JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Strength training (ST) is a popular form of exercise that uses external weights or other forms of resistance to build muscle strength, endurance, and hypertrophy, both as a recreational activity and for recovery and rehabilitation. It also improves other aspects of health, including cardiovascular, psychological, and metabolic outcomes, in addition to functional ones. However, achieving such outcomes requires sustained participation and diligent adherence, which remains a challenge.

Objective:

This review explores literature from 2015 to 2025 on technologies and applications that aim to enhance ST through gamification, categorising them into gamification interventions for health and fitness, as well as for rehabilitation.

Methods:

We make use of PubMed and Scopus databases to search for the relevant articles between 2015 through 2025 to the theme “Devices and/or software that gamifies strength or resistance training”. Three reviewers firstly screen them by title and abstract, and then by the full text for eligibility, eliminating articles that did not meet the criteria.

Results:

This review explores on technologies and applications that aim to enhance ST through gamification, categorising them into gamification interventions for health and fitness, as well as for rehabilitation. Health and fitness interventions primarily focus on making ST more engaging and enjoyable, motivating users to continue playing and thereby encouraging continued participation in ST. Rehabilitative interventions focus on physically and mentally supporting users in performing rehabilitative ST that may aid recovery through relevant gameplay and feedback.

Conclusions:

This review serves as a comprehensive resource for clinicians, researchers, and developers. Five design recommendations were provided to those seeking to develop gamified ST interventions and related tools that support sustained participation and adherence to ST exercises.