News

The Pedometer Challenge

A Health Awareness initiative

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle in this day and age can prove difficult, as I am sure we are all aware. Finding the time to eat healthy, exercise, perform optimally at work, clean the house and get 8 hours of sleep seems impossible on most days. As such, we tend to neglect our bodies and opt for the easier, often unhealthy snack and skip your daily gym session. This fast-paced life-style has lead to a rise and prevalence of various health challenges including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
 
In response to this, Stellenbosch University (SU), together with BestMed, the University of the Free State, the Central University of Technology and North West University, launched the 2019 Pedometer Challenge – an 8 week challenge in which each institution will compete for the title of “Fittest University”. The challenge is simple, the university with the most logged steps wins. To make things a bit more interesting MBHG held our own internal competition, wherein teams of 4 comprising both staff and students battled it out for the title of “fittest MBHG athletes”.
 
Various health benefits have been associated with waking, including:
  1. Increased cardiovascular and pulmonary (heart and lung) fitness
  2. Reduced risk of heart disease and stroke
  3. Improved management of conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, joint and muscular pain or stiffness, and diabetes
  4. Increased muscle strength and endurance, and improved balance
  5. Reduced body fat.
This is the first year SU has taken part in the Pedometer challenge – and the 4th year that the University of Free State has hosted the challenge. MBHG could not be more thrilled to have taken part in this activity, as it provided a chance to interact with co-workers to and improve our health. MBHG had a total of 13 teams signed-up to participate in the challenge. The teams along with their members are listed below:
  • Legs Miserable: Andrea Gutschmidt (Captain), Dannielle Moore, Kim Stanley and Caroline Beltran
  • The Walking Dead: Tarryn Fisher (Captain), Gerhard Walzl, Leigh Kotze and Carine Kunsevi-Kilola
  • Rapid Reactions: Samantha Sampson (Captain), Roxanne Higgitt, Nastassja Steyn and Pamela
  • The Speed-O-Meters: Caitlyne Young (Captain), Su-Mari du-Plessis, Jomien Mouton and Julian Coetzee
  • Tenacious Turtles: Mel Kortje (Captain), Charmaine Abrahams, Leilani Abrahams and Katrina Swarts
  • The “MEAN” Machine: Nandi Niemand (Captain), Elizma Streicher, Anzaan Dippenaar and Melanie Grobbelaar
  • Happy Feet: Brigitte Herbst (Captain), Marlo Möller, Craig Kinnear and Caitlin Uren
  • Fantastic Four: Amy Steinhobel (Captain), Leeré Scott, Lisa Stein and Charnay van der Merwe
  • Hot Steppers: Stephanie Alexander (Captain), Roslyn Beukes, Gertrude Presence and Justin Johnson
  • # FitFam: Rouxjeane Venter (Captain), Stephanie Minnies, Selisha Naidoo and Zama Mahlobo
  • Pace Makers: Ilze Louw (Captain), Leanie Kleynhans-Cornelissen, Devon Allies and Hygon Mutavhatsindi
  • The Incredibles: Andriëtte Hiemstra (Captain), Fanie Malherbe, Donald Simon and Susanne Tönsing
  • Sole Mates: Chantell Meyer (Captain), Ruth Wilson, Analeen Sampson and Ashley Steyn
So which team won? Well, it was touch and go for a while, with several teams battling it out for first place – But there can only be one. The winners of the 2019 MBHG pedometer challenge was….. the “MEAN” machine, followed by Legs Miserable and Happy Feet coming in at second and third place respectively.
 
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering which university prove healthier than the rest? Well, let’s just start off by saying that the other universities have had more practice that us being the newbies in the race – LOL that being said, North West University took first place with an astonishing 65484.87km logged, followed by the University of the Free State in close second with 59032.22km logged, Stellenbosch University in third with a total of 51814.95km logged and in forth place the Central University of Technology with 14795.44km logged. 
 
We had an absolute blast competing in this competition and will definitely be taking part in similar events in the future. We hope you enjoyed keeping track of the scores posted at the end of each week and hope that we have inspired you to live a more active lifestyle in the process. If you took part in the Pedometer challenge and want to share your thoughts on the journey please feel free to comment on this post! Thanks for reading and happy walking everyone!