Western Cape fire training officer launches the Eagle Challenge
Cape Winelands District Municipality Fire Service’s training officer, Heinrich Louw, wanted to raise awareness around fitness by starting the Eagle Challenge. Little did he know that his programme would be so popular! He decided to challenge colleagues to look after their health a little better by doing a few exercises every day and so started the Eagle Challenge Group on WhatsApp. There are currently 139 participants from fire and related services across the province and a few from outside the Western Cape.
The Challenge is managed via a WhatsApp group and follow them on TikTok: Eaglefire23. Follow this link to join the WhatsApp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/CODdVzmCLSr6D3eCm1TP9L. The aim is to get 1 000 people taking part.
In the one video you will see the Director Chaplin Solomons of Chaplin’s Alert Western Cape and in the other the Cape Winelands Fire Service team, all doing the challenge.
Louw said, “The challenge started on 15 January 2023 with men doing 10 sit-ups and 10 push-ups; women five sit-ups and 10 push-ups. This is then increased by one sit-up and one push-up per day from Monday to Friday. On Saturdays and Sundays we rest and allow the body to recuperate. On 1 February 2023 we added a second challenge, which is a 15 second plank and five squats. This was increased with one squat and five seconds per plank per week. Participants can do one challenge or do both.”
“Each video gets monitored and weekly prices go out to the funniest video, most interesting video etc. The challenge is open to everyone. So far most uniformed services participate, including members of the South African Army, South African Navy etc,
Don’t dream it, work for it! There is still time to join, see below!
Sources: Heinrich Louw, training officer, Cape Winelands District Municipality Fire Service’s training officer; Jo-Anne Otto, deputy director: Communication Services, Cape Winelands District Municipality