Promote Physical Activity

• Provide employees with information on the benefits of physical activity and tips on how to be more active.
• Sponsor physical activity events in the community (such as runs, walks, hiking, biking and team sports).
• Provide bike racks for employees and encourage people to bike to work.
• Provide shower and change room facilities (on-site or conveniently located).
• Set aside an area for exercise and physical activity, and provide exercise equipment (such as exercise balls, mats and free weights).
• Promote the use of stairwells if your building also has elevators or escalators. Stair-climbing challenges can be a fun way to involve employees in fitness activity.
• Support employees to organize physical activity challenges at the worksite.
• Give employees time during the work day to be active, take working breaks, or stretch prior to heavy lifting or labour.
• Encourage stretch and/or physical activity breaks during meetings.
• Offer on-site fitness or recreation programs; employee fitness classes; and subsidized fitness or recreation facilities memberships or fitness accounts as employee benefits.

• Get off the bus or park your car a few blocks from your work and walk the extra distance.
• Ride your bike, walk, run, wheel, skateboard or rollerblade to work a few times a week.
• Stretch and move around at least once an hour. 
• If your building has stairs, use them if you can. It’s amazing how much activity they add to your day.
• Wear a pedometer to measure how much stair climbing and walking you do in a day.
• Plan walking meetings to combine business with pleasure.
• At lunch, be active with your colleagues. Go for a walk or jog, or workout at a fitness facility if one is handy.
• Get together with your co-workers and organize a fitness challenge.
• As a workplace team, participate in Bike to Work Week or in organized races and challenges.
• If you travel for work, book a hotel with a fitness facility and pool – and make a commitment to use them.

Making the Case

• The Alberta Centre For Active Living describes the bottom-line benefits of physical activity at work. “It’s good for employees, it’s good for business.”
• Active Workplaces – a presentation to help you, your community and your workplace make the case for an Active Workplace.
• The Business Case for Active Living at Work  from the Public Health Agency of Canada outlines the importance of supporting physical activity in the workplace, employees’ priorities for improving health and how to access other information.

Taking Action

• Physical Activity Guidelines – Public Health Agency of Canada
• Check out these tips on Fitting in Physical Activity at Work ^{(PDF 203K)}
• Stairway to Health is a fun and easy way to get employees active in the workplace.
  
• The Alberta Centre For Active Living has video and print resources on:
• stretching at your desk
• yoga at your desk
• exercising hands and wrists