Why I Love Strava
Why the app motivates me to get after it
These past few months I’ve been using a fitness app called Strava. I started using back in January or so, but I’d use it pretty sparingly. Now, I’m hooked. I use it almost every time I work out and even better: it actually gets me excited to workout. It makes for a more enjoyable and rewarding exercise experience. But what is Strava? For those who have never heard of it before, it’s a social-fitness network, primarily tracking cycling and running exercises, using GPS data. Strava offers a free service with no advertising in its mobile application, and a monthly subscription plan called Strava Summit. I’d like to talk a little bit about the features that I like about Strava, and why it’s gamification is so effective.
I think the moment that I was officially 100% hooked on Strava was after a hike that I did up Mount Sanitas in Boulder. I was pressed for time so I pushed myself to get up and down as fast as I could. I tracked this hike and it ended being a personal record for me on the ascent, from the trailhead to summit. I was excited about this and I started to poke around Strava little more to find the segments feature:
Users can input “segments” of their workout, which other people can then use on their workouts. Strava automatically detects these segments for you when you are on them, via GPS. The above screenshots are screens from the app that involve this feature. I entered into the “Sanitas Climb (steep side)” segment to find that was in the top 15 times for the year! Pretty cool! This was quite rewarding and encouraging for me to see. *brain endorphins fire”
I think what really sets Strava apart is the social networking aspect, including features like the one above. It’s remarkably easy to share you workouts with others and upload pictures from it. You can track your progress over weeks and months, showing how many miles you “traveled” during your workouts. I’ve been enjoying finding other more competitive and in-shape people than me, following them to see what routes they take, how far they go, for how long etc.
Another interesting and engaging feature is the “challenges” the app provides. You can choose from a list of challenges, such as “bike this far in a month” or “walk 100 miles total this week”. Something along those lines. They really add to that extra reward stimulation in your brain. And they play a nice animation when you complete one. Here’s one that I completed yesterday! The task was to do 10 hours of activity over the course of 30 days. And once I complete it, it shows up as a trophy in my profile’s “trophy case”.
The details that you can input for your workout are also very good. And are laced with hints to download the premium version of the way. Which honestly, I’ve been appreciating their efforts to bring you to a paid user. The sprinkling of pro features that you can’t access throughout the app as a non-paid user are very well placed. And the pro features seem really cool too! You can set more goals for the week or month, you can input more details of your work out which leads to better tracking, and much more! It seems to be $5 a month right and, once I’m not a broke graduate student anymore, I will consider buying it! Well done, Strava.
