MIT Health's getfit challenge is a 12-week, team-oriented fitness challenge open to the entire MIT community.
The goal of MIT Health's getfit challenge 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 five to eight people can qualify for prize drawings based on the average number of minutes exercised each week. Prizes are awarded weekly to teams and individuals selected at random from among those teams meeting the steadily increasing weekly exercise goals. The Grand Prize winner is selected randomly from all eligible teams meeting the minimum average exercise threshold for at least ten out of twelve weeks of the competition.
Make lasting lifestyle changes
Results from past 12-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:
- Improved eating habits
- Improved flexibility
- Improved general mood
- Improved muscle tone
- Improved sleep
- Reduced stress levels
- Weight loss
Major sponsorship is provided by:
- Lincoln Laboratory Fitness Center
- MIT Activities Committee (MITAC)
- MIT Federal Credit Union (MITFCU)
- MIT Recreation
For more information, see:
- Rules (below)
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The 2025 getfit challenge begins on February 3, 2025, and ends on April 27, 2025.
- All teams must register online at getfit.mit.edu between January 13 and January 28, 2025. Team rosters must be finalized by February 2, 2025.
- Teams must consist of five to eight people, including two co-captains. Note that co-captains must have an email address ending in mit.edu, draper.com, broadinstitute.org, or technologyreview.com. Participation is open to all members of the MIT community and family members aged 16 years and older.
- No changes may be made to team names after January 28, 2025. No changes to team rosters may be made after February 2, 2025. Exceptions to this rule will be made only in the rare situation that a team member has no choice but to drop out before the end of the challenge (serious illness, leaving MIT, or similar circumstances). In such situations, please initiate the roster change by using the “contact us” page.
- Individuals may be a member of only one team.
- Any physical activity done at a level that increases the heart rate and/or challenges the muscles will count as exercise.
- The getfit week runs from Monday through Sunday.
- Participants must keep a record of total minutes exercised every day.
- Participants’ minutes must be entered online at getfit.mit.edu each week. To be eligible for weekly team and individual prize drawings, as well as the end-of-challenge Grand Prize and Onward & Upward awards, participants must enter minutes for the previous week by 11:59 p.m., EST, each Monday. The getfit database will calculate the average number of minutes exercised by each team per week, and team and individual rankings will be posted on the site’s Leaderboard.
- Weekly prize drawings will be held to award prizes to at least ten individuals. All participants meeting the exercise goal for a given week will be eligible for that week’s prize drawing for individuals.
- At least one team prize will be awarded weekly. All teams whose per-member average meets the exercise goal for a given week will be eligible for that week’s prize drawing for teams. Additional team contests will also be held during some weeks of the challenge. Details about, and eligibility requirements for, these special contests will be posted on the getfit website.
- Each team with a per-member exercise average that meets the weekly exercise goal for at least 10 of 12 weeks during the challenge will be eligible for the Grand Prize, the winner of which will be determined by random drawing among all eligible teams at the end of the challenge.
- “Onward & Upward” prizes will be awarded by random drawing to two individuals at the end of the challenge. To be eligible for this prize drawing, an individual must have recorded exercise minutes for every week of the challenge and demonstrated a steady and consistent increase in exercise minutes from week to week, but is not required to have met weekly exercise goals.
- Organizers of MIT Health's getfit challenge and members of their families are ineligible to win individual prizes. Teams with ineligible members are ineligible for team prizes.
- The exercise goal for each week of the challenge will be as follows:
- Week 1 -- 150 minutes
- Week 2 -- 165 minutes
- Week 3 -- 180 minutes
- Week 4 -- 195 minutes
- Week 5 -- 210 minutes
- Week 6 -- 225 minutes
- Week 7 -- 225 minutes
- Week 8 -- 245 minutes
- Week 9 -- 260 minutes
- Week 10 -- 280 minutes
- Week 11 -- 300 minutes
- Week 12 -- 300 minutes
Keep track of your progress by taking advantage of this limited-time offer: buy one InBody Body Composition Assessment and get the second one free!
InBody uses a Multi-frequency Bioelectric Impedance Analysis to detect muscle mass, body fat percentage, hydration levels and more. We recommend using your second session in 3 months to best measure how your hard work has paid off. Offer valid until March 13 for registered getfit participants only, must be used within 120 days of purchase.
