How To Create A Step Challenge

Are you interested in becoming a Coordinator to run a step Challenge or promote 10,000 Steps in your organisation?

Registering as a Coordinator provides you with additional access to features and supporting resources allowing you to run a team Tournament and/or promote 10,000 Steps.

Why Steps?

Regular physical activity is a proven way to prevent chronic diseases as well as improve mood, concentration and emotional health.

The 10,000 Steps program is aFREE, fun and easy way for individuals, workplaces and communities to increase participation in physical activity. The program aims to increase the day-to-day activity of Australians through the use of activity trackers to accumulate incidental and planned activity throughout the day. For a quick view of the 10,000 Steps program and our achievements, take a look at our Infographic.

Walking at Work

With many of us spending a third of our waking lives at work (often sitting), combined with sedentary social activities it is little wonder that we are moving less. Supportive programs and environments in our workplaces and communities can make it easier for individuals to be physically active.

Current 10,000 Steps Coordinators have found 10,000 Steps to be a useful and easy to implement program that effectively increases the physical activity of their workers. Workplace health promotion has proven benefits including improving:

employee health and fitness,
productivity and motivation,
job satisfaction and morale.

In addition to reducing:

absenteeism and turnover,
stress and injury,
workers compensation claims.

Tournaments

Group steps challenges, called Tournaments on the 10,000 Steps website, provide an opportunity for teams to work together to take positive steps towards increased physical activity levels.

The 10,000 Steps Tournament aims to:

increase individual's awareness of their physical activity levels
encourage conversation about physical activity
increase incidental and planned physical activity

The Tournaments are designed to be flexible and can be tailored to meet the needs of your participants. They involve forming teams and recording steps to complete a virtual or timed walking journey.

The 10,000 Steps website has hosted over 6,000 Tournaments run by organisations across Australia and overseas. Coordinators who have conducted Tournaments have reported that the time and financial cost to implement the program is low to reasonable.

Our evaluation has found that participating in Tournaments significantly increases members activity levels, and 90% of participants enjoyed taking part in a Tournament.

Coordinating a Tournament

It is the Coordinators responsibility to oversee the set up, facilitation and evaluation of their Organisation's Tournament. Running a Tournament involves:

Deciding on a Tournament
Gauging participant interest
Organising activity trackers (if providing)
Organising teams
Launching the Tournament
Maintaining motivation
Celebrating success
Evaluating the Tournament

How the Tournament Works

Once you have registered as a Coordinator and created the Tournament you will have access to your organisations own private Tournament Leaderboard. On the leaderboard teams can be created and progress viewed.

We recommend sorting team lists before entering them into the website. Then once sorted, you can add the teams to your Tournament. To do this, participants must to register with www.10000steps.org.au before they can add them to the teams. Once they have been added to the team and your Tournament has started, steps logged in their account will automatically contribute to their team total.

What about Cost?

The use of the 10,000 Steps website is free as our program is not for profit and funded by Queensland Health. The only cost involved is the purchase of pedometers and prizes if your organisation chooses.

Tracking steps

It is up to each organisation to arrange their own activity trackers and we encourage participants to use any devices that they already have. Information on different models of pedometers are available here. Through our supplier Health Management Group, Coordinators ordering over 10 are eligible for discounted prices. Please note, we do not supply free pedometers and it is at the discretion of the Organisations if they provide free or discounted trackers or require participants to find their own way to track steps.

Participants with Fitbit and Garmin devices can connect their accounts and have their steps synced automatically. Other step counting devices such as wrist worn activity trackers or mobile phone health apps can be used to track steps and participants can log those steps manually through the site or mobile app.

Mobile App

The 10,000 Steps app can be used to log steps and view progress in Challenges and Tournament. It is available for iOS and Android devices by searching "10,000 Steps" in app stores. Please note that our mobile app does not count steps.

Resources

We provide established, evidence-based resources available for you to use including comprehensive guides, spreadsheets and email templates. Download our Preparing for a Tournament Information Sheet below to help you to get started.

Additional supporting information including our Tournament Guide and Active Workplaces Guide are available in the Resources section once your Coordinator registration has been approved

If you would like to organise a Tournament or promote 10,000 Steps in your organisation, register as a Coordinator.

We are here to support you.

Funded by Queensland Health and run by a small team at CQUniversity Australia in Rockhampton, we are here to support you with the assistance and resources to promote physical activity in your organisation. If you have any questions about the program, please Contact Us.

To read more about the program and how it began, see About Us.

10,000 Steps for Communities

There are many ways in which whole communities and groups within communities can promote physical activity and healthy behaviours. 10,000 Steps can assist you by providing strategies that change the environment to be more supportive of physical activity as well as strategies that provide opportunities for community members to participate in activity.

Community strategies include:

Walkway signage

Dog walking strategy

Community Tournament

Promoting your 10,000 Steps

For more information about the Community Resources view the 10,000 Steps Community Resources brochure.

Sign up as a 10,000 Steps Coordinator to find out more about our community strategies that are designed to help create a healthy, active community.