Make your workouts fun

The Nordic walking pole supplier, Nordixx, found this article (summarized below the embed) about one way to make exercise fun.


The article described how exercise might be more engaging using gamification techniques. Gamification is integrating games into learning.

Key point: Researchers are studying "ways in which games applied to healthcare practices can impact everything from mental health to pediatric cancer."

Other points:

• "Gamification shows promise, but long-term studies are needed to find the optimal blend of education and communication methods.”
• "Adding a gaming component to fitness is exciting to me [one of the researchers] because it’s shown to help some people be more active simply because they like to play games."
• One company, OliveX, "has developed several popular mobile fitness-motivating games."
• "Associating exercise with my joy of games makes me [an exerciser] feel like I am playing a game rather than working out, and I can see that working for a lot of others."

What's one Nordic walking game idea? Try this out with your walking group:

• 4 of you walk in single file.
• The last person walks forward quickly and takes the lead.
• The the next-to-last person is now the last person. 
• That person walks forward quickly and becomes the new leader.
• Keep doing it until everyone has walked from the back of the line to the front.

What you're doing is interval training. By walking forward quickly, you're speeding up and increasing your heart rate. Then you get to slow down and recover.