bodies and their health) could be transformed, assuming they don’t mind a hard-breathing, seven-minute workout.
Read More Here.
Curious what the 7-minute workout actually looks like? Click HERE to see the break down!
Contact us today! To request a demo and make changes towards a more active lifestyle!
Read more about Sprout’s cofounders Martha Switzer and Christina Winkels in this recent Globe and Mail article:
Excerpt from Globe and Mail
Western grads win spots at Nike’s first accelerator program
“Martha Switzer and Christina Winkels were both sports buffs in the most un-sporty of environments: the high-stress executive offices of corporate Canada. Winkels was a competitive swimmer who found herself pulling 24-hour shifts in investment banking, while Switzer was a marketing executive who ran marathons on the side.
“We were working for multinational companies for 10 years, watching fellow employees at work more and become less active,” says Switzer. It wasn’t just employees’ health that was suffering: The high-stress, low activity, lousy-food lifestyle that comes with cubicle was taking its toll in other ways. Sedentary lifestyles lead to more sick days, lower productivity, higher staff turnover. It was a business problem – which meant there was a business opportunity.
Read More Here
Sprout can help solve these inactivity problems that many companies are facing by introducing a fun and interactive solution! Contact us today to see how easy it is to enhance your workplace wellness!
Most days we are sitting longer than we sleep! This is becoming a growing health concern for many people, but simple changes to how we spend our days at work can help solve the problem.
Create a movement for movement in your organization!
- Instead of booking a meeting room, plan out a walking route with your colleagues and walk while you talk
- If a walking meeting won’t work – encourage everyone to stand up and walk around the room or play musical chairs and switch spots throughout a longer meeting
- Encourage active breaks throughout the day – even a quick spin can boost productivity!
Check out this great TED video that perfectly captures what the Sprout movement is all about - Got a meeting? Take a walk.
Sprout is a user friendly online platform that can help you plan your “walk and talk” meetings, invite your co-workers and measure the impact of movement in your organization! Contact us today to learn how you can get Sprouting!
Losing weight (and keeping it off) is a health concern for many people these days – likely including some of your colleagues. Providing an encouraging environment at work for weight loss can help everyone win at losing!
Excerpt from Greatist
In one study, researchers recruited overweight and obese employees at four different companies (they worked in insurance, loan companies, or for non-profits). Workers at two of the companies participated in group sessions on nutrition and behavior modification and were instructed to follow a low-calorie diet. Workers at the other two companies did not receive any intervention and followed their typical health routine. Results showed employees who participated in the interventions lost significantly more weight than those who didn’t. Moreover, employees at the companies where the intervention was held who didn’t take part in the intervention also lost weight.
Read more here.
Sprout can help you bring employees together in an interactive online platform, allowing them to keep track of weight loss and encourage each other in achieving health goals. Contact us today to learn how you can get Sprouting!
Working full time means most people spend the majority of their days with their co-workers. Having a workplace that supports a friendly environment not only makes coming to work more fun and enjoyable for employees, but it can also improve longevity!
Excerpt from the New York Times
Researchers at Tel Aviv University found that people who felt that they had the support of their colleagues and generally positive social interactions at work were less likely to die over a 20-year period than those who reported a less friendly work environment. Over all, people who believed they had little or no emotional support in the workplace were 2.4 times as likely to die during the course of the study compared with the workers who developed stronger bonds with their peers in other cubicles.
To study how office politics influenced health, the researchers recruited 820 adults who visited a local health clinic in 1988 for routine checkups, then interviewed them about their jobs, asking detailed questions that delved into whether they found their supervisors and peers approachable, friendly and helpful to them. The subjects worked in a variety of different fields — like finance, health care, insurance and manufacturing — and ranged in age from 25 to 65.
Read more here.
Let Sprout help bring your employees together in a fun, interactive, and online platform by contacting us today!
We all know exercise is good for our bodies, but did you know it could help boost productivity too? Walking is a great way to take a quick break and enjoy a little fresh air, all the while making for a more productive day.
Excerpt from Greatist
The New Key to Office Productivity? Walking
Participants who ended the program reporting 90 percent productivity or more increased an average of 41 percent productivity over the course of the program, and employees who hit the 10,000-step goal felt more productive than those who didn’t. Those who hit the goal also reduced their systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) an average of eight percent, more than twice the reduction of those who came in under 10,000 steps.
Only 18 percent of employees walked 10,000 or more steps per day before the program, and 58 percent were hitting that goal by the end.
Read more here.
