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Strava launches four-week multi-sport Escape Plan challenge

Strava's new Escape Plan challenge, designed to help users make physical activity a daily habit, supports 32 different sports

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Can you commit to being active at least five times a week for the next four weeks? Today Strava announced a new four-week challenge called The Escape Plan, designed to encourage people to get off their screens and into physical activity at least five times a week.

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Photo: Clint Trahan

“Staying motivated is the largest and oldest barrier in health and wellness,” says Strava CEO James Quarles. “People are busier than ever and screen time is eclipsing moving time. The Escape Plan Challenge is designed to inspire people to put their phones down, declare a simple goal and create better habits.”

It’s all about making exercise–any exercise–a daily habit that sticks, so that motivation is less of an issue. In other words, when exercise is a daily habit, you don’t waste time trying to decide whether you feel like working out. To quote a familiar running brand, you just do it.

The idea for the challenge was born out of Strava’s own data. For example, Strava data shows that the key to making physical activity a daily habit is to do a little every day, and especially to vary your activity–which is why this is not a run challenge or a cycling challenge, but includes all 32 of the sports the app supports.

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According to Strava, its data also show a lot of other neat stuff–such as that a higher volume of weekly uploads is associated with a higher level of activity over time, and so is doing a variety of sports. And sharing about it helps, too–almost everyone who publicly sets goals on Strava is still active nine months later.

Athletes can get started today by logging on to their Strava account, or by going online here. Athletes who log at least 15 minutes of their chosen activity will get the credit.

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