It is a new year, meaning great weather and movement for the University of Arizona. To encourage movement, we have Move Arizona, an eight-week program that encourages you to meet the recommended 150-300 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. Moderate activity includes anything that elevates your heart rate, such as brisk walking, running, jumping, biking, and dancing. So many more activities count, and there isn’t enough time to name them all. Participating in physical activity can reduce your risk of depression, diabetes, and heart disease. It reduces the risk of dying from most diseases.
Move Arizona counts minutes rather than steps so you can participate in any activity that keeps you feeling great and one that you will continue to do. Last year, 1,019 participants, 140 teams, and 2,279,125 minutes were recorded. Can we beat last year’s numbers? With your help, we can.
Move Arizona starts on February 26 and runs through April 22. The program encourages teams led by a team captain. Each captain can have up to four teams, with 10 on the first team and nine on the other three, for 37 participants. If you're interested, sign up to be a captain. If you want to be on a team, email us at lifework@arizona.edu.
See what captains from last year have to say about the program and how it enhanced their leadership skills.
Captains’ testimony
“Serving as a captain for the Health Sciences Office of Communications Move Arizona team last year offered a great opportunity to engage with coworkers whom I already knew as well as with those whom I did not know very well. I set up a Teams group and would send out a “Stair Walkers” alert just about every day we were in the office, and we would walk the nine floors of stairs in the HSIB building. We all got to know each other better and built friendships that have lasted throughout the year. It was a great opportunity for me to step up and lead the group and encourage daily movement.” – Gawain Douglas
“Rounding up the troops for group walks really went a long way to building morale and it felt great as a leader to bring that to the office.” – Angela Federico
“As a first-time captain and first-time participant, I enjoyed the challenge of motivating a team to increase their active minutes. This in turn helped motivate myself while simultaneously making meaningful connections with my team.” –Julie Leftwich
If you aren’t ready to be a captain, become a participant. Take care of yourself and find what moves you. All forms of physical activity are welcome in Move Arizona!