BBK Steps Challenge

Over the 4 weeks in November we put on a BBK Steps Challenge which brought together 13 teams, 65 colleagues and was won by team Steptacular, clocking a massive 2,030,406 steps!

The challenge was organised by Jessica Standley, an Associate Solicitor within the Abuse team, who’s a passionate advocate of health and fitness having run 10 marathons in 10 countries.  The challenge gave people the impetus to merge their regular lifestyles with a fitness goal.  Our flexible working means this was easy to do.  Our people were going for a run, hitting the gym, walking to work, taking a stroll in their lunch break, using the stairs, anything that increased the number of steps.  It brought us closer to our targets and most of all it was really fun.  We all pushed ourselves to get better at it.  It was a perfect excuse to ramp up our fitness before the Christmas festivities took over.

Our weekly leader board announcements and a prize of a team dinner successfully galvanised everyone.  We witnessed a surge of creativity with fun team names and group photos.  Solicitors, paralegals, trainees, practice management, partners all got involved and were in it to win! 

At BBK we recognise the importance of regular physical activity in improving not only our physical health but also our mental health and overall sense of wellbeing.  We know that being physically active helps us to:

• feel more energetic throughout the day
• sleep better at night
• reduce stress and anxiety
• increase our self-esteem
• make people feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives

Even a short burst of 10 minutes’ brisk walking increases our mental alertness, energy and positive mood as exercising leads to our bodies producing endorphins.  Endorphins are often referred as feel-good or happy chemicals as they can act as a pain reliever and happiness booster.  We want all of our people to be happy!

Promoting physical fitness and encouraging people to exercise or take up a physical activity/sport is an important pillar of our firm’s wellbeing strategy.  We offer various fitness activities such as exercise classes, sports clubs, discounted gym memberships and yoga classes.  With the Steps Challenge we were able to offer the whole firm the opportunity to not only undertake a physical activity, but also have a lot of fun whilst doing it together