Pokémon GO still fascinates thousands of people in 2021. For many players, the fitness aspect behind the app is particularly exciting. We reveal how Pokémon GO can keep you fit.
What’s happening in Pokémon GO? The AR game is already over 4 years old and yet it recorded record revenues in 2020. Millions of players worldwide are playing, and even during the coronavirus times, when being outside is restricted, Pokémon GO is incredibly popular.
One reason for this is the fitness aspect in the game. You only become really successful if you move. If you’re missing the closed gyms or your jogging meetups, you should check out Pokémon GO. The app moves thousands of people and does so very successfully.
Playing Pokémon GO outside – Even during corona times
How you can play actively: To stay fit, you can play Pokémon GO especially well on the go. Walks in the fresh air can be really effective in Pokémon GO, and the federal government even recommends such walks (via Bundesregierung.de) – at least under the circumstances decided in the respective districts.
You can actually catch Pokémon in every place. Whether deep in the forest or right in the city center. However, there are also some features that reward you for actual movement:
- Eggs only hatch if you cover a few kilometers
- Adventure Sync rewards you with a lot of items each week if you have walked 5, 25, or 50 kilometers beforehand
- Your buddy finds candies when you have walked kilometers
- Some quests require you to cover kilometers or hatch eggs (and thus also walk kilometers)
So you get numerous incentives to actively play Pokémon GO and move while doing so. If you stay active, you also catch more Pokémon. This is because each spawn point of a Pokémon is only active once per hour. If you stand still, you will quickly run out of Pokémon.
How you can play passively: Even if you’re not openly walking around with your phone in hand, Pokémon GO rewards you. This works through Adventure Sync. This feature runs even when the app is closed.
If you’re shopping and have the phone in your pocket, every step counts. So you can hatch eggs or kilometers for the Adventure Sync reward without really playing actively.
You have thus also an incentive to have Pokémon GO on your phone besides classic playing. You are rewarded for every step, even if you don’t have the phone in your hand.
That’s why playing works so well currently: Due to the corona crisis, Pokémon GO has activated numerous bonuses in the game, which have been ongoing since then. For example, general spawns have increased. So you will find Pokémon in more places. As a result, you have much more to do in the game and rarely run past places where there are hardly any Pokémon.
There are also numerous bonuses that make playing from home easier, but we’ll discuss that further down in the article.
How to combine sports and Pokémon GO: Jogging has become popular during corona times, and Pokémon GO could be an incentive for you to regularly go for your runs. Even if you have the phone in your pocket, the kilometers while jogging also count for the app.
As already mentioned above, you can jog or even bike while collecting kilometers without having the app open.
If you want to make progress even faster, you can get a Pokémon GO Plus. This gadget catches Pokémon at the press of a button, and you can also keep your phone in your pocket.
Playing Pokémon GO at home
How playing from home works: Here, it’s mainly about the bonuses that Pokémon GO activated during the corona crisis. You can do a lot of things in Pokémon GO without leaving the house:
- Remote raids work from home
- Your buddy brings you gifts so you can supply other trainers with items
- The item Incense has been improved so that you can attract a lot of Pokémon even without movement
- Through gifts from friends you receive important items
These things are mainly features where you don’t have to move. However, you still make progress in the game because of them.
How to combine sports and Pokémon GO: You can also combine sports from home with Pokémon GO. A treadmill or an exercise bike that you use in the apartment can also advance you in Pokémon GO.
Pokémon GO measures the steps and compiles the kilometers from it. If, for example, you have walked 5 kilometers on your treadmill, then you have similar progress in Pokémon GO as well.
Through sports equipment, you can also hatch eggs without having to leave home. You thus stay fit and have an incentive to exercise at home.
If you don’t have sports equipment at home, other means are also enough. Just running up and down the stairs will also earn you kilometers.
Pokémon GO as motivation – This works really well
I have been fascinated by Pokémon GO since its release in 2016, and especially the movement aspect is great. There are weeks where I walk over 100 kilometers through my small town – without Pokémon GO, it certainly wouldn’t be nearly as much.
Especially now during the corona times, the game motivates me. Gyms are closed, and my only exercise during the day is usually my round with Pokémon GO. I keep noticing that without the app, I probably wouldn’t have gone outside at all. For me, it’s still important to take the corona restrictions seriously. I no longer leave the house without a mask, and if I don’t play alone, I have at most one fellow player. However, that has been working smoothly since the beginning of the year, and the sporting motivation is huge thanks to Pokémon GO – if the app had existed during my sports graduation, I certainly would have finished better.
Noah Struthoff
Editor at MeinMMO
So if you are looking for motivation to exercise, you should check out Pokémon GO. Do apps or games like Pokémon GO help you get more exercise and sport? Let us know in the comments!
But always remember to observe the curfew when playing outside. Otherwise, you may end up like an English trainer:
Pokémon GO: Trainer does not abide by the curfew – police imposes fine
