Garmin and BrickFit Positively Impact Children’s Fitness and Well-being Using Gamification and Rewards
Garmin and BrickFit® are coming together to encourage “a new way to play” by combining some of the best things about being a kid — fun physical activities and LEGO® bricks. Unique fitness challenges tracked through a compatible Garmin fitness tracker lead to exclusive rewards like the famous LEGO construction toys and continued progress on the BrickFit app. The goal of this collaboration is to engage children in establishing active habits that will continue through to adulthood.
The BrickFit app, and more than 1,200 included LEGO bricks, encourage kids to build their fitness and well-being by making exercise fun and rewarding. By wearing a vívofit® 4 or vívosmart® 4 fitness tracker (or another compatible device), users can complete more than 180 different fitness challenges, individually or in a group — recording progress through steps, distance, active minutes and sleep1. Data from the Garmin device is delivered via Garmin Health to the BrickFit app to track what activity the participant undertakes and measure progress and completion of challenges. Each completed challenge helps kids unlock rare builds, earn exclusive content from The Brickman (BrickFit Founder Ryan McNaught) and receive physical LEGO bricks direct to their door. McNaught further states: “Through syncing their Garmin activity tracker with the BrickFit app, participants’ activities are assessed daily to reflect their progress toward meeting the requirements of each challenge. This keeps the goal achievable and reduces participant drop off. This also opens BrickFit up to all physical capabilities.” Because every child gets challenged based on their individual performance, everyone can just give their personal best, no matter of size, age or gender.
Globally, levels of physical activity are insufficient across a range of age groups, according to the World Health Organisation’s 2020 Guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour report. The report states that, “Increased levels of physical inactivity have negative impacts on health systems, the environment, economic development, community well-being and quality of life.” Research has shown that children who exercise are more likely than their peers to remain healthy in later life, and gamification of exercise is one way to help re-engage children at an age where other activity programs typically see a drop in interest.
Garmin and BrickFit share a common goal — a commitment to developing technology that helps people to stay active. It is hoped that this collaboration will impact children’s activity and well-being in a positive and long-term way. BrickFit will showcase its knowledge and learnings as the keynote speaker at this year’s Garmin Health Summit in Rome on 29-30 September.
