#36 - The gamification of my workouts
Neurotypical or neurodivergent. That doesn’t matter much when it comes to quick rewards after a workout. We all need to see our progress. Whether it’s on the scale, or even quicker, in apps. Since I started working out early 2025, I have been tracking my workouts. First just in a spreadsheet - Born in 1978, I’m of the generation that finds pleasure in building a spreadsheet just to see the evolution in data - later with Strava and the health apps on my phone. Everything has an app these days. My blood glucose meter, my scale, my blood pressure meter. They all are connected to my health apps, and in their own way, they all show the progress of one specific aspect. None of them are medical grade, but all of them have their merit because they show the progress based on data that are gathered by the same measuring device.
Now Strava is different in the way that it offers more then just a progress report. Where the other apps more or less just show me the bare data, Strava invites me to try and get better, faster, ride for longer, climb higher… The way Strava works, helps me to find extra motivation in reaching the achievements. I’m sure there’s a dark strategy behind that. Reach a specific distance in one month. Or a set number of activities in a week. Working out for a specific minimum length of time. Beating others and becoming KOM or local legend. For me, this all helps. It must be the effect of the game aspect, on a brain that was conditioned in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, when gaming first became a thing. It was further developed during the ‘00’s and ‘10’s, when the quick reward was fed through apps, social media and even tv and the internet in general.
I’ve always been rather skeptical when it comes to those quick rewards. They seemed not worth much to me. Not that I live under the illusion that I’m not affected by them. I absolutely am. I’m human, so I can easily be influenced. But there also lies the contradiction. While in daily life, I try to avoid those quick rewards as much as possible, I find myself looking for them in my workouts. Especially since for the past two months, the progress on the scale is less impressive then those first months. I can’t expect my weight to keep plummeting of course. Especially since I’m gaining more and more muscle. There’s still weight to be lost of course, but gaining muscle is part of the process as well. And standing in front of a mirror, trying on a suit 6 sizes smaller than what I bought in December last year, actually felt pretty great. I looked good. I haven’t looked this good in decades. Even I could see that. Even my brain allowed me to acknowledge the progress that I made up till now. So I’ll let the weight be what it is for now. I’m sure I’ll make more progress in the months to come.
And that’s where those rewards in Strava help me. Faster than last time on that specific stretch. A quicker time over that distance. A longer climb. Comparing workouts. Higher average speed. Longer without a brake… More endorphins.
They deliver a small amount with every badge I earn. With every improvement I make. With every little milestone that comes across my path. And that feels good. It’s an instant delivery system of gratification. And while the real progress is still made in the long run, the expectation of that quick reward helps me to get on
the trike every day. Every badge I earn, shows me the progress I’m making. Because I wouldn’t be quicker if my health hadn’t improved. I wouldn’t ride greater distances if my physical condition didn’t get better than it was. While they don’t tell the whole story, those little collections of pixels, granted to me by a multinational, based on what gps technology has been tracking through my phone, they do tell me I must be doing something right. Even on days where my scale seems to have signed a contract with the lord of darkness. I swear, sometimes I expect the thing to have grown a pair of horns and a pointy tail.
My Strava page
