Life Fitness Boosts UK Schools Fitness Challenge
Life Fitness has pledged its support to improving the fitness of the UK’s school children by offering an exclusive £45,000 prize to the secondary school winner of the first ever Fit for Sport and Next Generation Clubs Fitter Schools UK Challenge 2007.
The prize consists of strength training equipment from the innovative Life Fitness Circuit Series, which delivers time-efficient, total-body workouts in an approachable, easy-to-use format, as well as a range of impressive cardiovascular machines. The investment will also include training on the new equipment from the Life Fitness Academy for the winning school. This development will further boost the current prize fund which already includes £5,000 of sports equipment and coaching services, which has been presented by football legend Ian Wright.
Market leader Life Fitness has been the key equipment supplier for Challenge partners, Next Generation Clubs, for over eight years and is at the forefront of fitness equipment innovation and design.
This latest development serves as a major coup for the Challenge which has already seen 900,000 school children sign up to the initiative since its launch at the beginning of February.
Dean Horridge, Managing Director of Fit For Sport, said; “Getting the support of a global leader of the calibre of Life Fitness shows the importance of the Challenge within the health and fitness industry. We are delighted that our partner, Next Generation Clubs, has helped us to forge this new relationship and bring such a massive investment to the table. As the Challenge continues to gather momentum, we believe this incentive will further boost entries, particularly in the secondary school sector where this equipment would be a perfect fit.”
Commenting on supporting the Challenge, Chris O’Connor, General Manager of Life Fitness UK, said, “This investment shows our commitment to encouraging healthy lifestyles amongst our future generations. At Life Fitness we understand the importance of access to, and involvement in, physical exercise during a child’s formative years and we felt that the Fitter Schools UK Challenge was a great vehicle through which we could play our part in helping to make a difference.”
Schools across the UK can register for the Challenge at www.fitterschoolsuk.com and will be provided with a Challenge Pack outlining how simple it is to take part.
The Challenge consists of two assessments to determine fitness levels before and after a training period. The assessments are simple activities and are in line with the existing curriculum guidelines. Lesson ideas will be provided in the challenge pack to support those seeking to improve their scores. The winning school in the primary and secondary school categories will be assessed by calculating a total score for each school on four activities with a range of standards consisting of bronze, silver and gold that children have to achieve. The difference in scores over the two assessments will determine the percentage improvement of a school.
On registration, each school will receive everything they need to fulfil the Challenge including a healthy lifestyle activity kit, the assessment instructions and access to the dedicated website for tips, information and to log results.
Next Generation Clubs, operator of 18 leading health and racquets clubs across the UK, has pledged its support to the Fitter Schools UK Challenge as its key partner. The Challenge is also supported by Organix, campaigners and producers of healthy food for babies and children. Tesco are also supporting the Challenge as part of its commitment to helping customers lead a healthy lifestyle through diet and activity and will be providing 50,000 Sport for Schools and Clubs vouchers as prizes for regional winners. WellChild, a UK charity dedicated to the needs of sick children and their families, has also pledged its support.
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