Getfit@mit, MIT's annual three-month, team-oriented fitness challenge open to all members of the Institute community, will begin on January 22, 2007. Team registration opens at the end of the month. Don't miss out!
"The getfit@mit challenge is intended to encourage exercise during a time of year when the cold weather and short days make it more difficult to stay active," explains Maryanne Kirkbride, MIT's clinical director for campus life. "It's a chance for you to start making exercise a regular part of your life, a habit." In fact, of the 70 percent of getfit participants who began exercising more as a result of the 2005 challenge, almost half continued exercising at this increased level for the rest of the year, right up until the 2006 challenge began. Additionally, about a quarter of participants in each previous year have reported losing weight, reducing stress levels, and sleeping better. About 40 percent reported improvements in general mood.
This issue of health@mit profiles several successful teams and individuals who have participated in getfit@mit over the last two years. If you still need some inspiration to participate in the 2007 challenge, read on!
MIT librarians share their tips on building a successful getfit team
If you've noticed MIT's librarians slinging those heavy books about with greater ease of late, it just might be that after two years of enthusiastic participation in getfit@mit, they're a bit stronger than before. In fact, almost a quarter of MIT Libraries employees successfully completed the 2006 getfit@mit challenge. "There were a number of teams in the Libraries," says Kim Maxwell of the 3Ps. "When one team filled up, someone just started a new one."
And at the end of the most recent challenge, one Libraries team, the Barker Stair Steppers, stood alone as the 2006 grand prize winner, chosen at random from all teams successfully meeting the exercise-minute goals for at least nine of the 11 weeks. Actually, most of the Libraries teams ended the challenge in contention for the grand prize. Although not every team member on every team met every exercise goal every week, most Libraries teams' averages met or exceeded each weekly threshold.
How did they do it? What advice can they offer 2007 participants? This is what they told us:
Find your teammates among your co-workers. Darcy Duke, captain of the Barker Stair Steppers, has participated in getfit@mit for the last two years. The first year, she says, because her team was scattered among the staffs of various MIT libraries, they didn't see each other every day or participate in any activities together. In 2006, however, "there was enough 'local interest' that we were able to put together a whole team just from within the Barker Library." she explains. Having all the team members under one roof really made a difference in morale, she notes. "I feel we all encouraged each other and really bonded as a team."
Recruit team members with varied exercise backgrounds. Most of the Libraries teams included a mixture of serious exercisers and beginners, which, participants report, worked well for a number of reasons. Experienced exercisers said they enjoyed taking a leadership role on their teams and helping newer exercisers with tips on setting up a routine, suggestions on setting reasonable goals, and general encouragement. And, adds Christine Moulen of the 3Ps, "Having at least one very active person on the team helped us to reach the overall team goals when one or more of the others had an off week."
Do things together. Most successful Libraries teams participated in regularly planned group walks, special one-time group activities, or one or more of the special getfit@mit-sponsored team contests. Members of the 3Ps and Fitter Happier walked the tunnels together every week while the hardy Barker Stair Steppers ventured outdoors each Wednesday for a walk around campus. And at one point during the program, members from several teams got together for a grand walking tour of all 12 campus libraries. "Since half our team members were not on campus regularly, we asked them to take a walk to their local, hometown libraries that day," Moulen explains. "You can find creative ways to include everyone."
"For our team, exercising together gave the program a focal point each week beyond just sending the minutes in," Duke adds. "Even those who didn't walk with us got the weekly invitation, and perhaps it reminded them to get to the gym."
Try new activities. Every year, getfit@mit participants report that the program was an impetus to try new sports or activities, and members of successful Libraries teams agree that the fitness challenge is an opportunity to add some variety to an exercise routine that may have gotten a little too routine. Sometimes a team member is the one to introduce a new activity to his or her teammates, or sometimes team members explore a new sport together. For example, a number of Libraries participants signed up for, and attended, getfit@mit-sponsored events with teammates. "I started going to yoga classes for the first time in my life during the getfit program," reports Ellen Duranceau of Fitter Happier. "That has been a fabulous new activity!"
With the next getfit@mit challenge on the horizon, Libraries staff members are starting to organize their 2007 teams. "It's good to be reminded, especially during chilly Cambridge winters, how important exercise is," Maxwell says. "And having lots of other people on campus involved in the challenge creates a sense of camaraderie that makes it fun."
"The program brings colleagues together towards something fun and productive, and it makes people feel connected and happy," says Duranceau. "This is really significant when we are all working very hard, in jobs that are quite sedentary. I feel very proud of this program and often tell others outside of MIT about it. It's one of the many really positive aspects of working here. It makes you feel the Institute is a place that cares about the whole person."
[CAPTION]: Members of the Libraries teams paused for a photo on the stairs at Lewis Music Library during their grand walking tour of the MIT Libraries.
