Eighth Annual Step Challenge, April 1 to 30

Open to anyone in and related to the UB and Western New York communities, the Step Challenge is a great way to connect with colleagues and friends, get outside and boost your health.

• You'll track your daily step activity and see your progress along with other steppers' and teams' efforts.
• And, yes, prizes are available! See the details in the FAQ.

Sponsored by UB's School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Registration is open. You'll create a Wellable account here.

Below are the instructions to connect an app or device to your Wellable account.

1. Go to the Connections page.
2. Select Connect below the app or device you would like to connect to your Wellable account.  You must first have an existing account or create one for the app or device you would like to use prior to connecting it to Wellable.
3. Follow the prompts, which will require you to enter your app or device credentials.  This will be your username and password for the app or device account, not your Wellable account.

Wellable connects to a variety of fitness tracking devices: Fitbit, Apple Health, Garmin, Withings, Google Fit, Health Mate, Jawbone Up, Map My Fitness/Hike/Ride/Run/Walk, Microsoft Health, Misfit, Moves, S Health and TomTom.

Although connecting your fitness tracking device is the easiest way to record your steps, Wellable also provides a way to input steps manually if you desire.

You can add your steps and distance through the Physical Activity log, an orange box that pops up on your Wellable Dashboard. You have a 7-day grace period to enter your steps, so you can do it daily or weekly.

If you want to participate in the 2023 Step Challenge, simply sign up. You don't have to join a team to participate.  

Encourage friends, colleagues and family to step by signing up as a team!  You can create a team or have a team captain add you to the team that has already been created. (Teams are made up of 2 to 20 people.) 

To participate on a team:
1. Make sure all team members have a Wellable Account.
2. Determine a team name.
3. Have one person (the team captain) fill out the team registration form. This requires each teammate’s Wellable username (email address), first name and last name.
4. Send the completed form to support@wellable.co

The instructions to create a team are also on the Wellable Bulletin Board, and you’ll have up to April 10 to form a team.

Each week of the challenge begins on Saturday and ends the following Friday through April 30.

Your Wellable Dashboard provides detailed information about your personal performance in the Step Challenge including your current rank on the leaderboard. You'll also receive email updates directly from Wellable about how the challenge is going.

Wellable syncs data from your wearable device app, not the device itself.  This means the activity you see on your wearable device may not appear in Wellable because your device has not synced with your device’s app.  Depending on your settings, this will be done manually or occur periodically throughout the day.

To confirm that your device is synced correctly with your device app, please follow the steps below.

• Open your device app and make sure the activity on your device matches the activity you see in the device app.
• Refresh your Wellable Dashboard to see the activity from your device in Wellable.

If you still do not see activity from your device app in your Wellable account, do not hesitate to reach out to Wellable Support!

Yes, you'll have the chance to receive weekly prizes and final prizes at the end of the challenge.

Weekly prizes

$25 Amazon gift cards to four randomly selected participants who recorded steps each day during the week.

Final prizes

• Theragun Mini massager: To one winner randomly chosen from the top 15 steppers on the individual leaderboard
• Bose Sport Headset or Shiatsu massager or Hydrate Spark Pro connected water bottle (winners' choice): To five randomly chosen winners among steppers who recorded steps on each day of the challenge.
• Bose Sport Headset or Shiatsu massager or Hydrate Spark Pro connected water bottle (winner's choice): To the one most improved stepper
• University at Buffalo merch (winners’ choice): To the team leaderboard's top three teams' steppers.

• To be eligible for the random weekly participation prizes, you must sync/submit your steps on a daily basis. You have up to seven days to enter your daily steps.
• Participants on teams also qualify for individual prizes.
• Team data in the team leaderboard is the average number of steps of all team members.
• Results for the winning teams displayed in the app are not final. Challenge administrators will confirm the results before announcing winners.

Technical questions: support@wellable.co (available 24/7)

Questions on registration, rules and prizes: sphhp-step-challenge@buffalo.edu

The University at Buffalo is committed to making the 2023 Step Challenge available to everyone wishing to participate. If you have any difficulty accessing the content or services on the challenge website or platform, the UB Step Challenge team will provide an alternative means of access to the information and services required to participate in the program. Please contact us for assistance by email at sphhp-step-challenge@buffalo.edu, phone at (716) 829-5077, or in-person by appointment.

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