9.4
Many of you have heard of the "Fun Theory". For those of you who haven't it is a website dedicated to the sole idea that something as simple and easy as fun will change people's behavior. It actually was initiated by Volkswagon as a marketing tool to develop the image that their vehicles are fun to drive and own. They had a monetary award for the best ideas......your award will be intrinsic.... Here's an idea that someone came up with for fitness: You'll often see an escalator beside a set of stairs-in subways, airports, malls, etc. Usually, the stairs are vacant while the escalator is highly used. In one situation 97% took the escalator while the stairs were typically used only 35% of the time. So a group of engineers got together to make the stairs more fun. They turned the stairs into piano keys so as people stepped on them it made a tune. People started 'playing' on the stairs. They completely changed the user percentage-after their 'fun' change, 66% of users took the stairs while the escalator percentage dropped from 97% to 34%! One of the main goals of fitness is to make it part of our everyday lifestyle and fun so we all remain motivated..... I want you to think of your own "Fun Theory" to motivate someone you know to start a fitness program or even change up your own. What can you do? We all get in a rut and need a little 'shot in the arm' so to speak. I know me, I get bored and discouraged easily if I don't see results and if I'm not enjoying myself. I need fun!! What can you do?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I want to try out those stairs!! They sound really fun! Maybe there could be some kind of sound system people could put into shoes that music would play when the user is in motion? Music always motivates me to move and even exercise. It sound cool, but they aren't for the rain!!
ReplyDeleteI've always liked walking but I understand that for some it can be boring. Inventing some sort of long obsticle coarse that could have interseting checkpoints with fun activities. The whole thing could be 2 or so miles and the exciting checkpoints would be insentives to walk farther. They could make up for side walks though cities and encourage people to take a fun walk or run to the store or school!
ReplyDeleteThis is just an example, but in September, there will be a 5K at Disneyland. My friend did it before, and she said that you would do cool things, such as get to be backstage and see hidden things. I am planning to do this one in September. Maybe once a month there could be something like this at your local park. You could start from one point and end at another. There could be checkpoints in between and each time you passed one you would get something special.
ReplyDeleteI see you followed my link last month! Although I'm more of an indoor person, some of the most fun times I've had have been out on our Trampoline with friends. With something like that, exercise becomes truly entertaining. Especially if it's a water trampoline.
ReplyDeleteI thought of a "Fun Theory" that is both fun and creative. A lot of people might think exercising is a lot of work. To help with this problem, I thought of creating motion-sensor pads. These large pads are attached directly to the ground and can stimulate different sports such as soccer. For instance, in soccer, a ball will appear on the screen and, when a person kicks it, the ball will roll away just like a real one. You could play the game solo or make it into a competition with some friends to make exercising even more interesting. Hopefully this idea will help make exercising more fun.
ReplyDeleteMy new fun theory is the dance activities on wii fit and x-box. It's a fun way to get the whole family moving and it doesn't seem like exercise.
ReplyDeleteJordan Zuniga
Achievements always encourage those who like seeing in writing/symbol a sign of completing something.
ReplyDelete-Achievements for people on hiking trails.
-In cities with a subway and card for it to have achievements for getting on or off at different stations or set of stations.
-Achievements for credit cards. ie. Go to Starbucks 50 times. Borders 20 times. etc.
-Achievements for store membership cards. ie. Borders, but 5 books at once. But a movie and a book. Buy a magazine. etc.
This would encourage those people who like achievements to try things they otherwise wouldn't. Especially if the achievements were well designed and looked beautiful.
I think that if a building had a giant maze painted on the floor, people with time could try to walk through the maze to a store instead of taking the direct route. But, if someone is in a rush, he could just take the quickest possible route and ignore the maze. A simple way for people to walk a little more than needed.
ReplyDeleteI also get bored and discouraged easily if I do not see results, and if I am not enjoying myself. To make a fitness program fun and enjoyable, do exercises that appeal to your senses. Grab a friend or sibling and try going on a bike ride or a hike. Bring an iPod to keep entertained. I find it more enjoyable to exercise when listening to music.
ReplyDeleteI usually listen to music when I walk somewhere that helps. But I usually dont do it because its fun I do it because gas is too expensive.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be fun if there were public bicycles on tracks that went to various locations. They could be used instead of cars. Also, they would make exercise fun and reduce polution.
ReplyDeleteI am always surfing for my workouts for the most part, and so i think i wanna get one of those waterproof cases for my ipod so i can listen to my ipod when i am paddeling out to the line up. That would be really nice.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I could use things like wii fit to make my exercise more fun. I could also do things like go on the trampoline with friends, or go on walks or runs with other people.
ReplyDeleteI think a cool and fun idea to make workouts more enjoyable would be a music mood analyzer or something in that nature. A way to choose or have the machine sense what type of song you need to get motivated, and it would start playing.
ReplyDeletemy fun theory would be to have an ipod while i workout because i don't have an ipod and if i could listen to good music in the gym instead of the music they play it would make me want to work much harder and have a lot more fun.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very interesting statistic about the giant piano stairs. I love that idea! For me personally, I consider exercise in and of itself to be fun. In my own exercise routine, I enjoy it because it is time I can spend with my dogs and my family walking outside in the beauty of nature. I like seeing the birds, the occasional squirrel, all of the trees and the ever-changing sky. I also like the sense of accomplishment it gives me. To make it even funner, however, I came up with the idea of a photo scavenger hunt, where you have to walk around the city trying to find and take pictures of a list of items and objects. For example the list could be like this:
ReplyDeletea traffic sign
a flag pole
a lampost
a fire hydrant
a bird
a bicyle
a brick wall
a car
a plant
a restaurant
To make it even more fun and challenging, it could be more specific like this:
a blue traffic sign
a flag pole with both the national flag and the state flag
a metal lampost
a blue fire hydrant
a bird's feather
a red bicycle
an overgrown or mossy brick wall
a green car
a pine tree
a chinese restaurant
I like this idea because it would entail quite a bit of walking, but at the same time would be really fun to do!
I walk everywhere i go pretty much and i have found that if you have headphones in your ears or are listening to some kind of music, everything that may seem boring mainly walking is so much better, easier and feels so much faster because your mind is in the music.
ReplyDelete