Wearable tech, the key
to boosting incidental
exercise
The way we were…
Fifteen years ago, back in 2002, Network magazine’s editor, Justine
Northcott, signed off on her final issue after five years at the helm,
handing the reigns to the brilliant Analee Matthews.
“The fitness industry has proved a fantastic world to work in” Justine
wrote, “I suspect there will be few other times in my career that I will
have the oppor tunity to be among such a group of friendly, exuberant
people”.
Elsewhere, group exercise innovators Greg Sellar and Michael Steel
shared an idea for keeping step classes fresh:
“Want to keep your step class numbers alive and kicking? Why not
try adding an extra dimension – the 2-way face off! Start off the class
as you normally would, by teaching your choreography routine, and
then halfway through the class ask your participants to find a partner
and run through the same routine they have just learnt, but this time
sharing a single step.”
1 thing I’ve learnt
Tarek Chouja, Co-Director and Head of Global Strategy
for FTI, functionaltraininginstitute.com
“One thing I’ve learnt is to harness the power
of networking. There is real magic in simply
mingling and connecting with people. You never
know who you will come across. The person
you make the effort to introduce yourself to at
an event may transform your business, and even
change the course of your life.
The key is to be open and willing to take
the initiative to make things happen – not just
wait for them to happen to you. As a business
owner for 10 years, my company, Functional
Training Institute, has been built on the ability
to network effectively and to follow up on the
connections that I have made. One last vital
ingredient is persistence. Never give up on
something that may at first appear dead and
buried. Keep contacting those once-promising
connections, and in time they may well deliver
for you.”
Our promise to our clients and
members is that we will guide, support
and motivate them through their health
and fitness journeys. The difficulty in
delivering on this promise is that we
may only see them for an hour or two
each week. So, the $64,000 question
is, what do we do about the remaining
166+ hours of the week when we don’t
see them?
The answer lies in convincing them of the incredible benefits
of incidental activity – exercise that they won’t even realise they
are doing. The effects of every small act of movement performed
throughout the day accumulate, and result in increased energy
expenditure. This is not about attending a training session,
going for a run or playing sport, but about choosing to be active
whenever possible instead of taking the easy, sedentary option.
Take the stairs not the lift. Park five minutes further from your
workplace. Walk around the office to ask colleagues simple
questions rather than emailing or phoning them.
For clients and members to truly realise the power of
incidental exercise, however, it needs to be measurable. In
case you hadn’t noticed, that’s very easily done these days. As
well as tracking daily activity levels and providing immediate
feedback to the wearer, data gathered by wearable technology
can often be automatically shared with a personal trainer,
thereby enabling the PT to monitor their client and offer advice
and encouragement accordingly.
While some wearable technology is designed specifically for
use during exercise, when it comes to gauging the exertions of
incidental activity, wrist-worn devices are probably the more
practical option, as clients can wear them all day without even
thinking about it. We’re talking smart watches like the Apple
Watch, Fitbit, Samsung Gear Fit, Moto 360 and wearables like
Jawbone and MisFit, all of which download daily activity to your
phone.
These devices can record incidental exercise, and set daily
activity goals based on recommendations from leading health
organisations. The five activity areas monitored and recorded
by Apple Watch, for example, are steps taken, kilojoules burned,
distance moved, floors climbed and time spent standing.
Throughout the day the wearable provides progress updates
until the goals in each area are achieved.
The irony of all this, of course, is that technology is largely
responsible for the huge reduction in incidental exercise in our
daily lives, resulting in the high incidence of sedentary lifestyle
diseases, such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease,
diabetes and obesity. But just because it contributed to the
problem doesn’t mean technology can’t also be part of the
solution.
Nigel Champion, Executive Director
[email protected]
NETWORK SPRING 2017 | 9