When I asked a friend to join me in a step challenge I usually get one of the following responses:
- Are you trying to lose weight?
2. What do I win, one of those achievement badges?
3. Is this something you are doing for charity?
4. Is this the employee challenge for this month?
These responses are usually followed by an “of course I will join” followed somewhat apathetically a few days with later with “sorry I can’t” or, in most cases a simple straight ‘ no’.
The fact of the matter is that most people cannot get enthused by the supposed ‘ challenges’ that steps challenges usually entail.
Nowadays tracking steps have become somewhat synonymous with FitBit, Garmin or Jawbone with their dedicated fitness programmes or Apple Watch and it’ s built in fitness suite. The availability and sheer amount of physical hardware out there has caused something of a general numbing of the senses when it comes to using them. While each piece of hardware and the software that goes with it has built in analytics and challenges these can all be somewhat ‘ samey’ and not really challenging at all. Taking and tracking steps is all well and good but heck, Nintendo released a Pokémon Pikachu branded steps tracker back in the 1990s! The point is that in a world of ‘ been there, done that’ having too much of the same thing is not a good thing at all.
Because the technology has been around for so long, tracking steps isn’ t really what works for people wanting to get fit and/or lose weight any longer. The number of steps taken in a day by a person has lost its value and the average person doesn’ t really care too much about step tracking for step tracking’ s sake. While knowing the amount of steps taken during the day or over a set period of time is a good indicator of how active you are it isn’ t enough to motivate people to do more. Maintaining interest in exercise is as important as exercise itself because if you aren’ t motivated you will not be able to achieve your goals.
Tired of the challenge?
You’re not alone Many fitness suites offer longer term steps challenges in order to combat ‘ step fatigue’ and these types of challenges are often endorsed by companies too. While it may be of initial interest to see who can virtually walk from New York to San Francisco the quickest or how many times in a month you and your colleagues can walk the equivalent of the Great Wall of China after a week or so the general interest of people in such challenges wanes.
This is because such challenges do not get to the heart of what a challenge is actually meant to be about. Yes, a challenge is a competition but it is also supposed to test one’ s abilities. Both forms of ‘challenge’ are needed in order for them to be a success. It helps too if they are actually interesting for the challengers.
So, what is the key to providing and maintaining interest in steps challenges? It is about bringing the challenge home, making it meaningful for participants. For instance, it is kind of cool to receive a badge from your fitness app letting you know you’ ve hit 20,000 steps in a day but it is also kind of superfluous. What deeper meaning is there behind the badge? In that respect it is kind of like the video game you completed as a kid. Sure, you were buzzing to hit the top score or master the game in record time, but after that, there is very little else to keep you going.
Wouldn’ t it be much better to incorporate real life challenges into your steps challenge? What if you could take a steps challenge with your wife or your roommate – would that not be more inviting? A challenge with a real world reward at the end.
Friendly competition is healthy and such challenges can help to bring fun competitions to everyday life. Say your roommate or partner say they take the stairs but you this to be false ‘ cause the lady down the hall has you they take the elevator. A steps challenge can be a way to call their bluff. Such personal experiences make challenges more interesting and have the best chance of avoiding ‘ step fatigue’.
Real world goals push us further
It all boils down to this: real-world goals help to push us further than any meaningless badge or arbitrary challenge ever could. Why? Because if a challenge has personal meaning to us we are automatically invested in the outcome. Getting a 20k a day badge is great but bragging rights at home…there’ s no comparison.
Steps challenges are extremely important, because we need goals to help keep us motivated and to push us forward. Without goals and challenges we can lose focus and forget that the whole point of taking challenges was to get fit in the first place! Fighting against monotony and boredom is most definitely not conductive to reaching those goals.
That said, steps are indeed a good indicator of how active you are. And the benefits of being active really do speak for themselves; a better mood, increased energy levels and weight loss to name just a few. But being active can be achieved in more ways than one and putting the fun back into fitness will help you reach those goals in a much more contented manner than challenges and rewards without meaning.
Most of us have to walk at some point during the day. Even if it is around an office environment there are always ways to get those steps in. So why not challenge yourself in a positive way and begin to reap the benefits?
Find out more about Cardio Legend and the Steps App which brings fun back to fitness and makes a game out of steps challenges with real world rewards and meaningful challenges.