To work on Wall Street, you have to be smart. Aggressive. Driven. It's a fast-paced, intoxicating world, with a camaraderie you won't find just anyplace else.
Sound familiar? You'll find that same intensity in the world of sports. The thrill of competition, the teamwork, the need to be the best ... It's no surprise so many Wall Streeters are also athletes, whether they've played professionally or just participate in local leagues in their off-hours.
One event in particular has brought together sports and finance in a really interesting way while raising a ton of money for charity in the process: The Wall Street Decathlon.
The Decathlon started eight years ago, when Dave Maloney and Marc Hodulich created a 10-event contest involving pull-ups, sprints, and tossing a football to settle a bet among 11 friends. It dawned on them: What if they opened it up to everyone on Wall Street? Could they use it to raise money for a cause?
Since then, The Decathlon has grown into a massive fundraising event that brings together athletic types from all over Wall Street and has raised more than $4.6 million for pediatric cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. And it's about to get even better. The 2015 event will include a newly formatted team competition, where clients, colleagues, and friends can form groups of two to four to compete and fundraise together.
There's power in numbers. Paul Bjorneby, UBS's head of natural resources equity capital markets in the Americas, is excited to compete with close friends this year. "We send each other an email once a day with what we did that morning," he says. "Having a group of people you're training with, even if it's virtual, helps keep you motivated. Most of my friends will tell you that they're now in the best shape of their lives because of this event."
In the months leading up to the event, the entire financial community gets swept up in raising funds. "The fundraising is just as competitive as the athletic aspect," says two-time participant Jake Stoller, who works at Barclays. "The feeling you walk away with after raising donations is unique and special.”
For former Yale University student-athlete Tom McCarthy, who works in fixed-income sales at Morgan Stanley, participating in The Decathlon reminds him of playing in a big game — but with your coworkers. "I’ve competed against many former teammates and opponents," he says. "It’s been a great way to stay connected with friends and develop new relationships with people who are all committed to the same great cause."
And now, with the team competition, people who had once only cheered from the sidelines can join in the fun. That's a huge draw for Bjorneby's friends, many of whom don't work in finance. After years of watching their friend participate, they finally get to take on the challenge themselves. "It's obviously more fun to compete than to watch," says Bjorneby.
It's clear that the Decathlon has become an inspiring way to bring people in the finance community (and now, from outside the community) together to compete for a great cause. "When you arrive at the event and see all the people that are there," Bjorneby continues, "you think about all the money that has been raised and all the hard work that has gone into each competitor getting ready for the event. It’s really mindblowing."
This year's Decathlon will take place June 13–14, 2014, at St. John's University DaSilva Memorial Field. The entry fee is $395 for individuals and $1,000 for teams.
Register your team for The Wall Street Decathlon today.
This post is sponsored by The Decathlon.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Feet are a part of the anatomy many exercisers ignore while pounding the treadmill or honing a headstand, but fitness experts say they are the very foundation of physical well-being.
Zombies, Run! is the ideal app for everyone who’s tried to get into fitness, started running and realized how mind-numbingly dull it can be. Instead of leaving you to your own devices while you try to get in shape, the app tells an episodic story with you as the star, as a ‘Runner’ in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-plagued England. You’ll head out on missions to collect supplies, save other humans and, yes, run away from zombies. You’ll be doing that last one a lot.
If you’ve ever considered weightlifting but felt overwhelmed by the number of lifting styles and exercises then StrongLifts is where you should start. Based on the 
From the same developer as Zombies, Run!, Superhero Workout takes the same gamification approach to fitness. Here, instead of fleeing the undead, you’re an Iron Man-esque superhero in a battle suit that, due to some baffling design, requires you to perform a series of bodyweight exercises to charge up the power.
While most of the other apps on this list are tied to specific types of exercise, Fitocracy is a bit more general, and it’s the perfect place to collect and track all of your workouts. Part social network, part fitness tracker and part video game, it has a database of exercises vast enough to allow you to log just about anything you could do – even just walking up a flight of stairs.
Seven is an app that comes with a challenge: carry out a seven-minute workout every day for seven months. There’s a bit of leeway, but if you miss three workouts in any given month, your progress is set back to zero and you’ve got to begin again.
There are surprisingly few decent yoga apps compared to other types of exercise, but Pocket Yoga is one of the best. There are detailed voice and video instructions for hundreds of different poses, along with written info on technique and the health benefits of each, including guides to proper breathing.
