A Salford Red Devils fan has lost over three stone in weight in just a few months thanks to our new fitness app designed for sports fans and now he’s looking to tackle the London marathon.
Fan Fit is a project from the University of Salford which allows apps to be created for organisations such as sports clubs. The app contains club information, social media feeds, records walking and running to allow fans to create a friendly competition with prizes up for grabs. Salford Red Devils Rugby League Club were the first club to sign-up to be partners for the app and our fans have been competing with each other for the past few months, offering up some incredible results.
Salford Red Devils fan Russell Chesters won himself a 2019 Season Ticket via the December competition after amounting almost one million steps and losing weight as a result.
Russell Chesters said: “I was trying to get fitter anyway, then I heard about the app. It has really helped with getting me motivated. I’ve lost close to three stone since I signed up and I did just short of a million steps in a month. I’m really competitive so it has really helped me to get motivated as the competition element really helps me.
“Every fan should have it. I’m doing the London marathon later this year and this app is helping me get ready for it.”
Fellow fan Dean Midgely won the January competition after losing half-a-stone.
Dean Midgely said: “I wanted to get fit and I’m very competitive, so I thought let’s go for it. It’s really worked for me.”
In total – since the app launched – over 600 fans have downloaded and signed up totalling around 200 million steps in total. The North West, as a whole, recently came near the bottom of the league tables for health and fitness; with rates of heart disease and stroke among the highest in the country. Sports clubs in the region believe they could be doing more to combat this, as a duty of care to their fans and Fan Fit could play a huge part in that.
Dr Alex Fenton, project lead of Fan Fit, from the University of Salford Business School, said: “It’s been received really well by Salford Red Devils fans so far and it makes me really proud that a University project has made a difference to people’s lives in this way, hearing all these stories just makes it worthwhile. We will learn from this and keep improving the app to make it even more engaging and getting fans to think a bit more about their fitness.”
As well as the fitness tracker, step leagues and digital badges, the app provides video, social and news feeds so fans can keep in touch with the latest club news while keeping fit at the same time.
Director of Rugby and Operations, Ian Blease, said: “It is great that so many fans have signed up this app and are doing such a huge amount of exercise. Congratulations to all the winners so far. A lot of fans from all clubs and sports just come to matches, maybe after being in the pub, and watch athletes run around the pitch without doing any exercise themselves.
“At Salford Red Devils, we want to try to change that and this could be one great way of doing just that. If we can get more fans to become more active thanks to this app then it will be worthwhile.”
Salford Red Devils are encouraging our fans to get involved. All that is needed is a smartphone, either Android or iOS.
You can download Salford Red Devils Fan Fit now on Android or iPhone by clicking HERE.
Any other Club that wants to sign-up to Fan Fit and help their supporters shed a few pounds should contact Dr Alex Fenton at a.fenton@salford.ac.uk.
Watch the video from the Salford University Takeover Day below:
