A new workplace fitness initiative has been launched to encourage workplaces to support their employees in becoming more physically active during the working day.

The Aviva Workplace Fitness Challenge is asking employers to become fitter by increasing their MET score, a simple yet effective means of expressing your cardiovascular fitness level.

A MET is a unit of fitness and the higher your score the better. For every 1 MET increase in your fitness level, your overall risk of a cardiovascular incident is reduced by 15% and risk of premature death is reduced by 13%.

The challenge was officially launched today in the Aviva Stadium by leading health and fitness ambassadors Roz Purcell, David Wallace, Jenny Murphy and Derval O’Rourke.

Research shows that the average person spends 5.3 hours sitting each working day and 40% of office-bound people don’t get any physical exercise at all during the working day. Ireland is also on track to become one of the most obese nations, according to the World Health Organisation.

In Association with

Move Your MET

The Move Your MET fitness app and Challenge has been developed by Aviva Health with the support of DCU and Ibec’s Nutrition and Health Foundation and provides a six week programme, now open for companies to register.

The App allows participants to measure their current fitness levels, monitor how they are improving, and benchmark themselves against their peers. The Move Your MET App was featured on the second episode of RTE’s Operation Transformation and has already received over 35,000 downloads to date.

How can companies get involved?

• Go online to www.moveyourmet.ie and register your workplace before the 31st of January. You will receive an information pack from Aviva to get you started.

•  Recruit employees and ask them to download the Move Your MET App before the Challenge begins on 1st February

•  Get moving and become Ireland’s Fittest Workplace.

The concept has been spearheaded by two experts in health and physical activity, Professor Niall Moyna, of DCU’s School of Health and Human Performance and Dr. Sarah Kelly, IT Carlow.

James Parker, CEO of Aviva Health, said: “We want to target the majority who aren’t active, inspiring them to think about their current level of fitness by measuring their MET and to take simple, attainable steps to become more active and healthier in the long-term.

“Many people find it hard to find time in their hectic lifestyles and to keep motivated. That’s where we believe the workplace has a role to play and by creating a programme for all employees, we can encourage small changes to take place.”

Cost Of Absenteeism

Danny McCoy, chief executive of Ibec, commented that absenteeism costs the average company in Ireland €818 per worker or a combined total of €1.5billion per year.

“During this challenge, we want companies and their employees to think differently about their work set up, about how they behave when at work whether it’s taking stairs instead of lifts or providing healthier options at meetings and in canteens, making minor adjustments which will deliver significant benefits on a sustainable basis,” said McCoy.

As well as the title and trophy for Ireland’s Fittest Company in 2016, there are prizes for the companies that see the most improvement over the course of the six weeks.

The App is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.