How Teeter Employees Stay Healthy

We all know that working full time and spending time with family leaves little room for eating healthy and regular exercise. Teeter team members work hard to help others to feel, move, and live better – but how do they do the same?

At Teeter, we strive to give our team opportunities to take care of their health, even while at work. This is why we offer onsite fitness classes by a certified trainer so our team members can more easily fit workouts into their daily routine.

Certified Trainer Jase Veltkamp

“We started offering the classes because we felt it was important to offer our team a way to improve their overall health,” CEO and co-owner Rylie Teeter-Leier said. “We all work so hard every day and it’s tough to get up in the morning – or stay up late at night to fit in a workout.”

Certified trainer Jase Veltkamp has worked with Teeter for the past year, offering employees coaching in both strength training and circuit training. Veltkamp agrees that movement, especially in the office environment, is crucial to maintaining health. “Our bodies are meant to move and if we don’t train it to move, then we’re essentially training it NOT to move,” Veltkamp said. “Your body always adapts to what you’re doing.”

Offering onsite fitness training makes it easier for employees to fit a workout into their busy schedules. Veltkamp continues, “It’s often the busiest people who work out the most because they schedule it and make exercise a priority.”

He says attendance is consistent but it usually depends on what’s going on in the company. “The accounting department tends to get busier at the end of the month, so they’re less likely to show up,” he said, laughing.

The fitness classes have another benefit: a more stress-free work environment. According to ADAA, physical activity produces endorphins – chemicals in the brain that act as natural painkillers and reduce stress. Low endorphin levels (which stem from sitting for long periods of time) are often associated with chronic pain and can be debilitating in the workplace. Not only does the movement prevent physical pain, but the change of focus brings mental clarity as well. That sharpness has promoted success and improved efficiency throughout the team.

“It’s clear that working out helps your body in a lot of ways – but I think what people enjoy the most is the extra energy and the improved mental focus that results from pushing all your attention to the task at hand…lifting the weights,” Teeter-Leier said. “The rest of the day, you just have better mental acuity.”

“There is a lively energy that comes from working out,” Teeter-Leier said. “I think that when the team works out together they bond, they joke and they engage better throughout the day. It’s a big team builder.”

Even when classes aren’t offered, the gym is always open to employees to use throughout the workweek whenever suits them.