Staying consistent with your workout routine – week after week, month after month – can be a challenge in and of itself.
We’re always looking for new ways to help users of our fitness app reach their workout goals – and the biggest key to success is actually going to the gym, consistently.
With the latest version, released on both Google Play and Apple’s App Store a few weeks ago, we introduced a new widget on the startscreen:
Workout challenges.
And it’s free, for all users.
The first challenge started January 16th and ended yesterday.
Today, February 1st, we launched the first challenge that will last for a full month.
It looks like this:
And it will be followed by many more.
Will Workout Challenges Actually Help You Stay More Consistent?
We hope so! We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on the short January challenge. Watching the progress bars seems to be a positive nudge for a lot of people.
Some people call these kind of features ”gamification”. I’m not sure I think that this qualifies as that, but I understand if one would make that comparison.
Last month’s challenge included a total weight goal for the squat. I hadn’t squatted in a few months due to a knee injury, but the empty progress bar forced me to finally get my act together – and in one tedious workout I knocked out a total 5 000 kg in the squat, thereby checking off that goal.
Will it work the same for you?
Try This Simple Trick if You Don’t Want to See and Partake in the Workout Challenges
We are all different.
If you don’t want to see and participate in these workout challenges, just press and hold on the widget. As soon as it starts to wiggle, you can drag and drop it below the fold on your startscreen.
By placing it all the way down at the bottom, you will have to scroll past a lot of other stuff before you ever have to see it again.
Please see this help article on the startscreen, all its widgets and how you can customize it.
Full transparency: We are considering adding a setting that will hide all challenges. But that is also a double-edged sword, considering that such a setting could make users forget that challenges exist – and who knows when we’ll make one that you’ll actually want to partake in?
If you have strong opinions on this, and hiding the challenge widget below the fold isn’t enough for you, please send your feedback to app@strengthlog.com!
Our Plans Going Forward with Workout Challenges
How about badges and an archive with past challenges? Tournaments? High scores?
Not all ideas will be good ideas, but our meathead brains are in full swing right now, trying to think of ways to improve this feature.
There’s also the question of the challenge format.
We’ve started things off with monthly challenges, but you’ll probably also see much shorter challenges in the future.
And wouldn’t it be fun if you were able to choose between different exercises in a challenge? Or have the challenge more tailored to how you actually train?
And, and, and …
I’ll stop here for now. Just wanted to let you know that things can and will happen in coming app updates.
Update to v5.7 Now
If you don’t see the workout challenges widget on your startscreen in the StrengthLog app, you have an older release and need to update to the latest one.
It’s live on both Google Play and Apple’s App Store now.
Download the latest version for free using the buttons below:
