Members of the United States Congress and Washington DC staff are competing against each other in this year’s Congressional Physical Activity Challenge.

The annual event – hosted in collaboration with Myzone and the Physical Activity Alliance – runs throughout May, officially National Physical Fitness and Sports Month.

Each participant aims to earn as many Myzone Effort Points (or MEPs) as possible. Points are accrued through effort and exercising at the right intensity, which is measured by Myzone’s MZ-Switch heart rate monitor.

The wearable MZ-Switch was launched last year and can be worn on the arm, on the wrist or chest. It's inclusive of all kinds of physical activity and lights up to alert users when they're working out in their optimal zone. Data is collected in real-time, which activates personalised recovery and progression information.

“It’s so good to see Congress leading from the front in policymaking and ensuring physical activity is a top priority in the years to come,” said Myzone's Mike Leveque. "The Myzone team is honoured the Switch is being used as the wearable for this challenge.”

The winner of last year’s event, Senator Richard Burr, is hoping for another victory. In 2021, he won Top Office Point Earner with 189,528 MEPs. His team also had the most participants to reach the World Health Organization Guidelines for Physical Activity. This is described as at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, which equates to 1,300 MEPs. Other categories include Top Individual Point Earner and Top Office Point Average.

“Each year, congressional offices compete against each other in the physical activity challenge that proves their staff will literally go the extra mile,” said Burr. “I’m proud to say Team Burr has been ranked among the top teams for the last few years. Every other office will have to bring their A-game to beat us this year.”

Myzone, which serves more than 9,000 facilities in 84 countries, recently raised US$17.2m from growth capital investor BGF, which valued the company at US$102m. It also welcomed tech entrepreneur Vin Murria on board as non-executive chair who also invested US$2.5m in Myzone’s growth.

Speaking exclusively to HCM, Dave Wright, CEO and founder of Myzone said: “Our vision is to be the go-to data collector of physical activity evidence for the world, to help shape government policy around the benefits of exercise and to motivate the world to be more physically active.”