Category — Worksite Wellness Promotion

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Forming an Employee Committee

Although reinforcement from the top is critical to a successful plan, reinforcement from other employees is also valuable.

Once you get the go-ahead from upper management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a Workplace Wellness Program Committee to help determine the next steps. Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of employee time management is willing to contribute, this Workplace Wellness Program Committee may be advisory or may plan and carry out the initiative.

The Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee might include staff members from human resources(HR), occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve employee from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical activity. Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. For example, it’s significant for the Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following:

• Assessing your workplace environment
• Carrying out an employee interest survey.
• Establishing a mission statement and goals/objectives.
• Writing a physical exercise or wellness policy declaring the organization’s responsibility to physical exercise.
• Brainstorming program ideas.
• Promoting, communicating and marketing the program.
• Coordinating specific activities.
• Deciding how the plan will be evaluated.
• Continually assessing what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to promote physical exercise during work, it’s significant to learn what is “doable” in your workplace.

You don’t want to raise employee expectations by offering something that’s not feasible due to funding or space limits. By way of example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a fitness facility if there’s no space for it. Be open, however, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Finding out What’s Possible in Your Workplace

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for maps of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Great walking trails may be right around the block from your workplace.

Below are some questions to help you evaluate your workplace:

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space offer that make it easier to be physically active during the workday? By way of example, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a fitness facility, factory walking lanes?
• What nearby facilities or opportunities could employees use to be more physically active during the workday? Are you close to sidewalks, walking trails, community centres, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?
• What resources are available?
• Can the plan access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?
• What is the structure of your employer? For example, consider employee size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining senior staff support is essential to the success of a physical exercise program.

Whether the changes you’d like to see involve the work environment, overall policies or specific programs, successfully launching your ideas is dependent upon upper management backing.

Support from upper management is critical for 3 reasons:

• You need their agreement to involve workers in a workplace plan.
• When management pays attention to and supports program, employees also see the program as worthwhile.
• Upper Management has the authority to give work time and money to support the plan.

It’s valuable to keep management involved throughout a physical activity initiative, but at three points you’ll need support for:

• An overall concept, including a go-ahead to evaluate what employees want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.
• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.
• Evaluating the initiative to improve it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Upper Management

Prior to going to management to gain initial backing for promoting physical exercise during work, do your homework.

• Prepare a business case clearly outlining how the business will benefit by promoting physical activity during the workday.
• List the individual, social and corporate advantages of physical exercise and the advantages of being active during work.
• Present some cursory ideas about what the program might include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from senior staff:

• How will this help our employer?
• How can we encourage workers to take part?
• How much will it cost to run this program or make this change?
• How will we know a year from now whether or not this was a good use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the types of activities they would support. Often managers have their own ideas they would like to see acted on to better the workplace.

Remember to include middle managers when gaining support for your initiative. They may prove to be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical exercise challenges.

In today’s organization climate, the health of workers is often related to the health of the organization. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, reduced illness and injuries, and increased work rate are just some of the advantages of having healthy workers. Promoting health in your workplace need not be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any organization, big or little, can promote healthy eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some recommendations:

Healthier Eating

• For breakfast meetings, rather than serving donuts, big muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives such as bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100% fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.
• For lunch meetings, avert serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100  percent fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.
• Reimburse employees for items purchased to improve their health (e.g. healthy eating cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).
• Arrange for the cafeteria or food vendors to offer healthy meal choices.
• Arrange to have healthy choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in vending machines.
• Offer a means for people to share healthy recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Establish programs and group activities to encourage staff members to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge programs, stretch breaks, team sports or participation in local or provincial programs.
• Offer onsite health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in EAPs to help employees work towards physical exercise objectives and goals.
• Offer a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices easy: bike racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairways, walking or running routes in the vicinity of the workplace, and health club facilities.
• Provide|Offer|Give} flex time so that workers have more opportunities to participate in exercise program as part of their working day.
• Reimburse health club membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment purchases.
• Give corporate health club memberships to reduce expenditures of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to:

• Organize lunch ‘n learn sessions to provide information and motivation for healthy eating and active living.
• Invite demonstrators to provide cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.
• Post a list of local restaurants that offer healthy food choices on their menus.
• Distribute information to educate workers on portion sizes.
• Include physical activity and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.
• Plan activities that promote healthy eating and physical exercise. For example, start a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities

Can a small employer support workplace wellness? Absolutely! In fact, in some ways it is easier to establish a healthy workplace in a small employer than in a big employer.

