Exercise incentivization programs have the potential to help improve movement health and MSK pain solutions at scale. Here's how.
Teaming up to improve healthy behaviour
Last week we announced a new partnership with Advanta Health Solutions and their ActiveFit+ platform. Advanta’s mission is to bring its members to better health, helping people function at a higher level than they previously thought possible.
Advanta achieves this through activity and wellness incentivization. They drive engagement and improvement in healthy behaviors (physically, mentally and nutritionally) and give people the tools and support they need to be accountable for their own health and wellbeing.
Advanta’s expertise in activity incentivization combined with our approach to personalized movement makes for an exciting combination. We believe it represents a new way of enabling individuals across diverse population segments to move better and progress more safely on their movement health journey – regardless of where it starts, or what it looks like.
The meaning of movement health
When movr was first founded, our slogan was “move as you are.” The idea, even then, was that everyone deserves to move the way they want to, regardless of age, health or physical state. Our slogan has since evolved, but our company remains rooted in that simple yet powerful belief.
Movement health looks a little different to everyone. It might mean getting out of bed without back pain, rolling around on the floor with your grandkids, improving your golf swing, playing a high-level sport, or frequent walks in the woods. Regardless of your definition, improving the quality of how your body moves directly impacts the physical and mental quality of your life and experiences.
We created a technology designed to empower people with access to movement that will make a difference for them on any given day. The sweet spot lies in a simple and intuitive cycle – complete straightforward movement assessments, receive appropriate, evidence-based exercises, feel better. Repeat.
Now, as we build our movement health services into platforms like Advanta’s Activefit +, we're excited to see how our foundational approach complements the efforts of other leaders in the space to help drive positive behaviour change at a much larger scale.
Research on wellness incentivization
The studies around employee wellness incentivization show early promise, but connecting the dots between wellness spend and ROI is not easy. There are many dynamics at play and – as we write about at movr a lot – exercise and health is highly individual, varying incredibly from person to person.
A 2015 study showed a $6 return for every $1 invested in employee wellness.
Another study from 2015 showed that offering an incentive to drive people to go to the gym can be effective, but its effectiveness depends on the person’s fitness level
"Participants of an incentivized, fitness-based wellness program maintained higher levels of exercise than non-participants over a 3-year period, after adjusting for pre-intervention differences. Although less frequent exercisers were less likely to participate, they had the largest increase in exercise days per week when they did participate. Future policies may want to concentrate on how to structure incentives to motivate participation among individuals who are least likely to participate in wellness programs."
As the study points out, infrequent exercisers are less likely to enrol [in wellness incentivization programs], but stand to benefit the most when they do. It's a truth that Courtenay Higgins, Advanta Co-Founder & President, learned early on in her days building wellness programs.
While only 20 percent of people at the time were actually going to the gym, most programs were solely focused on driving gym-based activity. She knew the key was going to be figuring out how to reach the other 80 percent of the population who weren't spending time in the gym.
Technology is already fundamentally changing this, as it makes exercise more accessible and empowers people with simple and more personalized ways to feel better and get active. Remote connection has the potential to drive real change at scale, reaching demographics who are unable or unwilling to exercise in a gym or a public setting.
To effectively meet the diverse needs and motivations of employee populations, personalization is now a requirement across corporate wellness programs and activity incentive offerings.
We’re fans of anything that gets people moving, but firmly believe that joint solutions like ours with Advanta create a powerful combination for creating sustained behaviour change and improvement in long-term health outcomes.
We know that daily movement helps everybody and every body to feel better. Even if it is just five minutes – the right movements, delivered at the right time, to a person who needs it, can be life changing.
We’re excited to share more with you as we continue to build scalable, effective, and enjoyable movement health solutions with Advanta and other great partners.
movr is an assessment-based movement health technology company. Our goal is to help measurably improve musculoskeletal health with innovative technology solutions within an ever-changing health space.
Interested in learning more? Reach out here.