Olympic Office fever!

That’s for cutting me up in the car park!

Olympic fever is here!

Olympic fever has spread to the workplace with the rise and rise of the ‘Workforce Workfit’ challenge. It is designed to encourage people to take part in more physical activity inspired by London 2012.

With the UK’s increase in obesity , and the lack of physical exercise in people’s lives (63% of  us aren’t getting enough) this is a health crisis. We are all a lot less healthy than we were in Wartime when we had rationing – an early form of the Weight Watchers points concept. No one had invented the Dyson and we all had to do our own housework.

To combat this malaise, people in workplaces across the North of England are becoming engaged in activities they may never have tried before or even heard of, in an effort to get off the sofa and go for metaphorical gold. Zumba is incredibly popular among those with some co ordination, as well a those without. Its Columbian inventor Alberto Perez forgot his tapes for his aerobics class one day and started to improvise to his own Latino tunes and Zumba has never looked back.

An Olympic effort

By contrast, ‘Just Jhoom’ which is a kind of Bollywood hip hop is just as much fun. The music is lively Indian songs, but has not got the profileof Zumba.

Balancing on a four inch beam or synchronised swimming are pretty much going to be beyond the average office worker, so you’ve got to start somewhere. Incidentally, the tug of war which we’re all familiar with, was an Olympic sport for 20 years but is no longer. A crying shame if you ask me.

Wash those windows

 

Fencing is one of the earliest Olympic sports.It is a psychological game of cat and mouse as well as being a physical challenge. It’s great fun. It could even be a healthier way to sort out who is top dog in the office rather than who shouts the loudest in those interminable meetings. If it was good enough for Emma Peel, it’s good enough for me.