Using Wearables to Make Exercise Motivating and Rewarding - MyZone® [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Mike Leveque
Mike Levque is the Group COO and CEO of the Americas for MyZone®.
He is also a Physical Activity Alliance Board member.
[1:09] MyZone® history and vision
“So it's a heart rate-based platform, but we focus on intensity rather than fitness. And that's sort of the secret sauce of MyZone is, we wanted to create a system that included gamification, to make sure to keep the member interested and motivated to hit their fitness goals and to continue along their fitness journey.”
[6:03] Social connectedness
“If a member has four or more connections, they work out 41% more than the average member. If a member gets four or more likes in a month, they work out 84% more. And then a richer social interaction is a comment. If a member receives four or more comments in a month, they work out 132% more than the average member on our platform.”
[11:07] Motivation
“Is it intuitive? Is it motivational? Is it rewarding? That's the way that we develop our product and in our software. But the key is not only making it motivational and intuitive for the new to fitness member, but also making it rewarding and motivational to the member that's been a member of a health club for a very long time.”
[15:47] Cooperation and collaboration
“But in terms of cooperation and challenges, the most interesting way that we've seen to set up challenges is a club versus club challenge, or multiple clubs against each other. And in that respect, rather than highest point total wins, we do the average MyZone effort points of the whole community within the club. And so you have that competition, but you also have that cooperation.”
[17:52] Corporate fitness
“And we're gonna go direct to companies, direct to benefits providers, and offering these same tools so they can receive the same benefits that the health clubs get, not only into just physical activity and the benefits that you get from physical activity, but also also the benefits that you can get from the increased motivation, camaraderie based on the community elements to the platform.”
[24:29] Congressional Physical Activity Challenge
“The goal is, is to raise the awareness of our industry on Capitol Hill. And so gosh, we'd like to get 750 Members of Congress and their staff to participate in the challenge this year. And really work with organizations like ACE and American Heart Association and NASM and ACSM and IHRSA, use all of our resources to support an activity like this to increase the awareness on Capitol Hill. And then I think May, which is the physical activity month, that's when we're going to do the challenge.”
