3 Technologies that Can Actually Keep You Physically Active
Technological improvements have markedly decreased the amount of physical work required as part of your daily life. In fact, the last two generations of digital age advancements have just about eliminated any physical activities. Systematically displacing the need for a physically active lifestyle is the cause of many chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes – but it’s possible to use the same technology to reverse the trend!
The alternative approach involves using technology to increase physical activity. Tech like video games, pedometers, and mobile phone apps can be used to increase the amount of energy you spend in a day. Here are three practical ideas for implementing technology to help increase your daily physical activity levels.
Pedometers and Activity Trackers
Also called an accelerometer, an activity tracker is an instrument generally worn on your limbs for measuring intensity, frequency, and duration of your physical activity. The measurement is achieved by quantifying the deceleration and acceleration of the body. The values gathered by these gadgets are recorded and downloaded to computers for analysis and interpretation.
The biggest advantages of using activity trackers are that they are lightweight, small, and non-cumbersome. In addition, the data on your physical activity is recorded over periods of time that range from within several days to weeks. Unfortunately, the technology will cost you, while the hardware and software required for data analysis is another expense to be considered.
Active Video Games
Increasingly, children and adults are spending more time sedentary and focusing on screen-based activities like watching TV, the Internet, using computers, and playing video games. Such activities are possibly displacing more active and healthy behaviors. They have been linked to such health issues like cardiovascular disease, obesity, and hypertension.
Frankly, efforts made to reduce screen-time are largely unsuccessful because people prefer these activities and don’t want to give up on them. This has led to a novel and effective intervention based on screen-based technology as a part of the solution to physical inactivity. Active video games are making it possible for physical interaction via whole-body, leg, or arm movements in various activities like walking, tennis, soccer, skiing, and boxing.
Some of the most popular active video games include Dance Revolution, Wii Fit, Xerbike, Eye Toy and Nintendo Wii. Such games can be used to increase your daily energy expenditure levels, improving and maintaining your cardio fitness. Plus, your children will benefit from improved body composition, while Wii Fit video games safely improve balance in older adults.
Smartphones
Mobile phone technology has dramatically changed over the last few years. From a simple call-and-text device, your phone has evolved to become a sophisticated minicomputer known as a smartphone. In fact, mobile phones are now more prevalent than Internet access or computers around the world!
Smartphones are also the most rapidly growing subset of the global mobile phone market. Plus, the number of apps available for smartphones has dramatically grown with more than 500 million people using health and fitness related apps. Considering that you spend about 80 minutes a day using smartphone apps, it’s time you use them for promoting healthy behavior changes like increased physical activity.
However, one word of caution when it comes to using health and fitness related mobile phone apps. Unsurprisingly, the content in many applications does not always adhere to evidence-based guidelines as required by leading health bodies. In other words, it is critical that you do your research before using an application to be sure that the content is valid and in alignment with set best practices, if that’s not the case, you can seek legal redress through attorneys like Brett McCandlis Brown.
We hope you found this promoted post as entertaining and informative as we did!
