Healthier Habits, Stronger Team: Inside the Best Life Games Wellness Challenge 

What if you could sleep better, feel better, and connect with your colleagues through self-care and active living? 

When brainstorming ways to inspire wellness and connection among our team in 2024, we decided to pursue something new: a summer challenge powered by our very own ABC Trainerize app; inspired by our Best Life corporate value.   

This year, our Best Life Games corporate wellness challenge returned for a second year by popular demand. The goal was to make healthy living engaging, simple, and fun while fostering a sense of connection across our globally diverse community.  

As a software developer, I spend most of my day doing coding at my desk, but for [the Micro Workouts challenge], I found myself doing pushups between code builds, or getting a few stretches in between meetings. It was a fun way to sneak in movement and be a little more active during the day.” – Yaheya Farooqui, Engineering, India 

The corporate wellness challenge was centered around a series of daily habits that participants would check off to earn points for their teams. For coaches using ABC Trainerize habit coaching features, daily habits are a well-regarded strategy to improve client engagement, and recent research from Ryerson University shows that tracking daily habits is a powerful tactic for behavioral transformation. Daily habits are one of the most accessible and effective tactics in building a healthy lifestyle and can result in benefits such as better focus, less stress, and improved energy.

Participating as small teams created community between individuals who don’t necessarily work together and provided welcome accountability. And of course, a little healthy competition for some prizes and glory didn’t hurt either! 

About the Best Life Games

Over three weeks, participants were encouraged to earn points for completing everyday tasks: three recurring habits and one unique challenge; plus a bonus point for completing and tracking a workout in the ABC Trainerize app. 

Daily habits included: 

💧 Hydration Station: Where participants aimed for a targeted water intake goal. 

🧘 Mindfulness Moment: A 5-minute opportunity to reflect, meditate, or journal. 

️☀️ Fun in the Sun: Encouragement for our fully-remote global team to get outside for 20 minutes. 

I’m a fairly avid runner and I typically take the opportunity to listen to music when I run, but the daily [Mindfulness Moment habit] provided a chance for reflection and thought. It was really cleansing and impactful for me and I appreciated the opportunity to approach something I love in a different way.” – Bill Davis, CEO, Ohio 

Unique challenges included: 

🎧 Learn to Live Well: Learning fuels growth. Participants listened to a podcast or read an article where they could learn something about health and wellness. 

🍗 Protein Power: Protein powers muscle repair and growth and immune function. Participants chose a high-protein snack or meal on this day.   

📚 Chapter Chase: Reading improves empathy and emotional intelligence. Participants were encouraged to share what they were reading on the challenge Slack channel. 

️🔥 Cold / Hot Exposure: A cold plunge or sauna can improve circulation and reduce inflammation. Participants could do both or choose one of their preference. 

💛 Act of Kindness: Spreading positivity boosts connection and community. Participants took time to send a thank-you note, donate to a cause, or pay for someone’s coffee as an act of goodwill.  

I loved the Act of Kindness challenge… I really feel there can be so much darkness around someone and just doing a small gesture can bring a ray of light to somebody and really help them. Even the smallest little things… I cannot wait to be part of next year’s games.” – Gabriella Fellbaum, Onboarding and Implementation, Alabama 

Powered by ABC Trainerize

To bring our wellness challenge to life, we turned to one of our own platforms – ABC Trainerize.

Through the app’s Challenges feature, participants received their daily healthy habits, checked them off each day, and earned streaks that kept the momentum going. Pre-made video classes from the Workout Library and tracking for cardio made it easy to stay active, while the Challenge feature let us see each other’s progress as teammates hit milestones and earned points. 

 

ABC Trainerize makes participation simple, motivating, and fun—showcasing not only the impact of our platform for our customers and their clients, but also its power to bring our own team together in pursuit of healthier, more active lives. 

Global Participation in the Best Life Games 

Over the course of the challenge, 210 team members came together to move more, build healthy habits, and connect with colleagues across the globe. With strong participation from our engineering, onboarding, and customer success teams, we formed 27 spirited teams representing 17 different countries. Together, we logged an impressive 9,820 healthy habits and tracked 1,569 workouts in the ABC Trainerize app—proof that small daily actions add up to big wins.

Most importantly, the challenge brought the team together as a community, showing that with encouragement and collaboration, we can truly accomplish more than we imagined! 

Becoming a new dad has been one of the greatest joys of my life but it also flipped my routine upside down… this challenge gave me a push I needed to reset and recalibrate, and start showing up for myself a little bit, one small habit at a time.” – Michael Marcelino, Customer Success, Florida 

Team Wellness Outcomes

Our wellness challenge didn’t just get people moving—it made a real impact on how we feel. In just three short weeks, participants reported a 2.4% boost in overall health and wellness, a 4.9% lift in energy and mood, and a 4.6% improvement in managing stress. Even our sleep got a glow-up, with a 3.5% increase in quality rest. These small shifts add up to meaningful changes, and it’s inspiring to see the ripple effect that a few weeks of focus and encouragement can have on our everyday lives.

The games really changed me. Before that, the only healthy habit I had was drinking a lot of water. Since the pandemic I haven’t done any exercise but now I go out every single day… I even got back into swimming, which I love. One challenge that stuck with me was listening to a podcast on mental health. It made me reflect deeply on how we can best support each other at ABC.” – Tiago Santos, Engineering, Portugal 

Looking Ahead

The Best Life Games reminded us that wellness is more than a personal goal—it’s something we can build together as a team. By combining the tools we create with the energy of our community, we sparked new connections, formed lasting healthy habits, and had a lot of fun along the way.  

CEO Bill Davis spoke to the power of community as the games came to a close. “The sport of life that we are playing here is a team sport. None of us [at ABC] can do it alone. Having a support system through the challenge, there’s real value to be garnered in that, in the course of this year and next year, and as we look ahead to Best Life Games 2026.” 

We can’t wait to bring the challenge back next year—bigger, better, and with even more opportunities to move, grow, and thrive together!