Nascent technology to engage our inactive population

Whether you’re a fitness buff or a little on the lazy side, every single person has wished that maintaining their fitness could be easier. If you are not yet in the swing of a fitness routine, driving to the gym and getting sweaty hardly sounds fun; heck, even getting off the couch can be unappealing.

Those initial steps and all the time and effort that goes into them are usually the barriers, or excuses, that cause most unfit people to stay unfit. But, what if barrier-free fitness solutions were on the horizon; the answer to your prayers, where you don’t need to go to a traditional place of exercise, you can get a workout from the comfort of your home? Oh, also, you can get rewarded for working out in this way!

Yep. It’s true. Thanks to new technology, in-home fitness training is heading to market; making fitness accessible to almost everyone on the planet, without them having to leave their home, with the bonus of financial incentives.

The Sad Reality

All jokes aside, the reality is that many people sit at home sedentary and lack the motivation to work out. This leads to excess weight, which can lead to obesity; both of which can be life-threatening.

We have discussed the obesity epidemic in detail here, but there is one message that needs to be relayed time and time again until it really gets through:

You do not have to be obese to risk your life with excess weight. In 2015, 4 million people died from conditions related to excess weight. 39 per cent of those were overweight, not obese.

The World Health Organisation suggests the following level of physical activity:

Children 5–17 years

Children are advised to do a minimum of 60 minutes moderate to vigorous physical activity every day, with the suggestion that amounts greater than 60 minutes will offer additional benefits. For children to get the best benefits from their weekly physical activity, their exercise should include activity which will strengthen muscle and bone, at least three times a week.

Adults 18–64 years

As we get older the importance of physical activity increases. Adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week. Alternatively, 75 minutes of vigorous exercise will get you the same result. For additional health benefits, it is suggested that you double these amounts. Muscle-strengthening exercises should be done at least twice per week, involving major muscle groups.

Adults 65+ years

Older adults with good mobility should maintain the same exercise regime as the 18 to 64-year-olds. For those facing reduced mobility, exercise to improve balance and prevent falls is critical and should be done a minimum of three days per week.

While these suggestions are readily available and governments the globe over are promoting them, how are societies actually tracking against these guidelines? Not well…

In Australia, only 48 per cent of 18–64 year-olds met the physical activity guidelines. Meaning that 52 per cent — that’s more than half of our adult population are not getting the minimum level of exercise required to simply be at a standard level of health. When it comes to strength based activity guidelines, only 24 per cent of adults meet the standard.

The results for children 2–17 years are far worse, with only 30 per cent of children meeting the guidelines. Leaving 70 per cent of our kids at risk of health risks due to inactivity.

Government and Industry to the Rescue

It’s fair to say that the majority of government bodies, healthcare providers and society as a whole want to find a way to motivate these individuals.

The most common initiatives found from government bodies the world over is the simple listing of these guidelines; how much exercise, fruit and veg, and sleep are required to be healthy. This is often coupled with an ad campaign: “Have you had your five serves of fruit/vegetables today?”

What stands out is that much of the focus seems to be on the diet portion of health, rather than exercise. There are government funded initiatives, along with marketing and advertising to promote fruit and vegetables. There are efforts to work with industry to change labelling or set restrictions around the promotion of junk foods in specific locations (like on buses) so that it is not directed at kids.

But what is being done to push people to exercise?

Encouragingly, workplaces across the world are increasingly more concerned with the physical health of their employees. Thanks to more information coming out linking physical activity to improved mental health, alertness and energy, it is more and more common that an employment package will include a gym membership, as well as company-wide fitness activities. For more modern companies, it is likely they will have gone as far as building the gym on site.

Sadly, though, these workplace initiatives only benefit those in the corporate industries; leaving out a significant segment of our global population.

Engaging the Untouched

If the consistent increase in the global obesity and overweight rates show us anything, it is that merely telling people how much physical activity they need to be healthy is not enough to motivate them to do it. Remember that we now live in a society where more than half of us are failing to meet these minimum standards to achieve an average level of health. If you’re on the overweight side, it is easy for you to look around and see more than half of your peers there with you. They aren’t taking their health seriously, so why should you?

It’s a good question. With advancements in medicine promising to cure whatever damage we do to ourselves, and half of our peers acting as role models for bad choices, why would anyone choose the discomfort of changing their inactive lifestyle? Presenting alarming statistics and hoping for logic to prevail has not, and will not, work.

