Health and Fitness Technology

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HE irony, in this brave new world where we can sequence the human genome or take a tourist trip into space, is that more of us will die from “lifestyle” diseases than any other cause of death. Diseases such as cardiovascular illness, cancer, obesity or diabetes, which stem in large part from the way we choose to live, are by far the biggest killers in the modern world. Not only are we literally eating, smoking and drinking ourselves to an early grave, but we have virtually ceased all forms of physical activities. Our sedentary lifestyles now constitute a global health crisis. The World Health Organisation reckons 2m people die each year through physical inactivity. So, how do you shape up? Are you getting your 30 minutes of exercise, five times a week—or are you one of the 3.9 billion people (out of the planet’s 6.3 billion) who prefer exercising the remote Shape up The trick is to find the combination of training gear that is both effective and fun—and keeps you at it Ray Algar control? It is a bleak picture. But a healthy dose of new-fan- gled technology and some old-fashioned willpower could yet save the day. To do so, however, exercise machines will need to become far more intelligent, intuitive and inspiring than the last generation. Fighting the family flab Meet a fictitious family called the Kaplinskis. Dan is 39 years of age and a partner in a financial services firm. Sabrina is 37 years old and juggles her time between her job as a communications consultant and ferrying Theo (12 years) and Grace (ten years) between school and an Wellbeing Feature/ Intelligent Life Summer 2006 142 t WELLBEING.indd 142 28/4/06 16:12:05

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Transcript of Health and Fitness Technology

HE irony, in this brave new world where we can sequence the human genome or take a tourist trip into space, is that more of us will die from “lifestyle” diseases than any other cause of death.

Diseases such as cardiovascular illness, cancer, obesity or diabetes, which stem in large part from the way we choose to live, are by far the biggest killers in the modern world. Not only are we literally eating, smoking and drinking ourselves to an early grave, but we have virtually ceased all forms of physical activities.

Our sedentary lifestyles now constitute a global health crisis. The World Health Organisation reckons 2m people die each year through physical inactivity. So, how do you shape up? Are you getting your 30 minutes of exercise, five times a week—or are you one of the 3.9 billion people (out of the planet’s 6.3 billion) who prefer exercising the remote

Shape upThe trick is to find the combination of training gear that is both effective and fun—and keeps you at it Ray Algar

control? It is a bleak picture. But a healthy dose of new-fan-gled technology and some old-fashioned willpower could yet save the day. To do so, however, exercise machines will need to become far more intelligent, intuitive and inspiring than the last generation.

Fighting the family flabMeet a fictitious family called the Kaplinskis. Dan is 39 years of age and a partner in a financial services firm. Sabrina is 37 years old and juggles her time between her job as a communications consultant and ferrying Theo (12 years) and Grace (ten years) between school and an

Wellbeing Feature/Intelligent Life Summer 2006 142

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be effective and entertaining. Sabrina’s first purchase was a bodybugg, a nifty armband that captures every body movement throughout the day. Unlike a simple pedom-eter or step-meter, this uses four sensors to calculate daily calorie expenditure at rest and during exercise.

She then uses the online food log to know precisely what her daily energy balance looks like. Gym staff had previously told her that strength (resistance) training helps to mitigate the onset of osteoporosis. So, she bought one of the first Numo multi-gyms for use at home. Numo uses compressed air for resistance, obviating the need for an old-fashioned stack of weights. Air-resistance machines are silent, smooth and the resistance they offer can be in-creased in very small increments. Workouts are stored on a small digital memory card, for uploading to a pc.

Lessons from spaceSabrina has also been trying the new Power-Plate train-ing machines that use advanced vibration technology at a personal training studio. Vibration-training produces up to 50 muscle contractions per second, allowing compact 15-minute workouts. The technology was first used in the Russian space programme to offset the adverse effects of long-term weightlessness on cosmonauts. Dan has been on a bi-weekly vibration-training regime at his new health

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array of pre-teen activities. Neither Dan nor Sabrina are in good shape. Dan leads a frenetic but sedentary life-style, interspersed with an occasional bout of tennis. He is overweight, getting heavier and suffers from intermittent lower back pain.

Sabrina is more active, but tends to walk rather than do any structured form of physical activity. Sabrina is near her ideal weight, but feels constantly lethargic. Theo and Grace are the most active family members, but are not at their ideal body weight, as they spend too long in front of television and have a typical fast-food diet.

