Nearly 40 teams and more than 200 competitors are expected to pursue the titles of fittest or most-improved man, woman or team, in part by what they shed—weight, triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins and glucose—in this new and improved competition.

But they’ll also be zeroed in on some gains, as well, with their strength, flexibility, aerobic capacity and more. The bottom line? Experience has shown that with dedication and commitment, this year’s competitors will be measurably healthier individuals when they finish the competition by Dec. 20 than they are today.

That’s one thing we learned from the inaugural Fittest Execs/Companies Challenge. Another lesson taken to heart: Leadership matters. Each of the teams in this year’s field are encouraged to include at least one chief executive or C-level manager. That’s a fundamental requirement of a program born of the belief that efforts to improve corporate wellness are far more effective when the message is preached from the highest echelon of a company.

Again serving as presenting sponsors this year are the Metropolitan Medical Society of Greater Kansas City and Ingram’s, with key sponsorship support from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, YMCA of Greater Kansas City, the Athletic & Rehabilitation Center, Carondelet Health and Holmes Murphy & Associates.

Here’s how the Fittest Execs/Companies Challenge works: Participant teams have through the end of August to enroll. Each team member will undergo a 15-point health assessment, with a score assigned to such categories as blood pressure, strength, flexibility or aerobic capacity. Scores will be calculated on a 1-to-10 scale, with a “perfect” fitness score of 150 across the range of tests. Between Dec. 1 and 20, individuals will conclude a health regimen and a follow-up assessment.

Based on the changes in those scores, prizes will be awarded to the fittest and most improved man and woman under 50 years old and 50 or over. In addition, teams will be recognized for best overall fitness and most improvement made on an aggregated scale.

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Bob Monroe, a lawyer with the firm of Stinson Morrison and Hecker, was part of the first Fittest Execs competition. The successes he realized there were important, he said, but could have been even better.

Even though his own weight loss was not great, the first go-round produced a stronger, more flexible Bob Monroe: He took some satisfaction from improved blood lipids and significant improvements in upper- and lower-body strength.

Perhaps the greatest take-away that experience, he said, was that “I need to become more disciplined.” That can be tough when you have to forgo the firm’s fitness center over the noon hour to attend working lunches—especially when they produce exactly the opposite effect you’re looking for: ingesting calories, rather than burning them.

This time around, he says, “There’s little excuse; we have our own workout facility. But coming in early in the morning never works out well for me, and I’m too tired in the afternoon.”

That means, he says, that in order to achieve greater gains, “I’m going to try and get on a regular schedule.”

That, in part, was a key to success for many who participated in last year’s competition. Many found they could achieve significant pops in their fitness metrics even without rigorous workout routines or schedules. Instead, a commitment to consistent exercise, even something as simple as walking, combined with smarter dietary choices, could yield sharp gains in overall health scores.

That was exactly the recipe for personal success that Annette Small hit upon more than a year ago, before there even was a Fittest Execs/Companies Challenge. She was among a group of regional executives recognized in the June 2009 issue of Ingram’s for her personal commitment to improved health. Walking and improved diet helped her shed 104 pounds, which made a big difference in the energy level she brought to work as CEO of St. Mary’s Medical Center in Blue Springs.

This year, in reviewing the possibilities of aligning her own interests with the Fittest Execs program, “I thought, ‘What a cool way to get
my whole team involved to help with fitness and healthy living,” Small said. “This is kind of my new mission in life, to help promote that.”

That’s especially true, she said, given her role with St. Mary’s. “It’s important that we, as executives, learn how to balance, to take care of ourselves and still balance our work and families. This gives my team that opportunity, and that is amazing; it can be a life-changing event.”

She said there was no trouble recruiting people, either: “They were all very grateful and appreciative to have the opportunity,” Small said. “Most of the responses were, ‘This will be just the thing that will get me going’ ” on a fitness regimen, she said.

Her team, she said, had already drawn a bead on Carondelet Health co-competitor St. Joseph Medical Center to gin up a bit of internal competition. But, conceding that her counterpart there, Scott Kashman, won the title of Fittest Man Under 50 in the first event, she chuckled: “We’re going for most-improved!”

Leading by Example

It’s an undeniable fact: 80 percent of those who finished the Fittest Execs competition last year did so with better health scores than when they started. While you can’t come up with a metric for the influence of executives on those higher scores, their involvement in the program was just as undeniably important.

No competing team demonstrated that better than those from Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue, which nabbed the Most Improved Team title overall with one group, while the other tied for second in that category. Among their ranks were the overall winners of Most Improved Man Under 50, and Most Improved Man 50 or Older. Their performance was a vivid example of what a C-level commitment to corporate wellness can mean for moving the fitness needle on staff.

Similarly inspired, Glen Posladek has assembled a team from A.B. May, where he’s president and CEO. He heard about it from a friend who had participated last year, and thought “it sounded like a good deal; we’re interested in wellness, and want to make it a way of life in our company,” Posladek said. “It something that permeates through an organization from a productivity and cost standpoint. The best thing for all employees is, the healthier they are, the better they are.”

His own research into the role that nutrition plays in wellness also piqued his interest in Fittest Execs, as did the opportunity to influence his staff by example.

“We’ve been doing some wellness initiatives for two or three years,” he said, “but with this program, I like the idea of involving executives. I think they get more buy-in if people look at folks in leadership doing something to improve their own fitness.”

He approached five other members of the staff, told them he’d like them on board, and all jumped at the chance to raise their own fitness levels. They will meet after their personal assessments, he said, to come up with ways to hold one another accountable for team performance.

Mark Hinderks, Monroe’s associate, managing partner at Stinson Morrison Hecker, also had no trouble recruiting partners and support staff for four—yes, four—teams: “The teams last year found it to be a good experience, and our wellness coordinator, Courtney Lorenz, is a big advocate for that kind of wellness initiative,” he said.

What does he hope the organization will reap from that investment?

“Fitter people,” he laughed. “But the truth is, as people improve their fitness and health, they also improve their productivity and longevity and all of those good things, and that’s something we’re certainly interested in supporting.”

Return to Ingram's August 2010