Hi! Welcome! This week, Aviron’s new gamified treadmill and dumbbell announcement practically begs one to dissect our… interesting? concerning? relationship to dopamine and escapism. So here goes.

addictive dumbbells

unfortunately yes you read that right

The point of this brief essay is to ~calmly discuss~ the gamification of exercise and to do so, we must touch on dopamine. 

You know, everyone’s latest obsession. 

Dopamine’s main purpose is to drive our sense of motivation and pursuit. 

For this, we all have a baseline level of dopamine, which rises and falls in response to stuff we do.

A dopamine rise feels great. It signals your brain to do more of what triggered the rise, which is why you can’t stop checking your phone. 

Now gamification (adding elements like rewards and competition levels to things that are not games) is all about driving motivation through dopamine release.

So, understandably, startups are gamifying mundane tasks to get people to experience a burst of dopamine — and want to do them more.

Including physical exercise.

And look, I get it. Few people are eager to spend 30+ minutes on a treadmill in their basement every silly day. But if doing so rewards you through movement-triggered video games, suddenly you may find it much more appealing.

The problem is that too much dopamine release in a short period is not a good thing. This occurs when we ‘dopamine stack,’ or do multiple things that cause a dopamine rise. Like gamified exercising.

Why is it bad? Because after the initial surge, dopamine stacking lowers your dopamine baseline. And you feel pretty crap. A low baseline leaves you with less drive in general which, over time, makes getting pleasure out of everyday activities more difficult. 

Also, your brain is constantly seeking another large dopamine release, and soon each one needs to be bigger than the next.

This may sound hauntingly like a description of addiction, because it is. 

Which is exactly what Aviron, a startup making gamified fitness equipment, is betting on. 

Now you are probably thinking well Shân, if this gets people moving, where’s the harm? It’s not like this is an illicit drug. And sure, gamification may help some of us to be more physically active. 

But beyond the dopamine stacking thing, the issue is two-fold:

1. Gamifying a ‘hard’ activity, like exercise, will make you enjoy the activity even less as time goes by (for the nerds, this clip explains why)  

2. Exercise is often one of the only times many of us are outside in nature, or with other humans, or away from screens

So now you’re not just creating an indoor, solitary, tech-based environment for people to do a traditionally outdoor or social activity — you’re also increasing the chance they derive less and less joy from exercise over time. Not to mention contributing to the growing problem of dopamine being too readily available in modern society. 

Plus (and this is the last smidge!) there’s the small fact that gamification panders to our penchant for escapism. It seems nothing is more appealing to humans these days than to flee their current reality. God forbid you go on a simple run and spend time with your own little thoughts. 

I don’t fully know why the gamification of exercise bothers me so much. Maybe it’s because we can’t stop being our own worst enemies. 

Anyway just like with the AI companion debacle, exercise gamification will create contrasting spin-off trends. We’ll be drawn to physical activity that gets us outside, or socializing, or more engaged with life, or creating sustainable dopamine cycles.

Take forest bathing. It’s the opposite of using exercise to escape reality — along with rucking, primal movement, social exercise, etc. etc. 

As you can imagine, all of these terms are trending up.

So while Aviron will likely sell a bunch of its $2.5k gamified treadmills, I have a feeling being glued to a screen and firing shots from a flying car isn’t the future of exercise. I just don’t believe that among the growing health-conscious demographic, products like this will take off to the extent their founders hope. 

Tidbits

💪 AI muscle health analysis firm Springbok got FDA approval for their MuscleView tech. “This clearance is a key pillar to our commercialization strategy,” said their CEO. It’s also an exciting development, given we’re all starting to realize just how crucial muscle health is in the longevity game. 

👀 Speaking of AI and muscle health, startup amp launched pre-orders for an AI-powered resistance trainer. Their ~$1.8k device uses digital resistance (vs physical weights) combined with AI to take strength training to the next level. Pretty wild. 

💤 In a move we all saw coming, wearables appear to be driving a rise in sleep obsession, or orthosomnia. If you’d like to read this analyst’s take on the surplus of wearables data, it’s here. 

Thank you for reading! If you find yourself frequently enjoying these essays and you’re inclined to forward one to a friend, please do. Nerds are terrible at self-promotion, obviously.

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