For many employees, workplace wellness usually means a gym membership, an occasional health check-up, a team outing or perhaps a fitness challenge with a small reward. But an Indian woman working in South Korea has shared a very different kind of workplace incentive, and the reward is enough to make many employees curious. Maansi Arora, an Indian content creator living in Seoul, recently shared a video about a fitness initiative offered through her workplace. According to her, employees who consistently exercise for two months can become eligible for a luxury fashion gift from the company. Her video has since sparked reactions from people wondering why similar wellness incentives are not more common in Indian workplaces.

A two-month fitness challenge at work

According to Maansi, the workplace initiative is designed to encourage employees to make exercise part of their routine. Employees taking part in the challenge have to work out consistently for two months. They are also expected to keep their team leader or manager updated about their progress. The challenge goes beyond simply saying that they exercised. Participants are required to provide photographic or video evidence of their workouts as proof that they are following the programme. If they successfully complete the challenge, they receive a gift from the company. The idea is simple: encourage employees to take care of their health while giving them an additional reason to stay committed to the routine.

The reward is what caught everyone’s attention

The fitness challenge itself may not sound unusual. What makes Maansi’s story stand out is the kind of reward attached to it. She said the company offers gifts from luxury fashion brands such as Gucci, Chanel and Prada. That makes the initiative very different from the usual employee wellness rewards that workers may expect. Instead of a certificate, small gift voucher or office recognition, employees could potentially receive a luxury fashion item after completing the fitness challenge. For Maansi, the reward itself became an added source of motivation. The possibility of receiving a luxury gift gave her another reason to begin exercising regularly and stay committed to the challenge.

Why this workplace perk is getting attention in India

Maansi’s video has also started a conversation about workplace culture and employee benefits. One social media user commented, “I wish they did this in India,” while another joked, “I should move to Korea.” The reactions also highlighted a familiar debate among Indian professionals about work-life balance. One commenter sarcastically suggested that in some Indian workplaces, exercise, family time and personal time can feel less important than being available for work whenever the company needs you. While these comments are individual opinions and do not represent every Indian workplace, they show why Maansi’s video struck a chord with viewers.

More than just a luxury gift

At its core, the initiative is not really about Gucci, Chanel or Prada. The bigger idea is how companies can encourage healthier habits among employees. Regular exercise can be difficult to maintain when people have demanding work schedules. A workplace challenge can create structure and accountability, while a reward can provide an extra push for employees who struggle to stay consistent. The approach also changes the way wellness is presented at work. Instead of treating health as something employees must manage entirely on their own, the company is making it part of the workplace culture. Of course, a luxury reward cannot replace a healthy work environment, reasonable working hours or genuine respect for employees’ personal time. But incentives can sometimes make healthy habits more appealing and easier to maintain.

A glimpse into changing workplace culture

Maansi’s experience has given Indian social media users a glimpse of a workplace perk that feels unusual compared with many conventional employee benefits. Her story does not mean that every company in South Korea offers luxury gifts for exercising, nor does it suggest that all Indian workplaces lack wellness programmes. It is one employee’s experience at her workplace, which she chose to share online. Still, the response to her video shows that employees are increasingly interested in benefits that support their health, personal lives and overall wellbeing. And perhaps that is the most interesting part of the story. For employees, a healthier workplace may not always need to mean another office gym. Sometimes, it may simply mean a company giving people a real reason to step away from their desks, move their bodies and take care of themselves.

The unstoppable team at Gentler Stories is out today with updates to both of its exercise-tracking apps, taking advantage of the new Siri AI and other capabilities introduced with iOS 27. Here are the details.

Gentler Streak and The Outsiders get iOS 27 updates

Gentler Streak is without a doubt the app I’ve used most to track my performance, exercises, and especially recovery since I took up running and working out a few years ago.

Since joining 9to5Mac, I’ve had the opportunity of getting to know the people behind Gentler Stories, and it quickly became clear why Gentler Streak and its younger sibling, The Outsiders, are among the best fitness apps out there. The amount of love and care that goes into both apps is inspiring, and it quickly shows when you use them.

So it came as no surprise that both apps were updated today, allowing users to take advantage of some of the new features introduced with iOS 27 from day one.

With iOS 27 now available, Gentler Streak 5.13 and The Outsiders 1.8 can take advantage of the new App Intents capabilities, letting users ask the new Siri AI for health and fitness information from either app without having to open it first.

Additionally, both apps now support Siri’s new onscreen awareness capabilities, allowing the assistant to understand what users are looking at in the app and provide additional context about things like workout summaries, health charts, and other training data.