Six months ago, the Kaplinskis were encouraged to see if technology and a new activity regime could help them take control of their health and wellbeing. Dan consulted his doctor about re-starting an exercise regime. The doctor works closely with a health club using the FitLinxx physi-cal activity management system that allows him to log on securely to view and comment on Dan’s progress. FitLinxx performs like a personal trainer and connects directly to gym equipment, where it quickly “learns” Dan’s exercise programme and then provides instructional guidance via touch-screen displays. Every exercise repetition is stored and tracked over time.

One of the new devices that Dan’s instructors used during his initial induction was the BodyGem, a small hand-held device that accurately measures your resting metabolic rate and calculates the number of calories the body metabolises throughout the day.

In Dan’s case, this was 1,832 calories. Weight manage-ment is all about balancing the body’s “energy in” versus its “energy out” equation. Devices such as BodyGem re-move the guesswork. The staff at the club have put Dan on a “fat-burning” cardiovascular regime, using a Polar f55 wireless monitor to help maintain his heart rate within the optimum training zone.

Sabrina decided that a home gym was a better solu-tion. Her only requirement was that the equipment should

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club for the past few months, and has noticed less back pain. He is now thinking of buying the new Personal Power-Plate machine for use at home.

What about the children? Sabrina knew that a small wearable gadget would grab her son’s attention, and bought a Garmin global-positioning-system pedometer watch. Theo now tells friends that he walks to school while guided by 24 satellites. The new Garmin Forerunner 305 makes a family walk or cycle in the woods far more compelling. Theo can set the family an unknown course from the car park and then follow the on-screen “bread crumb” trail to get them all safely back.

At home, Theo and Grace upload the course information into MotionBased, a web-based tool for managing your activity. Every walk, cycle or run gets sent to MotionBased, which acts as a motivator—because everyone can see that what once took the family 90 minutes to complete is now being done in 79 minutes. Other MotionBased service us-ers share details on newly discovered courses, helping to

create a rich repository of trails and routes for others to explore. This is a useful feature if you find yourself in an unfamiliar city and want to go for a jog.

Another activity that appeals to children is kinaesthet-ics, a rapidly developing field that integrates video games with exercise. Schools have started to embrace kinaesthetic games as a way of encouraging kids to exercise more than just their thumbs.

The Kaplinskis have the Kilowatt device from Powergrid Fitness, which plugs into their Sony PlayStation. The body movements control any of the numerous compatible games, via the force-sensitive controller. In the Kaplinskis’ home, you may hear Sabrina shouting up the stairs: “Theo, get back on your PlayStation—you haven’t been on it long enough!”

More pleasure, less painWhether digital, mechanical or hydraulic, technology has changed the way we exercise enormously over the past 30 years—and will continue to influence the design of exercise equipment for decades to come. The challenge is to find an enduring way of integrating the technology into our busy lives. What will you enjoy, and continue to use, 12 months of the year rather than relegate to the garage?

If high-tech is not for you, then the low-tech option is the way to go. Buy the most comfortable pair of trainers you can afford, clip on a basic pedometer and start walk-ing to work and the shops. The world would be a much healthier place if all of us just started moving around on our own feet again. IL

TRAINING FitLinxx technology is at www.fitlinxx.com | Information on the BodyGem is at www.healthetech.com | Polar (www.polar.fi) makes heart-rate monitors | The bodybugg is at www.bodybugg.com | The Numo multi-gym (www.rqriley.com/numo.htm) will launch at the end of 2006 | Power-Plate training machines are at www.power-plate.us | Visit www.garmin.com to view its products | Track your activity at www.motionbased.com | For more on the Kilowatt exerciser, visit www.powergridfitness.com | Oxygen Consulting is at www.oxygen-consulting.co.uk.

Bored with exercise machines? Then try the Kilowatt exerciser from Powergrid (left). This provides an isometric workout while playing a video game. The harder you push against the

controller, the faster you move the on-screen characters in that direction. The Kilowatt works with PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube

and PC. The hand-held BodyGem (above right) from HealthTech measures oxygen consumption, to determine the body’s metabolism during workouts. To do that

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The dIgITaL gym

Ray Algar is a director of Oxygen Consulting, a British firm that provides strategic insights for the leisure industry.

previously would have required a roomful of medical equipment. Strap the bodybugg (below left) on your arm and leave it there all day. Plug

it into a PC at night and it will tell you how many calories you’ve consumed and how many you’ve burned during the day. The Numo (below right) is for those who want professional-grade fitness equipment in the home, but without the bulk and expense. To keep the size and cost down, the Numo multi-gym shares a single resistance module for each of its exercise functions.

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