Back when the pandemic lockdowns first started, we saw a rise in virtual races, runs and challenges. These were mew ways for us to keep up momentum with our fitness and social interactions. Many of the larger fitness platforms (Garmin, Strava and Peloton) continue to offer many monthly challenges and trackers. Are you motivated by these virtual badges and challenges? What are they? How do they work? Why are they motivating?
What are virtual badges and challenges?
Virtual fitness badges and challenges are rewards awarded to participants for achieving certain milestones. They can be awarded for taking certain classes or exercising for a certain amount of time or mileage. Many popular platforms like Peloton, Strava and Garmin use these virtual awards.
How do they work?
Quite simply, virtual challenges might pop up when you open your fitness app. Some are monthly, quarterly or even pop up daily challenges. Complete the challenge and earn the virtual badge.
Why are they popular?
Virtual fitness badges and challenges are insanely popular amongst users on Peloton, Strava and Garmin. While they are set up differently on each app, they have a few key aspects in common which stoke excitement with users.
Clear Goals
Having measurable and specific goals helps users achieve them. Take a certain set of classes in a given time period (Peloton) or Walk or run a certain number of miles per month (Garmin, Strava). Complete the task, earn the reward.
Motivation
People are inherently motivated by rewards. Find the right reward and you can hook people to participate and interact with your app more.
Competition
Competing with yourself or others to achieve a goal is motivating. Everyone likes the feeling of accomplishing what they set out to.
Increase mastery of a skill
Practice makes better. The more you cycle on your Peloton, the better you become at cycling on your Peloton. Seeing progress is motivating and keeps us coming back for more.
Sparks enthusiasm for the app
In theory, the more interaction you have with an app you enjoy, the more you choose to interact with it. Thus, sparking more enthusiasm and excitement for the app.
For me, participating in Peloton challenges is extremely motivating. I track my monthly and yearly minutes on Peloton and strive to beat my own numbers each year. It’s exciting to me when new weekly badges pop up that might have me taking different classes. Every time I open my app, I see exactly where I am in each challenge and plan how I can work towards achieving them.
I checked in with a few friends to see how they felt about virtual fitness badges and challenges.
Kim @Runningonthefly finds her Garmin badges incentive “for documenting (her) progress” throughout the year.
Coco @Got2run4me is motivated by Peloton classes “that encourage her to take different classes…with instructors and types of classes she wouldn’t normally do” and help to add variety to her workouts.
Are you motivated by virtual fitness badges and challenges on Garmin, Peloton or Strava?
I checked in with a few friends to see how they felt about virtual fitness badges and challenges.
Yes! I do love the badges and the accomplished feeling when you can tick of a challenge.
I’m a member of a team of 20 who collect their running, cycling and walking points on Strava and then compete against other teams.
Sometimes, when I see how close I am to a goal, I go out for another walk just to collect a few hundred more steps. It’s crazy, but it works!
yes, exactly! It can be great motivation
Yes, the badges are fun & a great means of personal goal-chasing 🙂
They definitely can be!
I’ve never really done any challenges or earned badges on any of the platforms. I dont use Garmin or Peloton and I stopped using Strava a few years ago. Its great that some people are so motivated by these challenges! Its a great way to keep up with fitness goals.
Indeed it’s really motivating!
I haven’t say I ignore them.
But if they motivate a runner, then it’s great idea.
I am more motivated by the fitness badges and they encourage me to try new classes
I think badges and challenges just make life more fun. And life should definitely be fun! It’s also good if they encourage people to add more variety to their workouts- it’s very easy to do the same thing all the time, and much better for us to mix it up.
I agree! They are fun and motivating for me. They do encourage me to try new workouts as well
I love a good reward!
I am currently stacking up on Apple Health/Fitness badges. They seem a little more challenging to earn, but that’s ok. I’m not going anywhere!
That’s great I hope you find them motivating as well.
I have just been using the Peloton App for a few months but am addicted to the challenges! I love the badges as well! Definitely a motivator for me.
I love them too! They really motivate me. Welcome to Peloton-hope you love it as much as I have the past few years
Haha, I think you won’t be surprised to hear that I am VERY motivated by the challenges and badges – I even seek out more challenges and trackers outside of what these fitness platforms offer. It also gives me a sense of structure and purpose and takes the “guess work” out of choosing my classes ever day 🙂 And it’s fun to do it with friends!
Indeed you are the queen of the trackers and challenges! I love how much you love them and how much they motivate you
I love that manyy people love these challenges and badges. I don’t really pay attention to the Garmin badges or other challenges that are out there.
Yes, so many people find them so motivating
I love these challenges! I do a lot of them especially since I got my Garmin, and see them as a good way to push myself a bit extra and they sort of give an extra sense of achievement. Some of them are a bit too easy (such as the monthly gains since they only require to register 4 hours of strength training and I always train three hours a week) but others are more challenging.
I love them too! I believe the easy ones help us to see that we can achieve them while working towards the harder ones. the monthly walking steps always sounds easy but no so much!
Virtual challenges and races were a great help for us during the lockdown.
Now I don’t pay anymore attention to badges and challenges even if I know that they are important to keep us motivated.
I’d say anything that motivates you to move more is good!
I’m definitely motivated by Garmin badges, but didn’t really know about them until I started seeing people post about them on blogs and social media. I haven’t really looked into the Strava challenges, though.
yes you definitely have to look for the Garmin and Strava challenges. They can be super motivating though