Fitness is Fun!
August 2004

Fitness Spotlight - Incorporating Wellness into the Workplace
Rising health care costs are a growing concern for companies. Employees can help with this problem by making an effort to improve their health. Some companies have taken action by encouraging employees to be physically active at work with the help of a fitness friendly work environment.

Sprint Corporation, located in Overland Park, Kansas, is an example of one company that not only encourages, but makes it easy for employees to be active. Instead of designing their campus around convenience, the new design allows for the employee to get more walking in during their day. Parking garages are located around campus rather than next to the building. The new campus includes a fitness center, jogging trails, recreation fields, covered walkways and a gymnasium.²

Pharmaceutical company Hoffman-La Rocha in Trenton, New Jersey, has taken a different approach to employee health. Employees can enjoy Weight Watchers meetings and daily workouts at the on-site fitness center while at work. Sixty percent of the employees participate in company subsidized programs.¹

More companies are following suit and offering their employees health and fitness options. The Society for Human Resource Management's annual survey of employee benefit managers found 31% subsidize or reimburse gym membership fees, 22% provide on-site fitness centers, 24% offer a weight-loss program and 11% provide nutrition counseling.¹

Coors Brewing Company took a more comprehensive approach by offering health screenings to identify at risk employees. These employees were then encouraged to take advantage of programs offered at the Coors Wellness Center. Employees are satisfied with the programs and have made positive improvements. According to research done by Perkins, et al., the average Body Mass Index went down, total cholesterol on average went down 25 points, and resting blood pressure and heart rate also decreased.³

A study in the Health Affairs journal estimated that health care costs could top $30 million.1 Whether a company takes a large or small scale approach it is hard to deny that both employers and employees will benefit from health education centers and programs. What does your company do for your health?

Advocate Spotlight - Home Depot
The Home Depot is utilizing one of the company's core values: to take care of its associates, by using the President's Challenge Awards Program in their Building Better Health Worksite Wellness Program. Home Depot also takes great pleasure in supporting an effort championed by President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports President's Council member, 2000 Olympic gold medalist, and Home Depot associate, Derek Parra. Building Better Health's goal is to make every associate aware of the Challenge and lead them to a more active and healthy lifestyle to look and feel their best.

Each site's Wellness Representative has been instructed to mark off a mile long strip in or around the store and promote it as the "Home Depot Gold Medal Mile." Associates are encouraged to walk the mile to "warm up to work" and track it on their Challenge log sheet. Having a "Home Depot Gold Medal Mile" is one of the requirements for a location to be recognized internally as a "Gold Medal Worksite." Building Better Health encourages all associates to increase their physical activity by promoting the program in activity kits, the intranet, on TV slides in all Home Depot stores, and in the company wide newspaper, "Doings at the Depot."

The Home Depot President, Chairman, and CEO Bob Nardelli was recently recognized as the first annual company-wide online President's Challenge champion and supporter. He was noted as saying, "I am proud and honored to be a part of a national program that allows us to continue to take care of our people".

User Spotlight
Judy, a 46-year-old human resources coordinator at Spruce Pine Community Hospital in North Carolina, has reaped the benefits of participating in her workplace's employee wellness efforts. Encouraged to participate in two wellness programs of her choice, Judy chose a weight management program and the President's Challenge to help improve her health. Here is her story…

When did you start taking more interest in your health?
My workplace offered extensive lab testing at a minimal cost to me, and the results were distressing. The doctors prescribed several medications. I didn't realize I had let myself get that out of shape!

Why did you decide to take action?
I have a family history of heart problems and knew I was headed in the same direction unless I changed something. I didn't want to have to take handfuls of expensive pills every day, so I told my doctors to just give me a little bit of time and I would do something about my health.

What steps have you taken to better your health?
Since I started the programs in February, I have walked from 30-40 minutes per day on the treadmill at work, in addition to being more careful of my eating habits. Between consultations with the dietician and the trainer that are available at work, I am able to get all the information I need to keep getting more fit.

How has the President's Challenge factored in?
I kept hearing about it at work, and the Active Lifestyle program has turned out to be a huge motivator. It has been a great tool to help keep track of my progress. Plus, 40 of my co-workers are members of our workplace's Active Lifestyle group, and 44 are in the Champions group, so it's a hospital-wide effort.

Have you noticed any changes in your health?
YES! I have lost 15 pounds, my body fat has gone down by 2%, and I dropped a whole clothing size. All the compliments from people who notice are great motivation! Not only do I look better, but I know I'm healthier, too. My second round of tests has shown that my blood triglycerides and cholesterol are now within 'normal' range, which saves me from lots of expensive medications. I just have more energy now, and I feel better about myself now that I don't just go home and plop down on the couch after work. I'm going to stick with this so I continue to drop pounds and get healthier.

How big of a role would you say your workplace has played in these improvements?
It definitely helped so much to have that support system in my workplace. It's also really nice to know that my employer cares enough to encourage activity and good health in general. I feel like they asked themselves: what can we do internally to make our employees healthier? I probably would never have known I was so out of shape if it wasn't for the testing they offered at work.

What advice would you give to someone just starting to get active?
Start to make the effort. Diet alone doesn't do it - you need to get up and get moving. You don't need to make major changes in your life. Just exercising a little at work or using the stairwell instead of the elevator can make the difference.

Latest Research Digest Available
The June 2004 edition of the Physical Activity and Fitness Research Digest is available on our Web site under News/Research. This issue entitled Physical Activity for Children: Current Patterns and Guidelines is the tenth issue dedicated to this topic. Past Research Digests are also available from our Web site.