Here’s Gentler Stories’ CEO Katarina Lotrič on today’s updates:

• Ask Siri for your daily health and fitness update (no need to open the app): check your training and health stats by asking Siri a question related to your health and fitness. Always make sure to include the app’s name to your prompt.
  • Gentler Streak: You can ask about today’s workouts, activity status, Go Gentler daily workout suggestions, daily body metrics, or last night’s sleep. (e.g., “Show today’s workouts in Gentler Streak”)
  • The Outsiders: You can ask about your training readiness, today’s workouts, daily body metrics, or last night’s sleep data. (e.g., “Training Readiness in The Outsiders?”)
• Ask Siri for more context (when in the app): Open either of our two apps, go to a workout summary, a health chart, or a feature that’s unclear, and ask Siri to explain what’s on your screen. On-screen awareness turns Siri into an always available guide that can help you understand the app and your training better.

The update also introduces a new on-device, AI-powered workout title suggestion feature, which offers more descriptive names for recorded workouts while still letting users choose their own.

They also include a refreshed set of app icons, which, alongside the app’s own interfaces, further adopt the Liquid Glass look on both Gentler Streak and the Outsiders.

Finally, both apps now “automatically adjust to fit any screen size or position,” making them iPhone Duo-ready and better adapting to different iPad window sizes.

To learn more about Gentler Streak and The Outsiders, follow this link.

Worth checking out on Amazon

For most actors, preparing for physical roles means spending time in the gym and working on their strength and conditioning. Not Noah Wyle, who, along with the majority of The Pitt cast, got in shape by spending as much time as possible standing up.

‘Out of necessity we all have to take very good care of ourselves because the physical demands of this production are extreme – we work 14 hours a day, five days a week, for nine months straight,’ Wyle told Veja+.

‘And as the show progresses we have to bring that increasing show of fatigue and specificity towards the performance. For example, I’ll be on the set at 6am to shoot the last part of episode 13, but really it’s the last 15 minutes of the 13th hour of my shift as I go into my 14th hour. So when I start, the whole story has to be in my back pocket.’

Preparing for The Pitt with NEAT

So, rather than getting in the weights room and hammering out loads of reps in the squat rack and on the bench press, Wyle approached his training differently: spending as much time as possible on his feet to replicate the true physical demands of working in a hospital.

‘At the beginning of filming I asked all the actors to do an exercise, and it was just standing on your feet for 15 hours,’ he added. ‘And as you stand, every hour begin to note where your fatigue is coming in – where do you get stiff, where’s painful, when do you have to use the bathroom, when do you get hungry. Write all that down and then work it into the appropriate hour of your shift, and it’ll give you the physicality that you need.’

While the aches and pains that came from standing for long periods of time may have helped the actors in their performance, it’s also a form of NEAT – non-exercise activity thermogenesis.

When we stand, our bodies have to engage more muscles than when we’re sitting down (spending more time on your feet challenges your core, leg and back muscles to keep you upright). And while that’s not going to overhaul your fitness, regular standing and other forms of NEAT, such as taking the stairs instead of the lift, mowing the grass or washing the car, can be a beneficial way to increase energy expenditure and prevent sedentary behaviour.

Wyle’s Approach to Fitness Post-50

Of course, simply standing still for hours on end isn’t the only thing way Wyle stays fit. For one thing, he makes NEAT part of his day-to-day routine when he’s not filming.

In a 2019 interview with AARP, he said ‘the best thing’ that keeps him young is chasing his then three-year-old daughter around their family farm.

‘It’s like Rocky II, when Burgess Meredith makes Rocky chase the chickens,’ he said. ‘That’s me every day, except my chicken is a 3-year-old girl named Frances.’

And while his training to play Dr. Michael ‘Robby’ Robinavitch may not have involved lots of time in the gym, Wyle does train regularly. It’s a habit he’s adopted now that he’s in his 50s.

‘I’ve always been the kind of person who could start going to the gym just a month before a job, and then you can eat whatever you want, but that’s not true with my metabolism or energy levels anymore,’ he told AARP. ‘I have to exercise pretty much every day, to keep that base level of health.’

Discovering Pilates has only served to accelerate his passion for staying fit and healthy as he ages, he added. ‘My wife got me into Pilates, and I got my parents into it. I know that Pilates has put another 10 years on both of their lives. The fact that they do it together has made all the difference. Building strength and balance gives you confidence when you move.

‘On both sides of my family, I’ve got great examples to show me there’s a way ahead with movement and core strength. And laughter and joy. Those seem to be the key ingredients to ageing well.’

That’s not to say the American actor hasn’t had fitness goals, though. Abs have always been an area of focus for Wyle, who has spent lots of time, effort and even money on in an attempt to reveal them better. However, it’s been to little avail.

‘You know how many ab exercisers I’ve purchased in my life?’ he asked Doctor Mike on The Check Up. ‘I have a whole room in my house that’s just dedicated to every ab device ever invented. Rollers and wheels and electro stimulations – I’m such a sucker. If there’s a quick way to get abs, I’m on it.’

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? CLICK HERE to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.