▎ WuXi AppTec content team editor
The gym did the annual card, and as a result, it only went to take a bath three times and then it was idle; planned to punch in the sports app every day, and the result was that the last login was three months ago; secretly determined to go to the gym every weekend, and as a result, I missed a class overtime and never went again... Yes, you're not alone in setting up a fitness flag that's easy to fall.
▲When was the last run? (Image source: 123RF)
Although the health benefits of exercise are well known, how to stick to regular exercise is a problem! The gym guy sends you messages every day, and the sports app pops up reminders from time to time... What exactly can be done to help people maintain exercise habits in a really effective way? In fact, this question has caught the attention of a group of scientists.
30 researchers from 15 universities conducted an unprecedentedly large study, evaluating 53 different incentive schemes in one go, trying to figure out the best way to motivate people to exercise. Their findings have recently been published in the top academic journal Nature.
The researchers teamed up with a gym chain with more than 60,000 members across the United States to test these different regimens through randomized controlled experiments, comparing which incentives made members go to the gym more often a month later.
Incentives in these programs include making a daily or weekly fitness plan, regularly sending motivational reminder texts, providing free audio programs during exercise, adding fun activities, recording physical fitness indicators, providing Q&A for members who come to the gym, punching card points to redeem e-commerce coupons, and so on.
Image credit: 123RF
The results show that it is not easy to motivate people to go to the gym more, and most of the incentives have not had the desired effect, and in this month, less than 50% of the programs have allowed members to increase the number of weekly visits to the gym, and the frequency has increased by 9% to 27%.
Among the various incentive conditions, the researchers found that a small amount of monetary rewards brought better supervision effects. The specific approach is that every time you go to the gym to punch, you can get a certain number of points, which can be exchanged for two cents on the e-commerce website. The best incentive condition is that when a member misses a fitness program, they are rewarded with extra points when they go to the gym again, which is equivalent to exchanging a few extra cents.
However, when the month-long experiment ended, the researchers tracked and found that most of the protocols would fail, and the frequency of members going to the gym returned to before the experiment, and only 8% of the experimental conditions continued to change people's exercise habits. "When incentives are stopped, most of the gains disappear, suggesting that incentives should be provided continuously." The researchers point out.
▲ It is difficult to persuade people to exercise more, unless they can get money to exercise? (Image source: 123RF)
Lead study author Professor Katherine Milkman of the University of Pennsylvania says it's becoming increasingly clear that it's important to integrate fitness into everyday life, and going to the gym more is one way to do that. Using this very large research model, the researchers compared between dozens of different interventions to change behavior, hoping that the insights gained would help us better understand human behavior and help develop better public policies to improve people's health.
As for how can we develop healthier fitness habits ourselves? Maybe you can set achievable goals, like going to the gym twice a week, or running by 10% per week, and after a month, give yourself a small reward for successfully achieving your goals, such as buying a new sportswear. In addition, it doesn't matter if you miss a workout, encourage yourself to start over at any time, and the flag can be erected again!
Of course, you might also be able to forward the article to your fitness instructor and ask him to give you a drum (fa) (qian)?