2 February - 1 March
Welcome to Imperial's Big Step Challenge!
We are excited to have you onboard this Imperial-wide steps challenge. We are committed to enabling every member of our community to do 150 minutes of exercise per week and this challenge will help us reach our goal as it can be completed from anywhere, on-site, at home or abroad!
This year we are ditching the cold English weather in February and jetting off for a tour of the Islands of the Caribbean! Ready and raring to go? Click here to get started in 4 simple steps.
How does it work?
Staff and students can enter teams of up to 5 participants to complete as many steps as possible over the four weeks of the challenge. We use the Big Team Challenge app to monitor everyone’s steps. On the app your team will be aiming to complete the virtual route around the Caribbean Islands – as voted for by our Imperial community. The easiest way to participate is to connect your wearable tech or smart phone to the app so everything automatically updates.
In addition to getting everyone moving more, Big Team Challenge also plant 1 tree on behalf of every 10 active users on the challenge through their partnership with Ecologi.
Read more about the Ecologi initiative on the Big Team Challenge webpage.
Useful information to know
After listening to your feedback, we have continued to implement the following which we hope will improve your experience of the challenge.
1. Leaderboards
This year we will continue to have two separate leaderboards as part of Imperial’s Big Step Challenge:
- Leaderboard 1 – Teams whose members are only syncing their tracked steps.
- Leaderboard 2 – Teams whose members are syncing both tracked steps and converting other activities (cycling, fitness classes etc) into steps.
This will allow everyone to join the challenge and continue to do the activities that work best for them! Please decide as a team if you are only going to snyc steps or if you are going to convert other activities. Your team will automatically be placed in the leaderboard that matches the activities you sync.
If you are using wearable tech that is synced with the steps challenge website, you do not need to do anything else. All your tracked steps from walking, Zumba or gardening while wearing the tech will be uploaded. Please do not do a manual conversion of activity to steps as this will count as double steps.
In line with the Imperial Values we ask everyone to demonstrate integrity throughout the challenge.
2. Grace period to sync steps
There will be a grace period of 48 hours to ensure all your team have managed to sync their steps at the end of the challenge. We encourage you to sync your steps within 24 hours to keep the leaderboard up to date.
3. In-app team chat functionality
You can communicate with your team in the Big Team Challenge app directly. Remember to keep your teammates motivated and congratulate them for staying active throughout the challenge!
Ready to get started? Sign up now!
Testimonials
"It was really motivating and pushed my colleagues as well as myself to become better and do way more steps per day than we initially did before. It was a nice and engaging way to feel more together as a team with my colleagues and a great challenge to be a part of."
"I loved being part of a team, feeling challenged to get up and move more as well as understanding and realising that just by increasing my step count how much this can positively impact my health and mental wellbeing."
"It made me get out and walk much more (something that had been a New Years resolution that I hadn't got round to!) and I could feel the benefit almost immediately. I will certainly continue."