History
MIT Health’s getfit fitness challenge is the brainchild of staff member Kim Schive. In 2004, as editor of the now-defunct health@mit newsletter, she had an idea for making a bigger health impact on campus through a fitness challenge. During the pilot year of getfit in 2005, she laid out the program hallmarks: participating as part of a team, counting exercise minutes, going on tunnel walks, and free T-shirts for all.
Almost 1,300 people signed up to participate that first year. It was hard work to keep the program running with a team of seven people, all of whom had other, full-time, job responsibilities. Kim remembers, “I would get here early in the morning and hang maps in the tunnels, and I led all the tunnel walks myself the first year.”
The first challenge did more than raise the activity level of the participants; many also shared stories about how getfit had increased their sense of community at MIT, an unexpected result that delighted the organizers. Kim feels that “getfit made a difference in the way the community viewed MIT Medical. It let everyone at MIT know that we care about them, regardless of whether they get their health care here or not.”
The getfit organizing committee was recognized with an MIT Excellence Award in 2006.
Fast forward to 2025, and getfit get rebuilt by recreation to ensure the program lives on with no interruption for 2026.
Overview
The goal of getfit is to help make MIT a healthier community by encouraging participants to exercise regularly. During the challenge, which typically runs from early February through April, teams of four to eight people can qualify for prize drawings based on the average number of Wellable points accumulated each week. Prizes are awarded weekly to teams and individuals selected at random from among those teams meeting the steadily increasing weekly exercise goals.
Make lasting lifestyle changes
Results from past 8-week challenge have shown that getfit participants often make lasting lifestyle changes. Each year, nearly three-quarters of getfit participants tell us they began exercising more as a result of the fitness challenge. More importantly, most of them kept it up for at least six months after the program ended! Other benefits reported by at least a quarter of participants include:
- Weight loss
- Reduced stress levels
- Improved sleep
- Improved general mood
- Improved muscle tone
- Improved eating habits
- Improved flexibility
