What Does “Strava Worthy” Even Mean?

As an everyday athlete, I do a lot of activities. Of course, I swim, bike and run. Did you know that I also dance? Foolish question, but we do have a dance class every month that gets recorded. I also walk as well as do strength training. Each of these activities is contributing to my overall fitness and health. Why are these things falling into the gatekeeping catetory on Strava?

Every Activity Builds Fitness

One thing about these activities that I never considered was whether or not they were Strava worthy. This was never a thing that crossed my mind because if it is an activity that I want to upload to Strava, an app that tracks activity, then I’m going to do that. But today, that question did cross my mind.

Then I saw a post by Maryna on Threads. It made me think about this concept of Strava worthy (insert Seinfeld joke here….if you don’t get it click here). Yes, I can get into the idea of gatekeeping because I have seen comments about stop uploading your dog walk. Before I do that, let’s talk about the devices we are using to track our movement.

The Devices Are All Saying The Same Thing

Oura Ring is the first device that came to mind when I read Maryna’s post. Oura tracks our sleep, HRV, blood oxygen levels, respiratory rate and other data points. If that sounds familiar it is probably because you use a Garmin watch that tracks all of those things too. Use your Garmin, upload to Strava…..makes sense to me.

Whoop was the second device that came to mind. The Whoop measure HRV, resting heart rate, blood oxygen levels, skin temps and respiratory rate plus other data points. Does this also sound familiar? You just read about an Oura ring that does the same thing. Which means that Whoop measures the same data points as your Garmin watch. 

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Strava Is a Social Platform First

Garmin, Apple and Coros watches all measure these same things. They all have their own apps that you can follow the data on but they aren’t social platforms which is what Strava is. That’s right….Strava is a social app. It is not a health tracking app. People uploading their activities to Strava are looking to connect with people. They are sharing their achievements, accomplishments while also spreading the love of kudos to their connections.

I tried not to wade into the gatekeeping arena yet here I am again. Telling somebody not to upload their activity (swim, bike, run, dog walk, lawn mowing) is no different than telling somebody that they shouldn’t upload their most recent reel.

Let People Do Their Thing

It is odd behavior to police somebody else’s Strava activities especially when you can unfollow or scroll by. There is no reason to tell somebody to not do this or do that. Let the people do their thing because it makes them happy. Your standing over their shoulder is unnecessary.

And if you are still concerned about them uploading an activity, think of it this way: they are gaining fitness through this activity therefore I should thumbs up it the same way I would thumbs up their run.

After all, Strava is an app built to track activities which is what they are doing.  

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