How the SocialBoat Community Members are Collectively Pushing Each Other

"Competition at its base is what has driven us as a species to survive. It drives biological and psychological evolution.” -Craig Dike

Have you struggled with being addicted to video games? Do you remember what was it that kept you hooked? Most of you will agree that it is the desire to do just a little better this time. Now think, if this ‘just-a-little-better’ attitude is made into something more tangible, rewarding, and healthy? Think, if instead of ruining your eyes and wasting your time, you are actually getting healthy benefits from the game?

That is SocialBoat’s Fat Burner Game for you.  

The Fat Burner Game

SocialBoat’s Fat Burner Game, running since February 2022 has been witnessing extraordinary performances from all participants. It has weekly and monthly rewards for the topmost performers, with the leaderboard refreshing every month. Introducing fun in fitness through such games has impacted lives- as a part of groups and of individuals.

The Fat Burner Game is such an amalgamation of fun and fitness for participation from all Social Boat community members. Just like a video game, you have to work out every day and finish tasks to earn fit points. Along with daily fit points facilitated through specific tasks, there are exciting weekly and monthly rewards that participants are competing for. So far, a total of 8.7 million calories have been burnt in the game, and the number is only rising with every passing moment.

The Psychology of Rewards and Peer Motivation

An article by VeryWell Mind mentions the incentive theory of motivation stating that actions are often inspired by a desire to gain outside reinforcement. In other words, being rewarded for a task multiplies the effort that is put into it.

Rewards are one thing, but there is also another aspect to it- peer motivation. All participants are members of a team, and while they are competing individually, their teams are also competing with each other. This team spirit is boosting their morale further.

For instance, Sasmita Pani recalls a day when she didn’t work out and was already very tired by the evening. On looking at her leaderboard, she did not like that she hadn’t entered any calories and did not contribute to her team. So she went down for a brisk walk which progressed into a full-fledged run and it also uplifted her mood! Therefore, tracking yourself and others on the leaderboard brings in a streak of motivation to contribute to it.

Real-Life Impact

These findings of this theory have played out thrivingly for SocialBoat’s Fat Burner Challenge. Rewards such as bikes, wearables, vouchers, etc. are pushing people to the height of their capability, maximizing their performance. While these are tangible rewards, even more rewarding are the long-term healthy lifestyles that people are taking away from here. One participant, Nyasha Kaushik, had shared she lost 4 kgs in 3 days by doing booster tasks.  

Boxing coach Sandeep, while saying that this was “his type of game” also added that the concept of the game “motivated him to exercise more without skipping the training.”  

Similarly, football player Bhavneet, who burnt a massive 95k calories in a 30-day period said,

"I never knew that fitness can be rewarding too."

One of the coaches, Aarja Bedi had this to say-

"The concept of creating a community, fun challenges with rewards to incentivize people to exercise and improve their own health is amazing!"

Getting Out of Slumps and Breaking Unhealthy Habits

While for some the game has broken unhealthy habits, for some others it has cultivated new healthy ones. Gururaj Jadhav, for instance, talks about how for a long while, his biggest motivation was maintaining his top rank on the SocialBoat leaderboard. This increased his workout intensity and gave better results.  

Similarly, Kanupriya says,

"SocialBoat has brought me a much-needed change in my routine, especially after the havoc that the pandemic had caused. Through the challenges, I have been able to bring consistency and a rhythm back into my workout routine. And I am more driven than ever! I love the interactive leaderboard –– keeps me on my toes. Literally."

One of the leading performers, Gagan Deep Katojia credits his 4-pack abs to the game and says,

“SocialBoat’s challenge gave me the push that I needed. I find myself working out on my spinning bike in the middle of the night which I would never do if this competition wasn’t there.”

Communities Impacted

Such examples of the impact that the Fat Burner game has created on individuals are many. More interestingly, however, it has also impacted entire communities.

An example is one of the teams in the game- ‘The Faridabad Cycling Club.’ Where they were pros at cycling and participated largely in all cycling-related activities, participating in the fat burner game has pushed them into other beneficial fitness activities such as calisthenics and cardio.

Similarly, SportsFit by MS Dhoni, a gym in Delhi has seen a sharp improvement in daily attendance since the beginning of the game. The game, they say is a significant addition to the reasons people come to the gym for.

The ‘Khushi se Yoga’ community, one of the largest on SocailBoat, has members across India who do video workouts together. We get to see performances ranging from Sundar Bishnoi doing the camel pose in the middle of camels in Jodhpur to Saurabh Chauhan doing a handstand from Faridabad.  

Conclusion

The Fat Burner Game has received extraordinary performances from community members. Where on the one hand we witnessed the Dheeraj cycle 100 km on an average across Faridabad, on the other hand, we saw different booster tasks take the center stage in different ways.
This kind of impact only paves the way for its betterment as the game progresses.

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