How To Use Impact App For Walking And Goodness

This week I discovered a new app called ‘Impact’. For those who already don’t know about it, it is an Indian app for walking started in 2016. Touted as India’s first fitness-kindness app, this app focuses on two really cool things in one go – fitness and kindness.

On Facebook, we have a community by the name of our blog – Bend It Like Bamboo. For those who want to know more, all our social pages are given in the footer of this blog. You can check our Facebook and Twitter handles and contribute effectively.

In our FB community, we focus on the same things we focus on our blog, in a very practical way.

• Fitness that is simple, achievable and sustainable.
• Positivity & Mindfulness
• Personal inspirations and lessons learnt
• Concept of food beyond weight and calories

We make up weekly and bi-weekly challenges and take them head on as a group while motivating each other. The challenges are pretty simple but highly effective. What we aim to achieve through these challenges are small meaningful changes that have a huge impact on our lives.

So this week’s ongoing challenge falls under the fitness category – Workout for twenty minutes continuously for 16 days.

This workout has a lot of flexibility. You can choose your kind of workout – walking, jogging, swimming, dance, yoga, zumba, anything that works for you.

IMPACT app for walking

About couple of days after we kick-started the challenge, one of the community members posted about an app called Impact which is a social app for walking and raising money for charity. She said she was already using it, and urged our team to take a look at it. So I decided to give it a try.

I downloaded the Impact app for walking from the Google Play Store. After setting up the account, I set my walking distance to 3km everyday. It seemed sustainable.

With fitness there are no shortcuts. You have to work your way up from scratch. Sustainability is a key factor. There is no use in walking 10 km on day one and then randomly reducing it as you progress. Even if you walk for 3 kms, you have to do it regularly whether you are dependent on a app for walking or not.

How the app for walking works?

IMPACT app for walking is a community initiative that links the corporates and the NGOs. Companies choose the causes and the organisations they want to sponsor. The change makers (that is how those who walk/jog for the cause are called) raise money through various activities. NGOs benefit directly by the fund raised. This is how it works :

Key features of IMPACT App

Workouts

There are two types of workouts –

• Indoor
• Outdoor

Step Tracker

• Active step tracker where you can directly log into a cause and start contributing
• Passive step tracker where your casual steps are monitored if you carry the phone with you.

Leagues

Leagues have been designed for fun freindly competitions between contributors.

Teams

After raising fifty rupees, you are eligible to create your own team with family, friends, colleagues or others. Alternately you can also be a part of team which is already existing and start contributing. The team captain has to approve your joining initially. After that you will be able to see how many members make up that team and how much each member is contributing.

Leader board

The leaderboard exists within the team where you can over take each other through your contributions and that is updated regularly.

Hall of Fame

This is the list of top contributors who have raised a significant amount of money for various causes. These are also updated regularly.

Badges

You will be awarded badges like ‘Change maker‘ or ‘Education Hero‘ depending on your level of contribution. There are three levels for every cause contribution and you will be awarded ‘stars‘ as you touch the milestone.

Streaks

Initially when you sign up, you decide how much to walk/jog everyday. Say you set it at 3km, then the app starts tracking whether everyday you reach that 3km. If do it continuously your streak improves (like 5 day streak or 10 day streak). If you miss a day, you have to start from the beginning again.

Bend it like bamboo community

After using the app for a couple of days, here is how I recommended it for our community :

“IMPACT is an app for walking where you can walk or jog to raise money for a cause. For every km you cover, you can raise Rs.10 or Rs.5 (there is active/passive walking).

There are various levels of walking (Starting from 1km everyday to 10 km everyday).

Choose the option that you can practically reach everyday. There is nothing wrong to start with 1km and improving along the way. Remember the more you walk/the more money you will raise for charity.

It is a simple app that we can put to good use.For a large scale impact, we have created a team in that app called ‘Bend It Like Bamboo’. Join the team so that we can collectively raise money for the cause. Currently we are raising money for ‘E-learning in rural areas‘.

Here is how you should begin

1. Download the IMPACT app (for walking) from the Google Play store.
2. Fill in your basic details like name,phone number, gender,weight etc and your account will be set up.
3. Go to Teams. Press Join Team.
4. Search for ‘Bend it like Bamboo’. Click join.
5. You will be able to see our team and current members.
6. Start walking or jogging everyday. Your steps convert to money for the cause.

This app helps you reach your twin goal of fitness and kindness.

It really works people! Give it a try. If you still have doubts, comment here, so that those who are already using it can clarify your doubts.”

Why this app for walking is great?

Many of us want to make a positive impact in our society but we do not know how. This app is such a positive start.

Through this app you can make a real impact and help the lesser privileged.

You don’t have to worry if the app is legit. The app has all the necessary explanations.

Lakhs of changemakers use the app to raise money for various causes. The app has been around for the last few years and has partnered with a lot of leading companies. You can visit the webpage to know more about it, if you are still not keen.

It gives a real boost to your fitness regime.

How many times do you have the discipline to do a three km or a five km walk or run daily? So this app gives you the much needed motivation to go after your fitness goals every single day.

The good feeling of contributing to a cause is an added bonus.

If you form a team like we did, your contribution can be much higher.

For me it has made a very effective inclusion of my daily walk as a part of my fitness regime.

You don’t have to start big initially. Be honest with yourself and start at a pace that you can achieve everyday so that the daily streak is maintained. That by itself will give you a lot of confidence.

Then when you are comfortable doing the workout everyday, it is time to challenge yourself to a higher goal.

Remember even a thousand mile step has to start with the first step!

So give this IMPACT app for walking a try and let me know how it went! It is totally worth it.

Get Fit. Do Good.