Athletes at Polyus Magadan (Natalka) organised a “burpee challenge” — a fitness event, made up of a series of physical challenges. Given the current climate, the event took place online.
The burpee was developed by Royal H. Burpee in 1939. Now it is used in cross-fit and includes a number of individual physical exercises, such as two-leg squats, push-ups and jumping.
Over the 21-day training period, contestants increased the number of burpees each day. Each day the athletes would upload a video of their workouts. These were shot creatively, at people’s homes, gyms, parks and even at the coast.
Darya Tsarkova, an ambassador of Polyus Magadan’s running club, commented:“We decided to hold a burpee challenge event, aiming to keep joggers fit and prepare them for the important corporate race. We quickly chose the burpee as the exercise for the challenge as it is multi-functional involving all muscle groups. Any person can perform a burpee to remain healthy. This event turned out to be really fun, with the participants looking forward to the amazing daily videos.”
Elena Pleshkova, Director for Integrated Management System Roll-out, and Lidia Zhukova, Chief Cost Engineer, were the eventual winners of the virtual burpee contest. The ladies were recognized for their strength and being the most active athletes, as well as their creative personalities.
According to Elena Pleshakova, the whole team contributed to her success:“Firstly, I just wanted to support our running club ambassadors in this interesting project to tease my colleagues who did not take part, to show them that it is simple and can be done remotely. It helped to share our achievements with each other during these hard times. While performing these daily activities, my family somehow became engaged in the process, some doing burpees with me while others helped record the video, selecting the music and compiling the videos. All of us searched for interesting places to complete the day’s burpees. As a result, we created an amazing 21-day story.”
At the end of the competition, some participants were recognized as the most active burpee-performers. These were Dmitry Semenov, Director for the 220 kV power line construction project; Evgeniya Asievskaya, Production Economics Analyst; Svetlana Golyeva, Controlling Analyst; Nadezhda Ivneto, Property Specialist; and Darya Tsarkova, Chief Сost Engineer.
The running club team plans to launch a new challenge to help improve health and fitness , attracting as many participants as possible.