Limited resources, especially in small organizations, can prevent a corporation from setting up a Worksite Health Promotion Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of fiscal resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level backing;
• minimal knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• issue about making wellness available to all workers.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small corporation owners may have the wrong idea of what is involved in running a Worksite Wellness Program. Some employers aren’t convinced that a program would really work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  Maybe they don’t be aware of that it doesn’t need to be costly and that they don’t need special employee. They may not realize that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Done

Many small businesses have found ways to have a Workplace Health Promotion Program that works for them. They keep the expense and effort to a minimum and still have results that are beneficial for everyone. In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthy workplaces frequently have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a beneficial culture, people feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a positive workplace culture than for a sizable workplace. Many staff members prefer to work for a small corporation, he says, because it provides more opportunities to work closely with others and cultivate a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most thriving organizations with fewer than 100 employees have:

• great employee benefits;
• policies that promote a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• excellent leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible employer policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal wellness ahead of the personal gain of Senior Management.

All or most of these elements are also pieces of a good Worksite Health Promotion Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are multiple ways to include health & wellness in a small organization. You may not necessarily need a wellness consultant or a fancy gym. What you do need is backing from senior staff and a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee of a few committed people. Below are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter in hard copy or web-based. Or send out a brief message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Use promotions that are already designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthy Eating

• Encourage employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing contest.
• Get pedometers for workers and track their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or area gym and offer exercise classes.
• Bring in a local fitness instructor to give classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenditures can be shared with employees.
• Install secure bicycle parking.
• Offer healthy alternatives at company meetings and lunches.

Policy and Corporation Programs

• Hire an ergonomics specialist to assess workstations.
• Foster policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).
• Give a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Provide financial rewards and incentives to be healthy.
• Give wellness rewards and incentives as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an business health audit.
• Become a partner with the neighborhood (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Establish a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee.

Small employers may not have a lot of time, money, or human resources(HR) available for a Employee Health Promotion Program. But they often have a huge advantage over sizable companies-a beneficial workplace culture. That is a great foundation for a Employee Health Promotion Program. When staff members are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more beneficial, and tend to be healthier.  With a little creativity and passion, small employers can develop thriving Employee Health Promotion Programs. Get reinforcement from senior staff, form a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to set up healthy workplaces focused on safety at the workplace and injury prevention for staff members.

More recently, programs are designed to assist  workers to choose healthier behaviors like being more physically active or quitting smoking. Campaigns to increase awareness, educational sessions to broaden knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for workers to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach people, since most adult Canadians invest a large part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are 2 aspects that contribute to the health of workers, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace affects health.

Increasingly, it is understood that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more advantageous and tend to be healthier. When staff members feel that the environment at work is detrimental, they feel stressed. Stress has a big effect on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified 5 components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the organization overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that businesses must genuinely are concerned about the wellness of their staff members.

Employers today who want to attract and retain good staff members have leaders who be aware of the connection between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a corporation strategy.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving staff members in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance work and home life.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that pay well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include good health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more significant than ever for organizations to enhance job satisfaction and ensure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.

How does workplace wellness advance the corporation?

A workplace wellness plan can help a corporation to:

• attract and keep staff members;
• reduce the costs of disability, prescriptions, and absenteeism;
• reduce the effects of a stressful workplace;
• reduce health expenditures or keep them contained; and
• better morale by organizing a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Worksite Wellness Programs Profit employees?

staff members of employers that have a Worksite Health Promotion Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to better their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellbeing;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productiveness and performance at work;
• reduced personal healthcare costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for planning a healthy workplace. Workers are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the corporation is expected to support an environment that allows employees to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about planning a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of staff members, implementing a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep staff members healthy and happy at work. A great Corporate Wellness Program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.

Ideally, you will develop an overriding plan for a Corporate Health Promotion Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. For example, you are able to start by getting the following components in place:

• support from management
• a Employee Wellness Program Committee or group
• information about the wellness needs and interests of employees
• a budget
• program objectives
• an assessment plan

Even if you have few financial and/or human resources, you can still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you could focus on only one specific concern. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning can help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for establishing Employee Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps have the potential to have an impact.