So what, then?

We need to accept that the world has changed. Everything today is about the consumer. Experience enhancements have been applied across all industries and facets of life, making the average person expect that everything is meant to be easy; and if your solution or offering is not, they will find something or someone else promising the easier path. Hence, engaging the inactive requires you to present physical activity solutions in such a way that it seems as simple as stepping your feet onto the floor from your previously reclined position on the couch.

While most government, industry and community initiatives are positive and well-intentioned, many do not appeal to those at the very beginning of their fitness journey; those who are overweight, obese, or simply just lacking the energy or motivation to move from the couch. These people need something so effortless to participate in that it is literally as easy as rolling off the sofa and turning on the TV or Xbox.

Technology to the Rescue

Unsurprisingly, nascent technologies is going to be the knight in shining armour to whisk away our “expanding” population and lead them on a path to fitness, where they can regain control of their health.

Using Machine Learning, AI and devices in the home, we can create virtual gyms or personal trainers. Making these services accessible and easy to jump into, without having to leave the house.

Solutions leveraging this new technology are not a thing of the future. They are already here, but in their infancy.

One such example uses the camera on smartphones or a webcam for tracking real-time human positioning.

What the heck does that mean?

It means that technology now exists which can detect human figures in real-time using either a single-pose or multi-pose algorithm. This is open to anyone with a decent mobile camera/webcam. The algorithm estimates where key body joints are so that it can “see” your posture and, if applied to the right fitness solutions, could indicate if you are doing poses correctly and potentially even correct you.

Imagine this…

You’re laying on the sofa and have a momentary thought that you should exercise…

Traditionally, this thought would have been followed by the thought of having to leave the house and go somewhere to do some activity from a gym to just running outside. Historically, it would have only taken a second to conclude that it’s too much effort and the couch is more alluring.

Today, when people have the split second of motivation, all of the annoyances of leaving your house — the usual excuses for not training — are no longer there. Users could simply move from horizontal to vertical, switch on the webcam, run the PUML app to show a video of a personal trainer on one side of their screen and a real time video of themselves using PUML tech on the other side, to show that they are doing it right. On top of this an AI audio layer could be added that could talk back to the user directing them to bend a little to the right, left, etc…

The release of open source technology means that developers can now begin developing programs to guide users in their poses and workouts; helping to teach them how to move correctly. This technology can make it safer for people to take up their own in-home exercise program, without risk of bad posture which could lead to injury.

Fitness of the future

Technology opens up an opportunity for us to engage an untouched part of society. A segment of our population who have been suffering from weight issues, motivation issues or psychological issues, making traditional exercise options less viable or appealing.

But, of course, available technology is just one part of the puzzle.

As we know, motivating people to move is not as simple as giving them access to all the greatest tools on the planet. Sometimes people need incentivisation and sadly, their own health is not always the incentive that will move them.

Nascent technology + Incentivisation = The ability to connect with a forgotten portion of our community to help change their behaviours and lead them to healthier lifestyles. Incentivisation is the critical step to successfully engaging the previously uninterested to take action on their fitness.

Blockchain technology has allowed us to create a solution that rewards users for their efforts in the form of tokens, which are offered by a multitude of interested parties who want to verify that they have done the agreed activity.

Fitness data is a valuable commodity in today’s world, and we at PUML are working to empower the users — both the already active, and those working to get back to health — to control their fitness data and take a stake in the financial rewards that interested parties are ready and willing to pay.

When companies are already paying for this data, why not use these financial rewards to incentivise users to become more active?

If users have not previously been motivated by the promise of their own good health, perhaps financial rewards can be the missing link to garner real cut through in the fight against poor health that comes from the sedentary lives of the modern age.

We believe that rewards for people adopting healthier lifestyles will be a powerful force in helping to tackle obesity worldwide. PUML paves the way for this approach by keeping a secure health and fitness record for users, along with access to workouts, which integrates multiple fitness data sources and can be shared for financial rewards from interested parties.

Join us on Telegram, visit our blog, or visit our website to learn more about the PUML app and how we are helping to power the sweat economy; while fighting inactivity, obesity and being overweight with technology, rewards and good old-fashioned physical activity.