Wondering how you can get your employees back in step? Contact us us today and learn how you can start Sprouting!
Are you sitting down for this? That’s the problem.
Excerpt from the Globe and Mail
Why the sedentary life is killing us
Sitting is the new smoking.
Get used to that expression because you’re going to be hearing it a lot. Inactivity has become public enemy No. 1.
The reason sedentary behaviour is so worrisome is well-illustrated by a new study, published on Monday.
The research, led by Dr. Emma Wilmot of the diabetes research group at the University of Leicester in Britain, analyzed 18 existing studies involving almost 800,000 people. The paper, published in the medical journal Diabetologia, compared disease rates between the most active and least active among a broad cross-section of adults.
The researchers found that the least active, essentially those who sit all day, had a:
147-per-cent increased risk of heart attack or stroke;
112-per-cent increase in the risk of developing diabetes;
AND the list goes on! Read this article from the Globe and Mail and take a stand!
Sprout is creating a movement for movement in Canadian workplaces. Get moving today!
Excerpt from Gallup Business Journal
“Unhealthy, Stressed Employees Are Hurting Your Business”
Companies that ignore their employees’ wellbeing are losing money. Here’s one big example: Employees with high wellbeing have 41% lower health-related costs compared with employees who have lower wellbeing. In a firm that has 10,000 employees, this difference amounts to nearly $30 million.
The healthcare costs of a 60-year-old with high wellbeing are lower than those for a 30-year-old with low wellbeing — which is alarming.
But the cost of healthcare is only one area that should concern business leaders. Wellbeing encompasses five distinct elements — not just Physical Wellbeing, but also Career, Social, Financial, and Community Wellbeing. All these elements have an impact on a company’s bottom line.
In the following interview, the two experts who coauthored Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements – Tom Rath, who leads Gallup’s workplace research and leadership consulting practice, and Jim Harter, Ph.D., Gallup’s chief scientist for workplace management and wellbeing — show how wellbeing affects business performance.
Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal
Pitting Employees Against Each Other … for Health
In the effort to make workers healthier, employers and insurers have dangled carrots. They’ve threatened with sticks. Now, they are trying games.
A growing number of workplace programs are borrowing techniques from digital games in an effort to encourage regular exercise and foster healthy eating habits. The idea is that competitive drive—sparked by online leader boards, peer pressure, digital rewards and real-world prizes—can get people to improve their overall health.
A survey of employers released in March by the consulting firm Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health found that about 9% expected to use online games in their wellness programs by the end of this year, with another 7% planning to add them in 2013. By the end of next year, 60% said their health initiatives would include online games as well as other types of competitions between business locations or employee groups.
Full article click here
Sprout is determined to make employers and employees healthier. With more and more money being spent on wellness, companies need a solution to deliver their offerings enterprise wide. Sprout has launched an innovative program that helps companies manage and quantify corporate wellness. Employing social networking and gaming techniques, Sprout achieves these objectives with a program that is simple to use, engaging and measurable.
Are you sitting down for this? That’s part of the problem.
We spend the majority of our days sitting down, whether at our desks, in our cars or on the couch. More than half of Canadians are considered active and only 15% of us get the recommended minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week (ParticipACTION).
23 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?
If you’re not one of the 2.5 million+ viewers of Dr. Mike Evans’ video, it’s worth a watch (standing up of course). The message is simple. Can you limit the amount of time you spend sitting and sleeping to 23 1/2 hours a day? 30 minutes of daily physical activity is one of the best investments you can make in your health and wellbeing. In fact, more and more doctors are writing prescriptions for exercise to prevent and treat chronic conditions, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, breast cancer, colon cancer, Type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis.
Challenge yourself
Sprout’s 30 x 30 Challenge is all about making physical activity a daily habit. Can you move for 30 minutes each day for the 30 days in June? Don’t worry if you miss a day, just challenge yourself to see how many days you can do! Read on for some helpful tips.
Use the buddy system
Friends don’t let friends skip workouts! Plan to meet a co-worker for a walk or workout. Exercising with a buddy can increase your confidence and comfort level, especially if you’re trying something new. Plus, dynamic duos increase motivation and accountability. Add your workout to your company’s Sprout calendar and invite others to join you. Walk and talk and the time will fly by! And remember, there’s strength in numbers.
Make a plan
Here are some more tips from Greatist on how to make a workout plan and stick with it. Our favourite is to break it-up into 10 minute chunks if you can’t find a 30-minute window.
Sprout is creating a movement to get people moving! Join us!