How to tell people I'm not joining the step challenge
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State that your goals are directed towards the health benefits of resistance training currently.1
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Ok I guess y'all didn't catch my mild sarcasm in my original post. Mostly, I'm dealing with older ladies and I don't even want to mention weight lifting because even my own mother scoffs at weight lifting because it isn't a "lady-like" thing to do and I'll get "too muscular". (I am not muscular at all). Basically I want a light-hearted joking way to say thanks but no thanks. Even if it's a lie. Gimme a cute line to say!
Offer to do a mini-presentation about debunking myths of strength training, and how to get started, as part of the festivities, then use the line about wanting to focus on making the competition fun for others. (Sounds like having a neutral non-participant might be needed to adjudicate disputes.
)
And - to be blunt - stop with the age/gender assumptions. I know quite a few women of many ages who've heard that strength training will help them avoid osteoporosis as they age, and are interested/scared, but have no idea how to get started. (Sometimes they think you can't strength train unless you can already lift 'heavy' things, kinda like the people who think you have to already be flexible to do yoga.) Give 'em a manageable on-ramp.
We're not all your mom. (I'm 63, BTW, so quite possibly older than some of your co-workers.)
Best wishes!17 -
Agree with the "be blunt. "
Personally, I think Step challenges with prizes encourage cheating.
Step counts are not that accurate.
I wouldn't participate because I'm not supposed to walk long distances every day if I want to put off another for surgery.
Most of my "steps" are actually conversions from swimming.
One last thing, A workplace sponsored step challenge could result in an ADA law suit by handicapped employees. Such challenges, by definition, exclude those who can't walk.5 -
I really don't get this.
First of all IF YOU HAVE THE TIME doing some cardio AND EATING ENOUGH TO COMPENSATE for the calories spent will not hurt your strength building efforts too much and it will improve your cardio-vascular health... which is somewhat of an important goal sometimes...
If you don't have the time and/or don't want to increase your steps or split your training focus... so what?
I am in all sort of Fitbit challenges. Most of the time (call it 45+ weeks out of 52) I do not change my behaviour to improve on my challenge results.
If the "participation" fee is substantial enough that it is a hardship to enter with the expectation of not winning... re-think the fees your committee is charging.
It is called participating in a challenge (to meet your own goals and encourage people who are inactive to become more active); not competing (to win at all costs and crush the evil opposition)! 9 -
If the entry fee is not financially prohibitive, I would still do it as a team building and moral thing even if it's not my personal fitness goals, and just be content with not winning. You still have to walk places in life, so you'll at least have some steps. But if you don't want to do it, just tell them that doing steps at the moment doesn't fit your fitness goals so you'll be happy to help organize and coordinate it but you won't be personally participating, but cheering for all those who do.
This.
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A coupe of women at work were putting together a fitness program and wanted me to join them. Free personal training. I’ve been lifting for over 20 years and have my routine set. And I hate working out in the morning. I thanked them for thinking of me and said I was really happy with my current fitness routine and wouldn’t be able to join them.3
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A coupe of women at work were putting together a fitness program and wanted me to join them. Free personal training. I’ve been lifting for over 20 years and have my routine set. And I hate working out in the morning. I thanked them for thinking of me and said I was really happy with my current fitness routine and wouldn’t be able to join them.
I'm with you on that, except that I love swimming 4 miles in the morning at 5AM weekdays when I'm home.
When I worked at a company that had an on site weight room that was just steps from my cubicle, I hit that every day for 45 minutes.
Yet I would never hit 10k steps or day.0 -
I'd just tell them you have other goals and priorities, because that's the truth.
BUT you might also use it as an example to the Living Well Committee that different people have different goals, and they should find a way to encourage people towards overall wellness. I'd also suggest a way to give the lesser capable people some chance of being recognized, whether it be the cash prizes or other methods. As an example, a step challenge would probably be easily won by a distance runner who already trains a lot. But the idea should be to also encourage Ms Random Name (who is obese and has bad knees) to try to better her health.
If it reaches a point of "everyone gets a trophy" then it often serves no purpose. But also remember that there may well be out of shape people who put in a huge effort in comparison to fit people, but since their total step counts (or other gauges) might be lower they will never "win". Just food for thought.7 -
our steps at work count toward HSA $$ contributions so it's a win win. Last year they did monthly challenges and ranked everyone. I could not for the life of me understand how anyone avg'd 40K steps per day. wow. I am glad they are not doing the competitive and public part of it again this year tho. I think eventually all the insurance programs are headed in that direction. Best of luck and tell us what you decided.1
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I participated in a step challenge in my workplace and it had an option to log "other" activity and converted to steps. ie cycling would earn you 1,000 - 2,000 steps per 10 minutes depending on effort.
BTW - cute dog in your pic
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I’m an independent contractor, so haven’t worked in a typical office environment for many years. So I’m still trying to get my head around why employees have to pay to participate in an employer sponsored challenge. The other question is what is the requirement/expectation for committee members to participate in the events they plan? It seems that you could enter the challenge without giving up your current workout routine. You don’t have to play to win and I would think committee members wouldn’t be eligible to win their own event.3
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SummerSkier wrote: »our steps at work count toward HSA $$ contributions so it's a win win. Last year they did monthly challenges and ranked everyone. I could not for the life of me understand how anyone avg'd 40K steps per day. wow. I am glad they are not doing the competitive and public part of it again this year tho. I think eventually all the insurance programs are headed in that direction. Best of luck and tell us what you decided.
We have this at my employer as well. Last year, I WAS that crazy person who took first place every single month. (I walked 1,000,000+ steps/month). I've never been good at or won much of anything before. I figured out that this was a way I could finally excel and be the best at something. It ended up consuming me, though, and became even more mentally exhausting than physical. This year, I'm still counting my steps and earning $$ for it, but I'm no longer participating in the challenges.3 -
I agree with the posters who say just join the challenge, not change anything you're doing and take the opportunity to cheer on the participants who are getting more steps than you.
On another note, depending on the competitiveness of your coworkers, be prepared to referee complaints that people are cheating (by counting cycling steps, running in place, having a family member wear it etc.) This stuff all came up when I participated in a step challange at work once, and there wasn't even prize money involved
Of all of the examples of cheating, how's running in place cheating? Plus the "cycling steps"? At least person doing it is actively moving, and that's ultimately the point of the challenge, correct? I would think sitting on the couch and moving your arm is cheating, but other activities can be figured into steps without calling it cheating.2 -
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huntersvonnegut wrote: »
Now the number of steps may not be great - but I would be curious to see what kind of distance was calculated from those impacts.
Let's see, expected impact weight based on 140 lbs at given stride length is say 200 lbs. Impact of 350 occurs, so stride must have been....1 -
Get off the committee.4
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How much is the entry fee? If I was on the committee, I would participate even if I lost. You don’t have to aim to win but you can celebrate with other participants succeeding in making SOME progress in movement. Just my opinion. Does participating require buying a FitBit or something?1
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I also like the idea of what someone said before, that you have some other goals for yourself right now but you’re still excited for the program and for future programs.0
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Sign up.
Strap the pedometer to your ankle.
While at work tap you foot all day long.
Register 20k-30k+ steps a day.
Continue to lift
Win the prize.
winner winner 3 -
Did OP tell us what she decided to do? @TarahByte1
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