To register for this offer please first create a non-member account, then download the MIT Recreation mobile app (Apple or Android) and purchase the “Assessment-InBody-getfit.” Or stop by MIT Recreation at our fitness centers to purchase in person. Once purchased, a member of our team will email you to schedule the InBody sessions. For questions or assistance please email fitness@mit.edu.
All Lincoln Laboratory employees and contingent workers are eligible to buy this pass, which allows access to the Lincoln Laboratory Fitness Center and Zoom group fitness classes. This three-month trial pass is available for purchase between January 8 and February 9, 2024 and may be used from January 29 – April 21, 2024. The nonrefundable cost for this pass is $40 for Lincoln Laboratory employees and $80 for contingent workers.
To purchase a Lincoln Laboratory Fitness Center trial pass, you must present your getfit profile page (on your mobile device or printed out) at the main desk of the Lincoln Laboratory Fitness Center, along with a photo ID. You will need to complete a membership application and waiver form. You may pay for your pass with a credit/debit payment at https://llevents-ll-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/fitnesscenter. If you have additional questions about the special getfit trial pass, contact Deb Craig by email at debbiec@mit.edu, or call 781-981-2104.
Get four months of full access to MIT Recreation for $225. Available for purchase between January 8 — 29, 2024. Passes can be upgraded to a prorated six- or twelve-month membership at any time. The pass includes access to the following:
- The Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center (Z-Center), complete with two fitness floors, squash courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and 25-yard teaching pool
- The Alumni Pool/Wang Fitness Center (A-Center), conveniently located in the Stata Center
- duPont Gymnasium
- Rockwell Cage
- Johnson Athletic Center’s Indoor Track and Ice Arena
To purchase:
- Create an MIT Recreation account profile or update your existing profile at https://mit.clubautomation.com/
- Login to your getfit account and print your getfit profile page
- Present a photo ID along with your getfit profile page at the main desk of the Zesiger Center (W35) or the Alumni/Wang Center (57)
For questions or assistance please email fitness@mit.edu.
Note: With this pass, you may qualify for a $150 fitness reimbursement from your health insurance plan.
Liz, senior program manager since 2009, puts the “organizing” in the getfit organizing committee. She works to ensure that getfit reflects the people who participate, fine-tuning the program each year through feedback from the MIT community.
It’s all about the people for Liz, who loves to recount stories about some of her favorites: the woman who sent an excited e-mail on the day she did her first 80-pound leg press or teammates who wrote to say that they now walk together on their lunch breaks. Hearing about fitness milestones and community moments like these, she says, keep her inspired to devote a high level of energy to getfit. “Our goal,” Liz says, “is to get everybody moving, healthy, working together as teams, and building community.”
And how does she get in her exercise minutes? She does online workout programs consisting of cardio, weight training, pilates, and yoga—plus, of course, she charges around the campus making sure getfit is running smoothly!
Rachel has a background in event planning and administrative work. She enjoys working on getfit because it combines several aspects of her past work experience with her love of helping others. Helping participants find a routine that works for them and brings joy to their life, is one of Rachels’ passions. She loves how this program has grown over the years, seeing people of all levels of fitness.
Rachel gets fit through a variety of movement. One of her favorite ways to get movement is simply walking. She’ll go on walks around her neighborhood, walking paths, and even using an under-the-desk treadmill while on Zoom meetings. She also takes group exercise classes occasionally, like yoga and Zumba.
And then having a child and 2 dogs helps her keep a fairly active lifestyle as well. One of Rachel’s favorite pastimes is going on family walks with her husband, daughter, and dogs.
A marketing and communications specialist at MIT Health, Kim came up with the idea of the getfit fitness challenge in 2004 (see below for more about the history of getfit).
As the program has grown, Kim has remained the one constant presence. She has her reasons for staying involved: “I like the challenge of keeping people engaged and motivated,” she says, “and I love hearing from people and realizing that we’ve made a difference.”
As for her own fitness goals, Kim—not one to work out just for the sake of working out—says, “I find activities that I enjoy, and that also happen to be good exercise.” Stand-up paddle-boarding, cross-country skiing, and trekking to Chinatown on her lunch break are part of her regular routine, and she doesn’t mind boasting a little: “I’m probably in the same shape now that I was in college, much better than I was when getfit started.”
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.