Competitive Fitness App

No offense, but there’s so many apps that already do this, and do it well.

I use Apple Watch, and can join public challenges if I wish. I can also engage in private one-on-one challenges with friends via Apple Watch.

MFP “Friends” can send me automatic updates of their workouts on my feed, if they choose to. I’ve turned mine off because I work out several times a day, and auto reporting can overwhelm the feed.

Having said that, I can tell you what I dislike about Apple’s system, if it would help you.

1.) Apple has personal challenges that increase incrementally. Each month they push you to increase steps or number of workouts, calories burned, or minutes of workout. If you already exercise regularly, the increases can be insane, and unobtainable. You “earn” a digital medal for completing these challenges. For example I got a message this morning that I need to complete 1490 remaining minutes of exercise for June to earn this months medal. That’s 99 minutes a day, which I will beat easily (only because it’s less than normal, since I was sick last month, which brought my average down) but there’s been months where it’s demanded upwards of a couple hundred minutes a month. That’s nuts. During COVID lockdown I was walking extensively on an infrequently used trail- upwards of 10-12 miles a day. At one point Apples algorithm was trying to increase me to 14-15 miles a day.

2.) Apple challenges: requires you to turn your exercise ring 3x, log 14 hours of movement, and achieve a minimum of 810 “move” calories (calculated based on your weight) PER DAY. There are no rest days built in, or rest periods between challenges.

For someone as OCD as myself, it’s a recipe for injury to chase those daily goals to remain in “first place”. I had to quit after getting my COVID shot on the 30th day of a 31 day month and getting sick. That one day dropped me out of first place, and crushed me.

That was when I realized my watch was now running me and not vice versa.

If you look at the comments area for the team challenges, you’ll see lots of comments “looking for member with all points” or “looking for team with 100% points to join”, or “want winning team”.