FITNESS AUTHOR
Caroline Betik
WIN YOUR WORKOUT n How gamification can play into, and possibly enhance, your next workout.
A
s I was handed a small, festively wrapped box from under the Christmas tree, I was immediately curious as to what it could be. When I unwrapped the little box, I was intrigued by what my sister had gotten me for Christmas: the new Amazon Halo band. While I examined the foreign object, my sister showed me a video that explained all the specs of the band. From a live heart rate monitor and sleep tracker to a 3D-image body scanner and microphone that claims to analyze your tone to show you how you sound to others, there was plenty of
FEBRUARY 2021
reason for me to be both skeptical and fascinated. Regardless, I decided to try it out. The band is one among many new technologies which contribute to a recent mode of staying active and healthy living — gamification. Gamification has been widely defined as a way to integrate game mechanics into everyday activities and, in this case, exercise in order to motivate, improve engagement or push through a workout. Similar to gadgets including Fitbit and Apple Watch, the Halo fitness tracker rewards points when you are active and removes points when you have been sedentary for a given amount of
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time. The Halo automatically sets a goal of achieving 150 points per week in order to reach physical activity recommendations informed by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, wearable technologies only skim the surface of the concept of gamification. Gamification is used in various environments and techniques to improve people on both sides of the spectrum. From college and professional athletes to people who are looking to start pursuing an active lifestyle, gamification has been successfully integrated into the world of fitness.
