Gamifying Fitness: How CultFit’s Cult Ninja Keeps the Users Motivated.


What truly drives people to stay active or be consistent with their workouts? The progress they can see and the recognition they can feel.

Cult Ninja taps into this powerful insight, transforming fitness into a journey of celebration, milestones, and community pride.

CultFit’s product team has recognized this problem and introduced- Cult’s Ninja program, which has turned it into an engaging and rewarding experience for their customer(users). By gamifying progress and celebrating achievements, Cult Ninja has inspired members to stay consistent, creating a fitness routine across its community.

The product manager and the team are featured as one of Upraised's top 50 Game Changers in 2024.

The Problem: Consistency in Building Fitness Habits

For many, the biggest challenge in fitness is staying consistent. Cult’s product management team has identified two key issues:

  • Lack of Tangible Progress: Members struggled to see incremental progress, which often led to disengagement.
  • Limited Motivation: Without recognition for their efforts, members found it harder to stay committed to their fitness journeys.

Cult’s product team recognized the need for a solution that not only encouraged consistency but also tangibly celebrated progress.

The Solution: Cult Ninja—Gamified Progress and Community Celebration

Cult Ninja is a program designed to motivate members to build lasting fitness habits through gamification and community-driven recognition.

How Cult Ninja Works

  1. Gamified Progress
  • Members track their weekly activity on the Cult app, striving to achieve the “3x4” target: 3 days of activity per week for 4 weeks.
  • Streaks and milestones make the habit-building journey exciting and rewarding, turning fitness into a game of progress.

2. Community Pride

  • Achieving the 3x4 milestone isn’t just a personal victory—it’s a community celebration.
  • Trainers lead public ceremonies at Cult centers, where achievers are honored with certificates and exclusive goodies.
  • These celebrations create a ripple effect, inspiring others in the community to join the movement and stay active.
"Cult Fit’s Cult Ninja feature gamifies fitness, rewarding users for consistency and making workouts more engaging and motivating.

Impact: Driving Habit Formation and Member Retention

The Cult Ninja program has made a measurable impact on member engagement and fitness consistency:

Increase in Fitness Habits

  • Members who participated in the program were significantly more likely to build and sustain a fitness habit, contributing to long-term retention. Cult’s product team was able to see a 12% increase in the fitness habits

Stronger Community Connections

  • Public celebrations fostered a sense of belonging and pride, motivating members to stay consistent and achieve their goals.

The Team Behind Cult Ninja

Shreeya Malpani: Head of Design, Cure.fit

Shreeya Head of Design at Cult.fit. Designed Cult Ninja Program. Upraised Game Changer.

Shreeya designed the Cult Ninja Program, a completely gamified process that celebrates users for maintaining a streak for four weeks. Users get exclusive merchandise and perks on the successful completion of streaks. While other fitness apps focus on negative reinforcement, Cult is centered around motivating users.


As a part of Upraised’s Game Changers, we're on a mission to celebrate high-impact problem solving & celebrate the individuals who brought these innovations to life.

If you're reading this, you're most likely interested in the product space. At Upraised, we help people break into Product Management and grow to Senior Product Managers (SPM) at one tenth the cost of an MBA and without quitting your job.