Last Updated on May 21, 2023 by Michael Brockbank
The simplest way to sum up losing weight is to keep yourself in a caloric deficit. Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that. But at its core, that could be enough to help most people. To help with that calorie burn, this is when we’ll turn to gamifying fitness.
In this episode of Fitness in Theory, we talk about all the different ways we make exercise fun. That’s because of how effective gamification works regarding health and fitness.
In fact, gamification works so well that many industries use it to sell products, improve employee retention, and a plethora of other reasons.
What Does it Mean to Gamify Fitness?
Gamification is the process of turning a mundane or mindless chore into something fun. The idea is to engage your mind in an entertaining way so that you continue a certain activity or behavior.
The more you like to do something, the more likely you’ll continue the activity.
To gamify fitness, you’re essentially finding a fun activity that will help you burn calories and improve the cardiovascular system or promote muscle development.
For example, I love playing with the Xbox Kinect. I have a lot of games that I still enjoy to this day. In a 30-minute session, I’ll burn anywhere between 350 and 450 calories depending on the game.
When I play tennis on the Xbox, I play tennis.
Since I wear weighted gloves or wrist weights, I’ll also enhance Type 1 muscle fibers while playing. Weighted workouts also improve reaction, speed, and strength.
When I’m at the gym, I find it fun to work on surpassing my maximum weight lifted on any given machine. I’m all about beating personal records and always continuing to evolve through self-improvement.
The point is that I found several things that make working out fun for me.
How Do You Gamify Fitness?
There really is no right or wrong answer when it comes to gamifying fitness for yourself. As long as you’re able to work yourself up into a sweat or find a way to continuously boost your physical prowess, that’s all that really matters.
For me, it’s all about burning more calories than I consume on a daily basis. And it’s this process that helped me lose 80 pounds while keeping it off for the past several years.
What kind of activities do you find fun that gets your heart rate up?
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