Whether you choose to start with a single program or develop something larger, planning is essential. First consider the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Identify an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the workers and employer?
• Promote. How can you most effectively spread the word to employees? What opportunities exist for promotion? Consider everything, because employees have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, employees receive information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow employees.
• Deliver. Who is the best individual or group to put the program into action? Ask other corporations about approaches they have used. Decide on your budget prior to making a decision.
• Evaluate. What should you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when organizing your program:

• creating and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the sort of program or campaign

The Elements of a Employee Wellness Program

Programs to reward wellness in the workplace don’t need to be restricted to one area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting positive personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure clinics, pamphlets on heart disease, “lunch and learn” seminars on eating habits and short-term physical exercise programs.

These activities are important, but workplace wellness must also be part of corporation’s business plan and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently identified 3 key elements of a healthy workplace:

• physical environment
• social environment and personal resources
• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider providing the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for workers to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist workers join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairways that invite staff members to use them.
• Assessing the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.
• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, as well as ways of doing business, are able to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Businesses should consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that provide safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• Employee Assistance Programs

To cultivate a positive social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include:

• being respected
• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission
• freedom of expression
• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” may not address current employee needs. Making sure that individuals enjoy being at work is not an simple task, but making the right changes can have a huge influence.

Health Practices

Offer programs and set policies that help workers remain healthy or better their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading diet labels.
• Tobacco cessation clinics or subsidies to help employees quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the concerns raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks served at meetings and conferences.

Personal Corporate Wellness Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your workplace, do not let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to think about:

• Be active at work. There are numerous ways to bring activity into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Hold walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office instead of sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy meal. Place a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for meetings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you can leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and be sure not to take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Set up your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Establish and prioritize to be sure that the most important things get done first.

There is no limit to the number or variety of Company Wellness Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the outcome so that you can sustain momentum.

Speak with other wellness practitioners to learn what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And don’t forget to promote, promote, promote.

Many organizations recognize the need for a comprehensive plan to help their workers be the best they are able to be. They also know that successful and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program ought to include a wide range of key components, including:

• A clear agenda or statement of objectives.
• A plan characterized by passion.
• An effective leader who is creative and organized.
• A focus on short-term outcomes combined with an central vision.
• A measurable plan (what’s significant gets measured!).
• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Planning Your Workplace Wellness Program

Establish carefully to see that your wellness program is seen as part of a broad commitment to maintaining the health and safety of all staff members. Yes, creating a strong plan takes an abundance of effort and time (and sometimes resources). But planning is critical and well worth the investment necessitated. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might start by conducting a survey of employee needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the outcome and plan accordingly. If you don’t, the staff members will not support the program.

Collecting information about what you already offer is also a good idea. For example, you might be surprised by your business or organization’s current wellness and health policies.

Another valuable step is to establish an agenda and/or measurable objectives and goals to help you come up with priorities, timelines and the resources necessitated to start the program. Be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Senior Management

The leader of your wellness program must be able to wear countless hats. The leader’s duties include:

• Developing a vision of the wellness program after receiving input from all interested workers.
• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the company (to senior managers and fellow workers alike).
• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.
• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.
• Developing and maintaining leadership skills such as giving effective presentations and being well-organized.

Good leaders avoid becoming overwhelmed by overly ambitious and complex plans. You may want to stick to short-term goals/objectives at the beginning so that you get immediate and visible results. These first steps are the basis for a thriving wellness program.

Good leaders involve as many people as possible in the program. By way of example, you’ll want to form a Company Wellness Program Committee made up of a diverse group of staff members to provide advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Assist you to obtain important information from all parts of the organization.
• Organize ambassadors who will help you start the wellness program.

Keeping Score and Celebrating

Always keep in mind how you will monitor progress and evaluate the success of your wellness program. Evaluation allows you to:

• Ascertain areas of excellence.
• Ascertain factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Gain management’s support for your efforts (and maintain that support).
• Better know issues that need attention.
• Learn from mistakes and change the program to keep it on the right track.

When you evaluate your program, you can measure such things as:

• Employee absences.
• Employee turnover rates.
• The expenditure of your Employee Assistance Program.
• The cost of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The expense of your prescription drug plan.
• Accident rates and safety records.
• Employees’ participation in wellness programs (and whether they’re staying in the programs).
• Changes in employees’ health habits.
• Level of employees’ awareness of healthy lifestyle issues.
• Results of your environmental wellness audit.
• Other perceivable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A good communications plan supports ongoing information to employees (including senior managers) and fosters excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is critical in an effective communications plan. For example, you might recognize people who have helped established the program or offer tangible rewards for meeting goals and objectives.

