The Webster University Fitness Center has just started a new program called “Work it to win it.” Everyone who goes to the fitness center and works out for half an hour gets his or her name entered into a raffle.
A name gets picked from the raffle every Monday. This is an interesting way to try to get people to exercise more. My first thought when I originally saw the flyers for “Work it to win it” was confusion. I wasn’t sure what the event was about. But after I learned more, I liked the premise of the event.
It’s nice to see the fitness center doing something to try to get more people to be active. One of the reasons I like the idea is the fact that there is an incentive for people to work out.
The best part is that the program has zero risks. If someone decides to work out so that they can be entered into a drawing for the chance to win prizes. Those who work out will be in a win-win situation.
By working out 30 minutes, you get the chance to win a prize and you’re helping yourself stay healthy. Even if you don’t win the drawing, you are still doing something great for yourself. On the other hand — in the chance that you do win — you still keep yourself in shape while adding a bonus to that.
The program requires a low level of commitment that most anyone can do. All the fitness center is requiring is that anyone who wants to be entered into the drawings must work out half an hour.
Working out for 30 minutes is not a hard thing to do. What else makes this easy is the fact that you don’t have to work out any more days than you want. If you want to make a routine where you go multiple times a week, you can, and you will get entered each day.
But if you can only work out one day a week, you’d still get entered for that day, making the program easily implemented into all kinds of different schedules. Another part is that the level of the work out’s difficulty can vary for each person. There is no requirement of what you must do while at the fitness center other than using the facility. This affords everybody the chance to work out at their own pace, and they don’t have to worry what others in the fitness center are doing.
The big question, however, is will people who don’t currently work out be motivated to do so because they can win a prize? I feel having regular raffles to encourage people to work out is a good idea, but it’s very hard to get people to break out of their routines. It is hard for us to change things from what we’re used to, even if it is something that is good for us.
I don’t know if people will participate in the program because the advertisements are somewhat confusing. I had to do some research to finally figure out what the program is all about. But I fear most people, if they’re initially confused, will rarely put forth an effort to look deeper into the program, as I did. Instead, they will just move on.
The other thing that might detract from the event is no one knows what the prizes are. I’d like to know what I have a chance of winning before I put in the effort of working out. Just saying “prize” doesn’t grab our attention. But saying what the specific prize is may help.
Overall, this program is a nice idea. It remains to be seen whether it will prove effective in getting more people to work out. By taking care of the things I mentioned, the program could be even more effective and can make a bigger impact.
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