Keeping corporates healthy through virtual race

Chennai: Taking a fitness resolution to do “walking for atleast 30 minutes a day” and failing to keep it may be one of the most unkept and common resolution for many.

However, what if your boss keeps a tab on it and an entire office team of colleagues walking and nudging you and walking along with you. And all this on the virtual world welcome to Stepathlon! “Sitting is the new smoking and that is exactly why we are asking employees to take a walk literally,” said Ravi Krishnan, CEO of Stepathlon, a wellness firm. With the young India driven more by peer pressure and competition, all it needs to motivate them to stay healthy and improve their productivity is through an online walking race, claimed the entrepreneur who has kept over 50,000 Indian corporate executives on their toes literally since 2012.

Stepathlon, is a pedometer based walking race around a ‘virtual world’ among corporates where participants are encouraged to walk 10,000 steps in 100 days.

It works like this corporates enroll their employees in the race for a fee to participate in the 100-day race. Stepathletes form teams of 5 with their colleagues from single or multiple locations, with each of them receiving Stepack that includes a pedometer which records every single step they take starting from the time they get out of bed. Their steps are converted into kilometers and are traced on a website that lets them know the distance covered by their team.

Research reveal that for every tech gadget bought, an entire family gains additional 8 kilos of weight and a simple 30-minute walk daily can reduce up to 35 lifestyle diseases.

“And it is for this sake that stepathlon is hoping to add a spring into the feet of Indian corporates to keep them healthy,” Mr Ravi said. Vouching to Mr Ravi’s claim about 28 per cent of stepathletes took less sick days, Ajay Srinivasan, chief executive, financial services, Aditya Birla Group, said, “I strongly believe that exercise sets off a very different kind of rhythm in people and therefore it will improve productivity, there is no question that it should lead to lower absenteeism.”