Everyone needs to know whether employees are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some advance from them. Showing that a wellness program has financial benefits is frequently an important factor in maintaining strong reinforcement from the top.

If you focus on the key components of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while creating and delivering it, you will lay a solid foundation and leave a legacy that lasts.

How does physical exercise fit into a full-time employee’s busy schedule? Many times, it doesn’t.

One possible solution to this challenge is to make physical activity a part of the work day. Clearly, being active at work is productive for employees. But employers also advance from having fit, energetic and healthy employees who are more productive.

The challenges

Your job takes up an abundance of your time. In addition to the hours you spend actually working, there is the time required to get to and from work and take lunch and rest breaks during the work day. In the end, there are a limited number of hours left over for the rest of your life. This work life imbalance is especially true for Alberta, where statistics show that we work exceptionally hard.

Many jobs today are sedentary, and a myriad of Americans drive to work. The pressures of work may also cause us to eat lunch at our desks and skip breaks. Then, after work or on the weekends we juggle household chores, family responsibilities and social engagements.

Company Health Promotion Programs: Get started on a workplace physical activity program

Upper Management plays a key role in creating a culture that promotes health. The leaders at your workplace effect the various policies and the informal or formal practices, and these policies and practices affect your attitude towards healthy active living.

Begin by talking to your boss about the benefits of a healthy active workplace. The best way to ensure the success of a company fitness program is to have the management on side and cheering you on.

Ask your leadership to consider taking these actions:

• Send a memo or message about the significance of health and healthy living that encourages employee to take an active break each day.
• Provide for flexible work hours that assist employee to be more physically active. For example, they might need to take a longer lunch break to attend physical activity class, making up the time by arriving at work early or remaining late.
• Provide a meeting room or other suitable office space for noon-hour yoga or workout classes, and hire a teacher to lead them, or use videos.

If your boss agrees to support a workplace fitness program, do not forget to say thanks.

You do not need an onsite gym

Only very sizable employers have the potential to afford onsite fitness facilities such as exercise equipment or squash courts. Still, most employers have the potential to take other affordable steps to support staff members who wish to become more active.

For example:

• Arrange for discounted fees for staff members at a fitness club, recreation center or YMCA facility.
• Install showers and a place to hang a towel. (Make sure the showers are cleaned regularly and that women who use them will feel secure.)
• Provide bike racks or a locked enclosure that is safe, conveniently located and well lighted.
• Hold walking gatherings and set up lunch-hour walking groups
• Make staff members alert to safe and pleasant walking routes near the workplace, as well as nearby facilities that offer physical activity programs (such as walking, swimming, running, yoga, stretching).
• Find a certified instructor to instruct employee about health, fitness and how to become more active.

Any size and sort of workplace is able to encourage employees who wish to be physically active. It’s highly desirable to get senior staff on side. Even if your boss isn’t supportive, you are able to still learn ways to get moving more. Set up activities for groups and individuals, and advocate your co-employees to join in.

We all know that physical activity is an important part of health and wellbeing. But occasionally it’s tough to find time for physical activity. Lack of time is the leading barrier that individuals say prevents them from participating in physical activity on a regular basis.

The good news is that even short sessions of physical activity help your health. Research has determined that 10-minute sessions that add up to between 30 and 60 minutes a day are able to produce significant health benefits.

Also, there are numerous ways busy individuals have the potential to use to be more active. These strategies include:

• multi-tasking
• being active at work
• being active with loved ones
• scheduling activity into daily life

Different strategies work for different individuals. Being familiar with the different strategies is key to adopting and maintaining an active lifestyle.

Read on to check out strategies you can try. With sufficient responsibility, some of them are sure to work for you.

Strategy #1: Multi-tasking

The first strategy you have the potential to try is multi-tasking. This means doing things you already do, but in a more physically active way. This way you get done what you need to get done and you get physical exercise at the same time.

By way of example, you’re already travelling to work and other places. Instead of taking the car or the bus every time, try using active methods of transportation like biking, rollerblading, walking and skateboarding.

If you can’t use active transportation for a whole trip, try to be active for at least part of the trip. If you’re taking the bus, for example, get off a few blocks early and walk the rest of the way.

Active transportation benefits your body by expanding your activity level, and it also benefits your neighborhood and the environment by decreasing the number of cars on the road.

