Fitness
How Indian firms keep their employees healthy and motivated with sports leagues
Lounge speaks with a cross-section of Indian firms to find out about the benefits of keeping employees healthy through in-house sports leagues
India Inc. has come up with multiple initiatives to encourage employees to take up an active lifestyle and focus on their health and fitness. Many organisations also incentivise signing up for (and sticking with) specific health programmes. There are a host of activities, sports and initiatives such as running, yoga, gym membership, robust health insurance schemes, regular medical check-ups, mental health workshops and much more that employees can choose from.
Despite plenty of choice as far as exercise and activities go, it is the in-house sports clubs and competitions that are the most popular among employees at most firms, say HR and fitness experts.
“Among the activities that can be called successful are sporting activities where collective fun-filled activities are done,” says Rajesh Uppal, member of the executive board for HR, IT, safety and digital enterprise, Maruti Suzuki India Limited. The least successful initiative, notes Uppal, is, ironically, the voluntary annual medical check-up programme, where the adoption rate is low. Gym memberships and office workout initiatives are seeing a low uptake these days, add HR experts.
Keeping employee interest in mind, most organisations nowadays have their own sports leagues, often based on the successful Indian Premier League (IPL) format, and tournaments that run all year round.
Sports brand Puma India has been running its own sports league, called the Puma SportsLife League (PSL), since 2015. The league has multiple teams and Puma employees hold annual auctions, have a lineup of play-offs and design special jerseys for their teams.
The Puma SportsLife League, says Shreya Sachdev, head of marketing at Puma India, started as a simple idea of playing sports regularly, but it has uniquely shaped the organisation’s culture. “Puma SportsLife League is a good outlet for us and helps us as employees to connect, bond and build relationships outside of our work teams. It has been a binding factor for our employees, empowering them to define, design and create engagement in their own unique way and shape the organisation culture,” explains Sachdev.
IT and software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has not only championed participative sports and fitness with programmes such as Fit4Life, TCS Cares and TCS Maitree, but it has also been the title sponsor and partner in many races in India and abroad, including the Tata Mumbai Marathon, New York City Marathon and TCS World 10k Bengaluru. TCS has a dedicated web portal and mobile application that employees use to participate in the sports activities, as well as track each other’s progress and performance.
These sports initiatives, which witness a good participation rate, not only improve employee engagement and morale, they also have the added benefit for improving employee health, fitness, mood and camaraderie. “Participating in sports events like races, cricket, and football tournaments can be a game-changer for employees looking to embrace a healthier lifestyle. These events aren’t just about scoring goals or crossing the finish line. They are about coming together as a team, cheering each other on and feeling that rush of accomplishment, says Vijayraghavan Venugopal, co-founder and CEO of sports nutrition business Fast&Up. Venugopal is an avid cricket enthusiast and runner who has run several marathons.
Promoting a culture of sportsmanship among our employees sometimes extends beyond health benefits. “It cultivates values such as fairness and respect for others, shaping the right ethical framework within our workforce,” adds Venugopal.
While sports such as football and running are very popular, cricket, unsurprisingly, is the runaway hit among employees across organisations in India. At Maruti, the most popular sports are marathons, cricket, badminton, football and hiking, says Uppal. In the Puma SportsLife League, employees participate in basketball playoffs, football tournaments and also organise challenges such as plank hold, beating in-house records for number of squats, surya namaskars and jumping jacks.
Brisk walking and running are the most popular sports at TCS, followed by cricket, badminton and dancing. “The minimum advantage of this kind of activity is that your body continues to burn fast even after you stop playing, thereby helping in people’s weight management goals. Plus, the element of competition makes sports more exciting and fun than regular exercise,” says general physician Dr. Roonam Patir.
Shrenik Avlani is a writer and editor and the co-author of The Shivfit Way, a book on functional fitness.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Finding time to work out as a mom with young kids can be a challenge in itself, especially when you’re new to an area and don’t know where to start. However, a new fitness option strolled into Sioux Falls today. iStroll offers moms the chance to work out and meet other moms all while their kids can play or even join alongside them.
iStroll is a national organization that has more than 35 locations in the country but this is the first time one opened in South Dakota. It’s a full body workout that incorporates dumbbells, body weight, and jogging strollers when the weather’s nice.
“I found iStroll in Oklahoma and fell in love,” said Kelsi Supek who started the affiliate in Sioux Falls. “We made friends. It became our entire social network. The kids loved it and then we moved to Arizona during COVID. And all the moms were stuck at home. They were inside with our kids and lonely, honestly. And we were like, why can’t we start an iStroll and be out at the parks with the kids every day? And it took off.”
When Supek moved to Sioux Falls, she was encouraged by her family to start an affiliate and own it herself.
“Gym daycares did not work out for my children,” said Supek. “I would get 10 minutes into a class and then I’d have that person trying to knock outside the yoga studio going, Can I have Kelsey and her kids screaming in daycare? And it just didn’t work for us. So at iStroll they could be with me or I could be breastfeeding the baby as I was teaching in class.”
Classes are planned to continue each Wednesday and Friday at We Rock the Spectrum and First Presbyterian Church. For a full schedule for January and February, you can look at their Facebook. The first class is also free and memberships are for the whole family.
“Letting the kids see you work out is, it’s similar to homeschooling where like, you know, how are they going to love working out if they don’t see you working out,” said Kelly Jardeleza, a stay-at-home mom of three kids. “Whereas at other gyms they put them in a room and they don’t get to watch you. And how are you going to inspire them if they’re not watching you do it?”
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
There’s no bad time to take a more active interest in your health, but the new year, for lots of us, feels like a fresh start. Maybe you’re planning to sign up for a 10k or finally have a go at bouldering, eat a bit better or learn to swing a kettlebell. Maybe you want to keep up with your grandkids — or just be a little bit more physically prepared for whatever life throws at you.
To help things along, Guardian Live invites you to a special event with public health expert Devi Sridhar, journalist and author Mariella Frostrup, and health and fitness columnist Joel Snape. They’ll be joining the Guardian’s Today in Focus presenter Annie Kelly to discuss simple, actionable ways to stay fit and healthy as you move through the second half of life: whether that means staying strong and mobile or stressing less and sleeping better.
To make the whole event as helpful as possible, we’d love to hear from you about what you find most challenging — or confusing — when it comes to health and exercise. What should you actually be eating, and how are you going to find the time to make it? What sort of exercise is best, and how often should you be doing it? Is Pilates worth the effort — and should we really all be drinking mugfuls of piping hot creatine?
Whether your question is about exercise, eating, or general wellness, post it below and we’ll put a selection to our panel on the night.
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Jan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it will limit regulation of wearable devices and software designed to support healthy lifestyles, issuing new guidance to clarify its regulatory approach.
The guidance, along with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, adds to existing policy that classifies low-risk wellness tools, such as fitness apps and activity trackers that encourage exercise, as non-medical devices exempt from stringent regulation, provided they do not make claims related to disease diagnosis or treatment.
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“We have to promote these products and at the same time, just guard against major safety concerns,” Makary said in an interview with Fox Business about artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT, adding that “if people are looking up a symptom on an AI-based tool, let’s have that conversation when they come in to see their doctor or do a virtual visit.”
“We want to let companies know, with very clear guidance, that if their device or software is simply providing information, they can do that without FDA regulation,” Makary told Fox Business.
“The only stipulation is if they make claims of something being medical grade … like blood pressure measurement. We don’t want people changing their medicines based on something that’s just a screening tool or an estimate of a physiologic parameter.”
The agency also sent out a broader warning to consumers about the risks posed by unauthorized devices.
Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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