Roughly a month ago, local fitness guru Rick Bradley told me that two local CEOs had challenged each other to a 30-day fitness competition. They decided to call the duel between Robert Bacon, CEO of John J. Kirlin LLC, and Boland President Jim Boland The B-K Challenge (not to be confused with that other, less than healthy BK).

Both companies had been working with Bradley, a health and fitness consultant and the author of “Quick Fit: The Complete 15-Minute No Sweat Workout,” to check on employees’ health and get them moving.

The idea was simple: Each CEO would be part of a 12-person team of six men and six women challenged to complete the same workout every single day in May. Teams would be awarded up to one point for each member that completed the day’s workout.

After going to the kickoff (and salad-filled) luncheon at Kirlin’s Rockville offices, I was inspired by the commitment and the camaraderie of the event. It was such a good idea, I decided to try myself. How hard could it be to follow Bradley’s simple prescription of 15 minutes of aerobic activity, 15 arm curls, one minute of abs and one minute of stretching?

I made it a week. But I am a believer ­— and now also an admirer of what these teams achieved.

I’m pleased to report both the Boland and the Kirlin teams fared much, much better than I did. The competition raged on throughout the month and came down to a squeaker. In the end, Kirlin won by a mere two points. They celebrated the sweet taste of success — and cookies — over lunch June 11, this time at Boland’s Gaithersburg headquarters.

Amid the good-natured jibing and laughter that was passed faster than any of the plates of cookies, I realized the competition designed to promote physical health did just as much, if not more, for emotional health. If that’s not what we need in stressful economic times, I don’t know what is.