When you’re a fat geek who considers rapid typing a form of exercise, getting motivated to move your fat behind out of a chair can be a vexing problem. That’s why I became interested when my employer, a major health insurer, began a partnership with Virgin to sell a new incentive plan to get people exercising. The program, Virgin Health Miles (originally called Virgin Life Care) offered those who paid a small monthly fee ($5 for my employer) access to technology to help them track their exercise and record their health vital statistics. In addition, Virgin Health Miles offers “Health Miles” to its users that can be redeemed for valuable gift certificates to many major retailers that currently include Target, Circuit City, and Best Buy.
The Technology
The Go Zone Pedometer
The most attractive piece of technology to the geek in me is the Go Zone Pedometer, which looks like an oddly shaped pager. A pedometer is a device that registers your steps as you walk. Unlike the cheap pedometers you may have seen or used in the past, the Go Zone Pedometer is a nicely crafted piece of technology that is sensitive enough to register your steps, but also accurate enough not to record every single twich or sneeze you make while wearing it. Additionally, the Go Zone Pedometer uses your weight and stride length to measure the miles you’ve walked and the calories you’ve burned. The best part is that the Go Zone Pedometer allows you to upload and track your daily step count to the Virgin Health Miles website using a standard USB cable (included) . The number of steps you take each day is then rewarded with a certain daily level of miles.
HealthZone Kiosks
HealthZone Kiosks are computer terminals where you can take health measurements of your weight, blood pressure, and body fat. After logging into the terminal via a touch screen, it takes only a few minutes to enter these measurements. These kiosks are located in my employer sponsored fitness center and in a few local health clubs.
LifeZone Website
The LifeZone Website is where you can track your progress, answer health questionaires, redeem your health miles, and enter exercise not recorded by your pedometer.
Earning HealthMiles
Virgin Health Miles offers you “Health Miles”, similar to frequent flyer miles, for various activities related to your health. The program offers you miles for completing different health assessments each year. It also offers miles each day for the amount of steps recorded on your GoZone Pedometer. Currently your receive a set amount for each day you record 7,000 or less steps, 7,000 to 12,000 steps, and 12,000 to 20,000 steps, and 20,000 and over. You also get miles for visiting the HealthZone Kiosks and recording your measurements and reaching certain levels of improvement.
Does it Work?
As a geek, there is something about using technology to get a high score. So to me, the Virgin Health Miles Pedometer was a bit like a video game controller. I was fascinated by using it to rack up some points. It was sent to me quite quickly after signing up with the program. The pedometer is shaped a bit like a beeper, with large numbers to show you your steps, calories burned, and miles walked. It takes about 10 minutes to measure your stride, setup the pedometer, and download the software to your PC that downloads your steps from your pedometer. The pedometer attaches to your belt or waistband. It’s beltclip designed in such a way to fit snugly on almost any waistband, and I’ve worn it easily on sweatpants, shorts, and pants. As an added safety feature, the pedometer has an alligator clip that straps to it that you can clip to your belt loop, pocket, or another part of your wasteband. This clip is VERY tight and helps hold your pedometer tight if it accidentally gets knocked loose.
In my everyday walking, the pedometer has been very sensitive in measuring my steps. When attached to my side, even light steps seem to measure accurately on the unit. However, the results have been known to vary, so it is important that you experiment with the usage of the pedometer to get the placement right.
Uploading steps has been easy, especially after recent enhancements to the software. The program stays on your PC and when you plug in your pedometer, it automatically starts downloading your steps, usually in about 15 to 20 seconds. The software than gives you the option of bringing you directly to the Virgin Health Miles website to see how you’ve progressed.
The HealthZone Kiosks are also easy to use. You enter your user ID and your password and are taken to a screen that allows you to see your progress or track your measurements. The kiosks offer blood pressure monitoring, body fat measuring, and weight measurements. When these kiosks were initially introduced to us, they were a bit problematic. Weight measurements seemed to vary greatly, often registering four or five different measurements within the same session. These problems appear to have been fixed. The biggest problem with the kiosks is that the system is a little slower than the one at your corner drugstore in measuring your blood pressure and weight. In the time that I’ve been using them the kiosks have only been out of service once.
The LifeZone website offers you a nice graphic assessment of how you’re doing, with a daily bar graph showing the amount of steps you’ve taken and the ability to adjust your targets for amount of steps you wish to take. Additionally, the LifeZone tracks GoZone Challenges, which your company can sponsor. GoZone challenges enable GoZone Pedometer users to compete against each other to measure their activity level. Those individuals and teams that have the most steps during a certain time period can win valuable prizes. Unfortunately, because the pedometer isn’t smart enough to know if you’re walking or if you’ve attached your device to something that shakes it up and down, the GoZone Challenges have been marked with suspicion that some of the competitors have cheated their way to a win. Virgin is trying to modify the competition to make it more cheat proof, but still is having problems.
In my time on the program, I’ve amassed about $250 worth of rewards. A few months ago Virgin made the program a little less rewarding in the short term when they switched from the ability to earn money cumulatively each month to earning money once you reach certain health mile tiers. Because of this, a lazy guy like me has to wait several months before amassing enough miles to redeeem for money. In the past, I could have earned a little bit each month. The program is very quick at turning around redeemed rewards, sending a gift card within a week of redemption in most cases.
Also, I had a problem with a pedometer dying a little over a year into the program. While these pedometers are durable, the replacements aren’t cheap (about $25) and are your responsibility if the pedometer is no longer within the year warranty period.
Pros
A fun easy way to word toward improving your health and earning money while doing it.
Virgin Health Miles is quick to respond to customer inquiries and sends items ordered from their website within days of the request.
Relatively easy with moderate activity to earn back your investment.
Cons
Pedometer reliability has been mixed.
Walking style and user’s size appear to impact the ability of the pedometer to register steps.
HealthZone Kiosks are time consuming to use and could be inconveniently located for you.
GoZone Challenges haven’t yet figured a way to eliminate cheating.
Overall
Virgin Health Miles is an excellent program that employers and employees use as an incentive to help lead a healthier lifestyle. Over the past few years, the program has been an enjoyable way to track my progress in losing weight and leading a more active lifestyle. At a time when every employer seems to be offering you less benefits for more money, Virgin Health Miles is a positive and cost effective way to encourage people to become more active and more proactive in taking care of themselves.
