- Noah Cracknell
- Posts
- Exercise isn’t a Competition
Hello friends, and welcome to The Daily Preneur! If you want to join 209 other readers learning about entrepreneurship, economics, and life, subscribe below:
DALL-E
When I was a freshman at the University of Portland, I wore an Apple Watch.
I'd track everything from morning strength sessions – shoutout Coach Ferate – to walks to the dining hall, where my teammates and I uncontrollably spent food points on breakfast burritos, burgers, and Core Powers. I'd even track how many hours I stood every day.
It was fun to see how many calories I burned and my step count at the end of the day. And if I wasn't going to reach my step goal, I'd go for a short run or walk to close all my rings. It was inconvenient at times though, like after a three-hour practice involving multiple rounds of sprints… but for the most part, the watch kept me honest and helped me stay active. I didn't need the extra incentive, but it was there.
One feature of the watch was the ability to compete with your friends. I made it a mission never to let anyone out-move me. Granted, I was mainly competing with my mom. And bless her heart, but I was a Division I athlete; the odds were stacked against her. I was working out twice a day, and my own two feet were my primary form of transportation. It wasn't exactly a fair comparison.
But she's not one to back down from a challenge. It got tense between us when she started training for a half-marathon – I'd get back from a short four-mile run to see she had run eight 🙄 I remember thinking, "damn, my mom is a savage." But I also couldn't help but compare myself and my activity level to hers and the rest of my friends on Apple.
It's safe to say the Apple Watch has taken the world by storm. Today, 100M+ people wear one. Some people enjoy it for tracking their workouts – like I did – and others enjoy features like tap-to-pay, the ability to play music without your phone, messaging, phone calls, and now, tracking biomarkers like heart rate, blood oxygen, and blood pressure.
With the rise of smartwatches, and their ability to track various metrics, fitness platforms have blossomed. One company that has thrived is Strava. At its core, Strava is a social media platform for exercise enthusiasts and athletes. They claim it's a platform to upload and track your training sessions, but its design resembles Instagram more than a spreadsheet.
The smartwatch and fitness boom sent Strava's active user count to over 95M. Thankfully, because of Strava, the hard work of millions of athletes worldwide is not going undocumented. Crisis averted. Strava's app lets you also become friends with any registered user and view their training history. It's like Facebook but for people who love to track their workouts.
The birth of Strava, and the ability to track everything, has caused athletes to ponder whether or not those who don't wear a smartwatch do what they say they do. This new phenomenon is called the did-it-really-happen theory.
You've probably read or heard the famous quote, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" The quote from Dr. George Berkeley has sparked much debate. Some claim that God can still hear it, while others believe that if a human isn't around to witness it, no noise is made. But I'll leave it to you to figure that out.
For our purposes, the quote is a perfect framework for introducing the did-it-really-happen theory. We'll call it DIRHT for short. DIHRT is simple: if you went for a run or did a workout and didn't track it on your smartwatch, did it actually ever happen? I'd argue it did because I'll take your word for it. But much like when a tree falls in a forest with nobody around, it's impossible for me to know what really happened without being there to witness it or having proof on your Apple Watch.
Obviously, this is a bit childish – who even cares? You're the only one who knows what you did and didn't do. What matters is whether or not you went for the run or did the workout, not whether you tracked it. But the did-it-really-happen theory has made me think: do Apple Watch and other smartwatch users only exercise to close their rings and compete with their friends? Or do they exercise for the benefits of it?
The difference matters.
Let's go back to my freshman year at the University of Portland when I was tracking everything.
When you're hitting your stand goal and crushing your move goal, it's easy to feel good. But when you don't hit your goals, it's natural to feel shame and a sense of failure. And the feelings are exaggerated when you check to see what your friends have done on Strava.
The problem with making physical activity a competition, like it is on Apple and Strava, is that it discourages people from exercising for the right reasons. Sure, not everyone is like this, but it's impossible not to compare your activity to your friends; the platforms were literally built so that you could!
Have you ever heard the quote, "with great power comes great responsibility?" In this context, the quote means something a little different: with the ability to track everything – and hit your "fitness" goals every day – comes the hidden responsibility to do so. I say 'hidden' because it's not obvious when using the product.
When you buy an Apple Watch, your secretly signing your life away to hit these arbitrary goals Apple sets for you. If you're not careful, the responsibility to track everything and hit your fitness goals daily can weigh heavy on you. And potentially lead to some bad habits.
After my first year at the University of Portland, I started to run a lot. I'd go on long runs every other day. But I had to make sure my Apple Watch was charged. If it weren't, I wouldn't go on the run, which is a very lame excuse. Instead of running for the health benefits and the enjoyment I get from it, I'd opt not to run because it wouldn't count towards my move goal or the Strava leaderboard.
I'm not very proud of it. But I know I'm not alone. It's natural to only want to do something if it counts towards a goal or objective. But this is the sad reality: it still does count. Maybe not for my rings or the Strava leaderboard, but does that even matter? Doing things because they're good for us or fun, not because it makes you appear better, healthier, or happier on social media, is becoming increasingly rare today.
I found myself not working out because my watch wasn't charged more than I'd like to admit. But this isn't the only unhealthy habit that can occur from religiously wearing an Apple Watch. It's also natural to feel shame when you don't hit your goals or see others hit theirs with ease. This isn't a knock on the product, just a reality that comes with it.
Because we're all comparing ourselves to each other, nobody stops to consider the drawbacks of these devices – of which there are plenty – and why exercising is important in the first place.
After an up-and-down 2.5 years of wearing an Apple Watch, I threw it in the trash in 2019. I was tired of having a device that resembled a phone on my wrist. And I didn't like how I viewed exercise when I wore it; I was working out and training hard for pitiless reasons.
About six months after throwing my Apple Watch in the trash and healing my relationship with exercise (it's not about making exercise a competition but doing it for the benefits and enjoyment it brings), I went smartwatch shopping. After all, they are pretty cool...
But this time, with a different goal: I wanted a watch that could tell the time, track my training sessions, and elevate my training experience, not force me to focus on the wrong things. I also didn't want the watch to die after one day of use. Oh, and I didn't want the ability to receive phone calls and send texts from my watch – it's not good to be connected 24/7.
This narrowed the list quite a bit. After reading several reviews and trying a few watches, I settled on the Garmin Fenix 6X Pro. And I've loved it ever since. The battery lasts twenty-one days (yes – that's three weeks on one charge!), it doesn't resemble a phone disguised as a watch, I can measure the quality of my sleep (which is helpful), and it's supplemented my interest in health and wellness; not overtaken it.
Not everyone who wears a smartwatch may relate to this message. But everyone can learn from the hidden costs associated with these products. The purpose of this article was to speak to those hidden costs. Largely, smartwatches and platforms like Strava are net positives, but I'd be foolish not to mention their downsides. Hopefully, you have learned that exercise is not a competition, even though fitness and wellness companies make it out to be.
What's your take? Has your smartwatch made you healthier? Or has it made you feel more shame about your health and fitness? Or both? Send me an email; I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Keep crushing.
Cheers,
Noah Cracknell
Support Noah
Enjoying the writing? Want to support Noah further?
Follow him on Twitter
Read his ebook Longevity Lifting
Train with Noah one-on-one
Reply