A special breed of turtle thrives at Lincoln Laboratory
The Enduring Turtles getfit@mit team was born out of "locker room talk" says team captain Cathy Keller. "One afternoon, I just collected the names of everyone in the ladies' locker room at the Lincoln Laboratory Fitness Center who wasn't already on another team. I also included Steve [Thompson], who obviously wasn't in the ladies' locker room but was suggested by Laura [Brattain], who runs with him regularly."
Team composition has changed a bit over the last two years-for example, Maria Kuffner, an "honorary" first-year member, became an official Turtle last year when one of the original members moved on to a new job-but the team's enthusiasm and persistence have remained unchanged. Although none of the team members work in the same area at Lincoln Laboratory, they see each other regularly and frequently take part in group activities. "Members of our team typically work out at lunch time," Kuffner explains. "It's great motivation for me to join in the fun-and the sweat! As a working mother, my lunchtime is the only time I have for exercise most days."
The team was among the top finishers in both years' getfit@mit "Team Spirit" competitions, in which teams vie to log the most minutes exercising together. "We made a special effort to have all of us show up for the lunchtime fitness classes that week," Evelyn Mann says.
"It was great to have eight Turtles on spinning bikes at the same time," Keller continues, "even though Steve hates spinning and Laura gets dizzy. And although I really don't like running very much, I went running with Steve and Laura that week to make sure we had three team members working out together, so it would count toward our Team Spirit total." The Turtles ended Team Spirit week with a Saturday afternoon hike through the Nashoba Brook conservation area near Kuffner's Acton home, followed by hot chocolate and apple crisp.
Like many other successful getfit@mit participants, members of the Enduring Turtles have used the challenge as an opportunity to try out new activities. Mann took snowboarding lessons the first year and ended up liking the activity enough to buy her own board. And last year, after watching her son play ice hockey, she was inspired to try the sport herself. "I found out there were opportunities for beginner, older women to learn and play ice hockey," she recounts, "and I'm getting better and better at it. My kids think I must be going through some sort of midlife crisis to take up snowboarding and hockey at my age, but it's been great fun!"
The Turtles celebrate the end of each year's challenge with an "awards luncheon," featuring a healthy main course and, for dessert, a turtle-shaped cake. Last year's awards included "Most Valuable Turtle," "Most Enduring Turtle," and, for Steve Thompson, the lone man on the team, "Sexiest Turtle."
Now the team is looking forward to their third year of participation in getfit@mit. "Even though we are all regular exercisers, we do a lot more during the challenge," Keller says. "I know I definitely exercised more both years during getfit and felt trimmer for it."
"Our team name is really fitting," adds Mann. "We're not all fast, but we are enduring, because we continue to exercise."
[CAPTION]: The Turtles may have been one of the few getfit@mit teams with their own "uniforms"—tee-shirts designed by Keller's then 13-year-old daughter, Elizabeth.
MIT professors discover route to camaraderie, productivity, "svelteness"
"At a time in my life when I felt busier than ever, adding a commitment to a getfit team seemed like yet another thing I didn't have time to do," says Prof. Larry Vale, head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. But now he says, "It became just the excuse I needed to start, and keep up, a regular exercise routine-one that quickly led to weight loss, coupled with clear improvements in cholesterol levels and blood pressure. I feel more energized than ever now. Far from a time sink, the time devoted to exercise has increased the productivity of my day."
Prof. Dick Larson, director of the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals and a member of the "Civil Unrest" team for the last two years, recounts a similar experience. Like many other getfit@mit participants, he credits the challenge for helping him form exercise habits that stuck with him after the program's end. "No one has ever called me svelte," he admits, "[but] without getfit@mit, this pre-baby-boom faculty member might be quite un-svelte!"
MIT may be a bastion of individuality, but faculty participants say that being part of a team is one of the best aspects of the program. All-staff or all-student teams have been common during the last two years of the challenge, but virtually all getfit@mit faculty participants were members of teams drawn broadly from staff, students, and faculty within a department or lab. Larson considers this a big plus, citing the advantages having an opportunity "to interact with MIT staff members in a way quite different from normal day-to-day business." Prof. Merton Flemings, MIT-Lemelson Program director, and "Buff Stuff" team member, says getfit@mit is "a great way to build camaraderie in a research or administrative group." And Sloan Professor John VanMaanen called it "fun" to be part of a team that included faculty members, administrators, and support staff. "While much of our interaction involved checking out each other's weekly totals online, it was engaging," he notes, adding that the accountability aspect was good motivation to keep exercising and "not let down the team."
Prof. Richard Locke, the Alvin J. Siteman Professor of Entrepreneurship and Political Science, agrees. "My team consisted of both faculty and staff at Sloan," he explains. "Although we knew each other professionally before, our sense of camaraderie grew because of our collaboration on the getfit challenge."
Past faculty participants say they hope more of their colleagues will join teams and participate in this year's program. "It's challenging, competitive, and a great way to stay in shape," Larson says. And, adds Locke, "It's a really fun thing to do!"
[SIDEBAR]
getfit-at-a-glance
What's new for 2007
Learn more: http://getfit.mit.edu