Gamifying workouts adds a fun dimension to exercise, attracts a wider range of clients and increases your overall customer retention rate!
Tired of seeing your gym members going through the motions during their workouts? Wish you could find some innovative ways to keep them engaged? Welcome to the world of gamification!
Incorporating game-like elements into everyday workouts can be a game-changer for gym owners!
By turning exercise from a chore into a more interactive experience, you can transform your gym into a place that members look forward to visiting every day.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of gamification, discuss ways you can integrate it into your gym, and outline the steps you can take to create a truly immersive and exciting environment that will keep your members coming back for more!
Gamification: what is it?
OK, you’ve heard about ‘gamification’ being used for all kinds of different things, but what does it really mean and how can it be applied to fitness?
Simply put, gamification is all about making things more fun!
When you apply gaming principles to tasks and activities, you make them more enjoyable and engaging. This in turn incentivises people to take part, reach their goals and modify their behaviours in a way that isn’t forced externally but driven internally.
Gamification in the Gym
When we talk about gamification in a fitness setting, we might tap into the natural human desire for accomplishment, competition, and recognition, and use that to drive and sustain engagement, participation, and desired outcomes.
With the help of technology and innovative workout equipment, gym owners can now create personalised fitness challenges, track progress, and offer rewards, making the traditional gym experience more immersive and motivating.
By tapping into the human psychology of competition, achievement, and social interaction, gyms can create a strong community of fitness enthusiasts who are determined to reach their goals.
Here are 5 easy ways you can gamify workouts for your members.
1. Challenges & Competitions
Challenges and competitions are a popular method of promoting both physical fitness and community involvement at a gym.
These events create a sense of “team spirit” among members by providing opportunities to compete against one another in a fun and supportive environment.
This not only helps to motivate individuals to push themselves further, but also fosters a sense of accountability and helps to build connections within the gym community.
Here’s what we recommend:
- Offer multiple challenges, so that there’s always something exciting for members to join and take part in!
- Provide ambitious but achievable rules and goals that will appeal to different skill levels or last-minute participants.
- Reward challenge participation – not just the winners (where possible). Remember that fitness challenges are all about having fun AND achieving results.
- Make challenges as inclusive as possible - make it easy for your staff members to encourage participation and engagement all the way to the finish line.
2. Points & Rewards
Points systems are an easy way for gyms to incentivise and reward their members for taking part in certain activities or achieving certain goals.
You can use points to encourage certain actions that will drive the overall member engagement in a particular direction, such as attending classes, logging workouts, or hitting specific fitness benchmarks.
Members can then use their points to redeem rewards such as free membership periods, personal training sessions, or branded merchandise.
People tend to love collecting points to get rewards and the ‘prizes’ don’t need to be huge – think of loyalty cards for most coffee shops and supermarket chains!
Points systems can be a powerful tool for motivating members to become more engaged with their fitness journey and strive for personal improvement, while also creating a sense of community and competition within the gym.
You get bonus points as the organiser if you create a leaderboard with regular updates to keep the flow of communication going!
3. Fitness Games
Group fitness games, such as five-a-side or even tug-of-war, have been around for a very long time and they are still popular for a reason – they’re fun!
Think of these as a less formal counterpart to challenges where the prize is purely team kudos! This makes them cheaper and easier to organise, so always try to have one or two running alongside your bigger challenges.
But the gamification doesn’t stop there – you can spice up solo workouts with gaming elements too! Just as with group games, if the member is focused on the fun, competitive nature of an exercise, they won’t even notice they’re working out!
Blazepods are one such example – these are little battery operated lights (and/or buzzers) that can be made to light up in random patterns. Every time one lights, the exerciser has to hit the illuminated pod, whack-a-mole style!
4. Personalised Progress Tracking
Offering personalised progress tracking for members will allow them to see how far they’ve come and how much they’ve improved. It will also demonstrate your ability to relate to their individual preferences and that you’re staying up to date with the latest tech solutions.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Fitness Apps: The modern way to track progress of course is through one of the many fitness apps such as MyFitnessPal, Fitbit, and Nike Training Club. These are free / inexpensive yet powerful tools that can motivate exercisers to up their game.
- Personal Trainer: A personal trainer can develop a highly personalised workout plan of course, and track member progress over time. They also help set realistic goals and provide guidance and support to help members achieve them.
- Body Composition Analysis: Tracking body fat percentage, lean muscle mass, and other body metrics through the use of smart scales is an effective way to help exercisers track progress over time.
- Performance Tracking Devices: At one time we were limited to just heart rate, but you can monitor just about anything these days and most sensors can ‘talk’ to exercise equipment or fitness apps to help adjust resistance or provide real-time feedback on all kinds of metrics.
Consider upgrading to smarter gym equipment or making a selection of tracking devices available such as clip-on monitors and other wearables – not everyone has a top-of-the-range smart watch/fitness tracker!
5. Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality can transport members to anywhere in and OUT OF this world by either enhancing existing workouts, or permitting whole new ones.
Cardio machines, for example, can be transformed into devices that let users run or cycle through exciting natural or even fantastical settings.
VR can also facilitate sports that just aren’t practical in the gym, such as kayaking, rock climbing or kitesurfing.
Headsets can easily be linked to other headsets anywhere in the world to offer competitive or collaborative sports too, so for a relatively small outlay you get a versatile device that offers hundreds of possibilities!
The benefits of gamifying workouts go beyond earning points or unlocking levels – it can lead to a lifelong commitment to fitness and overall well-being. So if you’re a gym owner looking to improve the customer experience of your gym members, give gamifying workouts a try and see the difference it makes to your retention figures!
Steve Beverley 👋
DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR
An avid gamer and VR fan with over 25 years of game industry and graphic design experience, Steve loves all things technical or visual. With a versatile skillset and can-do attitude, he can be relied on to get stuck-in, and to do the job well. A background in software development and software training helps him to act as a bridge between the development team and the clients whether he’s working on a video, blog post or the latest product manual entry.
