It’s a struggle for Bigwave Staff to remain physically active during the working week due to sedentary office roles (unless you count moving a mouse feverishly around a desk and making trips to the kitchen to fuel up on coffee as particularly effective ways to burn calories)! Although when the office closes it’s a different story?
With the introduction of MYZONE® belts for all employees, getting active just took on a competitive twist! The team generally go to the gym and play a variety of sports including badminton, rugby and rock climbing. They’ve even organised an after work running club in preparation for the Michelmores 5K Charity Run on Tuesday 10th June!
However, Client Relationship Manager, Maria Sowden who started working with Bigwave in December 2012, has a slightly more unusual way of earning her MYZONE® Points – Roller Derby. She belongs to local team The South West Angels of Terror, burning an impressive amount of calories and earning a huge number of effort points which usually place her at the top of the leader board.
What is Roller Derby?
- The predominately female sport is fast moving, requires a lot of stamina and is very tactical.
- It’s a game played on Quad Roller Skates, with 2 teams of 5 skating anti clockwise around an oval track in a sports centre.
- Teams are made up of 1 Jammer (they score points by overtaking members of the other team) and 4 blockers (the members who assist their jammer to score points by knocking the opposing teams players out of the way and making a clear path)
The full contact sport may seem rough, but all team members are well equipped with a safety helmet, gum shield, elbow, and wrist and knee pads. It is also required from each and every skater to pass a minimum skills test before they can play. This involves stopping safely, demonstration of agility, taking and receiving hits and illustration of sufficient fitness levels by skating 27 circuits of a sports hall in less than 5 minutes. This may sound like a long time until you realise the average circuit must take no more than 11 seconds to complete!
On average, a 2 hour Roller Derby training session has seen Maria burn up to 1,800 calories and earn 632 MYZONE® effort points. During a game these figures have increased to over 2,200 calories!
Whatever your chosen sport, MYZONE® belts are a great way of tracking your exercise activity and are highly effective at pushing your training boundaries.
Check out Maria’s Roller Derby team blog here. To sponsor #TeamBigWave on their 5km run please visit our VirginMoney Giving page.