Active Workplaces - International Women's Day!

International Women’s Day (IWD) is taking place on Friday 8^th March 2019. Throughout the week leading up to IWD Wesport will be sharing stories about local women getting involved in sport and physical activity. Not wanting to be guilty of not practicing what we preach, here at Wesport we try to encourage each other to add activity into our working day. This doesn’t mean that we ‘exercise’ 24/7 we just aim to move more during the hours we spend in the office!

In the Wesport team the women outweigh the men 10-4! So guys versus girls isn’t an option – we always encourage each other to be active. This includes scheduling a walking meeting where appropriate or breaking up a lengthy meeting by simply standing.

We have a wealth of previous sporting stars and some who are still achieving goals in their sporting life. You can have a read about how our very own finance lead Nikki tackled her couch to 5k journey here! To get active together we often try to drag the team out during a lunch break. This could be half an hour game of ping – an informal game of table tennis using free to use tables that are dotted around Bristol. You can see where the free to use tables are located here. We’re lucky enough to have a table 100 meters away from the office so midday in our office has been re-named Ping O Clock! We all march out together and play our own version of round the world switching in different rules and penalties to keep the game exciting!

By activating our lunch breaks and taking the time to get up and away from our desks we feel a lot better and re-energised for the afternoon. It is a fantastic way to socialise and increase team cohesion which in turn increases the productivity and effectiveness of the Wesport team. Not to mention bragging rights in the office if you win the ‘Champion of the World’ accolade during a game of Ping.

Look out for us on twitter @Wesportcsp to follow the stories that we will be sharing around International Women’s Day as well as clips of the female members of the Wesport team getting active during the working day.

So here’s what you can do to maintain a fit and healthy active workplace

1. Leave the car at home and walk or cycle to work. Every hour you spend in a car makes you 6 percent more likely to be obese. Every kilometre you walk reduces it by almost 5 percent.
2. Active Workplaces Competitions – gather your colleagues for an evening of fun and laughter and take part in our Workplace competitions including dodgeball and badminton. Take a look at our current Active Workplace competitions Here. Keep a look out for our summer calendar which is launching soon!
3. Just like the Wesport team you can activate your lunch break with our bitesize guide to help Here
4. Physical Activity Champions Training – a training course that will educate and motivate members of staff to encourage other colleagues to get active and the positive impact that this can have on colleagues health and wellbeing.
5. Incentivise getting active in your workplace and run mini competitions such as who can walk the most amount of steps in a week. Keep a leader board and nudge your neighbour to take the stairs instead of the lift!