Striders step up in 10,000 Steps Active Community Tournament

A six-week challenge to get Central Queenslanders stepping up their physical activity has seen Rockhampton senior citizens set the pace, with Heart Foundation walking group Stockland Striders achieving a whopping 8 million steps across the tournament.

And the epic effort has a historic element for the Rockhampton-born public health initiative that’s inspired community health and wellbeing around the world. 

The 10,000 Steps Active Community Tournament was part of a research project led by CQUniversity academic Dr Stephanie Alley, and included six teams from community groups including the Men’s Shed, Probus and U3A. 

“The research aims to determine whether an online team step tournament is feasible and effective at increasing physical activity in older adults, as well as who benefits the most from the tournament, and how important social support is for increasing physical activity,” Dr Alley explained. 

The research is funded by the Heart Foundation and CQUniversity, and Dr Alley is a National Heart Foundation Early Career Fellow at CQU.

The Stockland Striders are led by Christine Dobele and Deslea Schneider, who welcomed the chance to challenge and track team progress. 

Christine said: “We enjoy the social aspect of walking, and with the 10,000 Steps Active Community Tournament we appreciated the personal challenge of increasing our daily steps. 

“Some of the team members were amazed at the number of steps they were able to achieve daily, and we all enjoyed our team position in the tournament as number one!”

CQUniversity Senior Research Officer and 10,000 Steps Program Manager Anetta Van Itallie said Heart Foundation walking groups and 10,000 Steps have a history of collaboration.

“The Heart Foundation has been one of our valued partners for more than 20 years, and our internationally-recognised program all started with the Stockland team being one of the first groups to work with us to promote physical activity during our 10,000 Steps Rockhampton research trial in 2001-2003.” 

“With the Heart Foundation, and with so many other community partners across Queensland and nationally, our programs continue to promote the benefits of walking, the social support that comes from walking with others within our communities, and also to advocate for improved walking environments, so that more people walk as a part of their everyday.”

Since 2001, 10,000 Steps has attracted more than 630,000 participants, who have logged in excess of 370 billion steps via the app and website, and across a huge range of community and team challenges. 

The 10,000 Steps initiative is funded by the Queensland Government through Health and Wellbeing Queensland, and by the South Australian Government’s Wellbeing SA.