Nearly 850 Participate in ‘Fit in 15’

Throughout May, Duke employees learned how easy it can be to incorporate fitness into their busy schedules with help from LIVE FOR LIFE.

Faculty and staff joined “Fit in 15”, a program that encouraged participants to exercise at least 15 days in the month of May.   

“A lot of times we meet with people who say ‘I want to exercise, but I just don’t have enough time in my day’” said Taylor Miron, health fitness specialist with LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke’s employee wellness program.   “We recommend participants to exercise three to five days a week for at least 30 minutes”.

Miron said program organizers wanted to make the balance of exercise and work easy to manage. Fit in 15 encouraged all participants to meet the recommended amount of exercise. The government recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week, as well as muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days a week.

Khadijah Rich-Barber, Learning Coordinator with Organizational Learning at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, worked out 21 days in May. She did cardio, strength training and high impact exercises.

“I work out regularly, but this program was an opportunity for me to have another level of accountability to myself and my goals,” Rich-Barber said.

Of the 835 participants, 400 employees submitted recorded results to LIVE FOR LIFE, with 55.8 percent completing at least 15 days of exercise. 

Other results included:

• 58.1 percent lost or maintained weight
• 26.2 percent said they reduced stress
• 30.5 percent reported having more energy
• 61.7 percent improved overall health
• 41.8 percent increased the amount of weekly exercise
• 20.2 percent completed at least 25 days of the program

Throughout the program, the LIVE FOR LIFE staff sent emails with a list of exercises to encourage participants to try new routines, including hiking, rock climbing, dancing and hula hooping.   

“We provided different links that informed them where they could find different exercises,” Miron said.  “For example, we added a link to the Wilson Recreation Center that provides rock climbing along with a link to the triangle rock climbing club showing participants how easy it was to click and find exercise locally.”

This past spring, Gina Streaty, program coordinator at Duke Clinical Research Institute, was diagnosed with an Achilles injury in both legs, which hindered her from physically demanding exercises. Streaty participated in the program with light walking, yoga and knee-lifts that could be done at a desk.

“They gave us calendars to keep track of our progression, which helped me balance my work and exercising schedule, acting as a reminder of ‘oh you need to do this,’” Streaty said. “Because of that, I have exceeded my expectations, I still have the calendar on my desk and I still stay committed to doing it every day.”