You are able to also get physical exercise while doing chores.

When you’re working around home, try to be creative and look for the active choice. By way of example, if you’re cleaning the crack between the fridge and the counter, why not move the fridge so you have the potential to clean the area better and build your strength at the same time?

For outdoor work, opt for the old-fashioned way of doing things, as they’re usually more active. By way of example, use a snow shovel rather than a snow blower.

Strategy #2: Be Active at Work

Many Americans spend eight hours a day or more working at a sedentary job. Here are a few simple ways to keep your body moving throughout work. The physical exercise will revitalize you and help you be more productive.

When you’re working at your desk, try sitting on a balance ball or disk for part of your day (30 minutes to an hour). This gives your back and abs a workout.

Take active breaks at least once a day. During your coffee break, try doing some yoga, stretching or taking a quick walk. You may find that walking up and down the stairs a few times does a better job of rejuvenating you than the java jolt.

Speaking of the stairs, take them rather than the elevator whenever you can. The stairs in your building are an opportunity to get your heart pumping.

Create walking gatherings at work. Getting outside and having gatherings in a less formal setting is a great way to be active, makes work more fun and encourages creative ideas for work projects.

Strategy #3: Be Active With Your Loved Ones

Do physical activity with your family, friends, neighbours and pets. With this plan, you and your loved ones are doing some great multi-tasking together: enjoying quality time with each other and getting some of the physical activity that you all need to be healthy.

Go for walks, swims or bike rides together. Play Frisbee, soccer and other games and sports together. When you take your little ones to the park, play with them instead of just watching them play.

Many neighborhood facilities offer classes that keep you and your little ones active at the same time. Research these classes and take one or two.

You can even be active when you’re watching your little ones do activities without you. By way of example, if your child plays hockey, take the opportunity to walk up and down the stairs in the stands a few times. If you feel self-conscious about doing it alone, why not gather a group of parents to do it together?

Strategy #4: Have Physical Activity into Your Day

Plan your physical exercise directly into your daytimer. Set a specific time and place for exercising. Make your physical exercise appointments a priority, just as valuable as any other appointment you put in your daytimer.

To help you stay committed to your physical activity appointments, you might want to make appointments that involve other people: such as by meeting with a personal trainer, taking exercise class or jogging with a friend.

If you’re not sure how many appointments to make or what you should be doing during your appointments, try consulting with a personal trainer. A personal trainer is able to help you advance a physical activity plan and schedule.

The bottom line: figure out what works best for you. Experiment with the strategies. Find inspiration by talking to other people about how they stay active and what strategies they employ. Be creative and patient while you learn what strategies work best for you. And be aware that your “best strategy” may change from time to time.

With enough effort, you will discover what works for you. Then, run with it!

• Commit to workplace physical exercise in policy statements and commit funding to physical exercise drives.
• Clearly communicating the benefits of being physically active during the workday reinforces the company’s commitment to assisting all workers be active. Use meetings, bulletin boards, newsletters and e-mail to reach as many workers as possible at least once a year.
• Provide flex time for physical activity. Invite staff members who actively commute to work or exercise at lunchtime to make up any missed time later in the day.
• Consider allowing staff members to work part time, so that they have the potential to participate in physical exercise.
• Include a physical exercise account in your benefit plan to pay for or subsidize fitness memberships, assessments, classes, counselling or instruction.
• Give interest-free loans for employees to buy bicycles or great walking shoes/runners.
• Conduct periodic employee interest surveys of employee physical activity preferences, and offer a variety of options to suit those interests and needs.
• Hire qualified individuals to lead stretch breaks or physical exercise programs or classes. For help in finding accredited fitness leaders, visit Alberta’s Provincial Fitness Unit.
• Recognize workers who take part in physical exercise. Survey workers first to determine how they prefer to be recognized, e.g., through business newsletters, appreciation lunches, rewards and/or thank you notes.
• Give child care and other family-friendly amenities during physical activities that occur after work.
• Avoid scheduling gatherings during lunch.
• Promote active breaks instead of coffee breaks.
• Have active fundraisers rather than bingos. For example, workers might climb the Calgary Tower stairs or take turns riding a stationary bike for 24 hours.
• Make birthday celebrations active times. Instead of a lunch, invite the birthday person to choose an activity. Options could include a session with a yoga instructor or an evening ski trip.
• Promote a casual dress day. One study observed that workers who dress casually were more physically active.