Fitness is one of them.

We are experiencing, in fact, the development of many realities and technological tools related to fitness: from apps for athletes to video games that allow exercise, from wearable and motion-sensitive devices to workout in virtual reality.

The consumers of these new digital products benefit enormously. They are people who work out, go to the gym, like to monitor their progress and check their fitness goals.

But that’s not all: the gyms themselves, by implementing more cutting-edge management software and digital products for their users, more advanced and technological fitness equipment, can benefit from this new and interesting union between fitness and technology.

The worldwide success of this trend has allowed new important investments every year for the development and expansion of services and products, within this new sector that sees fitness and technology in cooperation.

But what are fitness technologies exactly?

There are endless examples, starting from simple devices like Fitbits which help control our weight, diet, exercises, calories consumed during training and many other factors. A fitbit is very small and can be put onto clothes or worn on the wrist; it also sends the information to our personal account on the Fitbit website via wi-fi.

There are also many apps that exploit the combination of fitness and technology. Fitocracy, for example, is an app that consists in a real video game where users collect points every time they record improvements by performing the planned exercises.

When it comes to fitness video games, as well as for game consoles, we’re spoilt for choice and this shows how extremely precise technologies, combined with the ability to entertain and engage users, can motivate training.

Moreover, there are cases in which technologies and benefits of virtual reality are applied to the world of fitness, such as Keiron itself, that offers gyms the first virtual reality workout where users play, have fun, and at the same time perform a high-intensity interactive and effective training.

How much are these innovations worth?

Cb Insights estimated the value of the fitness tech startups by 2017 to $2.4 billion in funding. In 2017 alone, these startups generated investments for $585 million.

These investments were mainly made by US companies (64%), but also Asian and European ones, followed by Indian (with 7% of deals), Canadian (5%), British and Chinese (both with 3%), and German companies (2%).

Europe has a weight of 15% of total deals in the fitness sector: in addition to Germany and England, Sweden and the Netherlands are also very active in this sector. As for Italy, there are no relevant data.

In Italy?

In spite of this, there are several innovations related to fitness tech in Italy, where a good example is Technogym, a world-leader company in technologies and services for fitness and wellness.

Technogymis constantly active in the research and development of alternative solutions that combine training and health with technology, always with a special focus on the user.

In 1996, the Italian company was the first one to launch a software for managing training in the gym, this being the first of a long series of innovations including the first TV screen integrated into fitness equipment, the first training product connected to the network, the first cloud platform for connecting people and clubs in the fitness world. This latest, innovative innovation, featured in the platform MyWellness, allows everyone to play sports while using their favorite apps, set their fitness goals and carry out their training program even when they don’t have time to go to the gym.

There’s no doubt that this interesting new combination of fitness and technology is bringing about significant changes. There are high expectations, as are the standards to aim at. What can we expect in the future?

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Obesity, however, is not a simple problem: it’s a disease, and it must be addressed as such.

Youth obesity

The data on obesity among young people in Italy show an alarming trend.

Many tend to link youthful obesity to the modern lifestyle of younger people, who tend to spend too much time on the couch playing games or watching TV, although fitness video-games have evolved significantly.

Bad eating habits and a lack of constant sporting activity are certainly the main causes of youth and child obesity, but a research sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Health shows they’re not the only ones. Mothers, in fact, have a determinant role: their distorted perception makes them hardly acknowledge the pathology of their children. Many other mothers, however, tend to deny that their child eats too much, and this has a decisive impact on becoming obese. Another related aspect is the lack of initiatives for healthier diet by schools.

In any case, child obesity is a very serious problem that should be dealt with paying special attention. Lifestyle is very important in the physical and mental development of children and the role of mothers is equally important, but only the right support to the child can make them avoid a pathology that causes very serious consequences in their adult life.

The consequences of obesity

What exactly are the effects of this pathology?

First of all, obesity shortens the average life expectancy: it is a risk factor for the development of vascular diseases such as arteriosclerosis, arterial hypertension, myocardial ischemia and heart failure. It can also cause respiratory and dysmetabolic diseases such as diabetes, joint diseases such as arthrosis, and often also neoplastic diseases.

Among these, obesity can also lead to psychological consequences, from a simple sense of inadequacy to significant behavioral disorders.

How to fight obesity

This disease can be solved, with the right support and appropriate therapies. Generally speaking, there are two main ways to deal with it effectively: changing our diet, reducing the amount of daily calories and paying attention to the right intake of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, and introducing constant physical activity into our lifestyle.

Combining these two approaches obviously leads to faster and longer-lasting results.

It is obviously good to avoid a drastic diet, which can affect lean mass leading to a lowering of the basal metabolism and, as a consequence, to a reduction in the ability to burn calories. In order to avoid this effect, it’s very important to combine diet with exercise.

The role of sport

Physical activity is really necessary in tackling obesity.

People who suffer from obesity, however, very often don’t see sport as a solution to the problem. Some, in fact, don’t have the willpower to change their lifestyle while others, due to their physical condition, are unable to perform certain activities. ─ especially high-intensity training ─ due to cardiac and joint risks. As we already mentioned, however, following a low-calorie diet means a high risk of losing even lean mass. This is why a sporting activity, even a light one as jogging, can be fundamental to maintain this type of body mass.

How much sport is needed to tackle obesity?

The American College of Sports Medicine estimated that at least 250 minutes of physical activity per week are needed to properly address obesity. In this way, not only we can reduce our body weight, but we can also prevent or slow down regaining weight after the diet.

Clearly, for people with class 2 and class 3 obesity, a slightly more gradual approach is needed.

What kind of exercise is recommended?

In order to combat obesity, it’s always very important to alternate different types of physical exercise, including aerobic work, which can also be walking, anaerobic work, meaning overloads but also free-body work, and joint mobility, so static, proprioceptive and passive stretching training.

Anaerobic work, with or without weights, is very important to stimulate insulin sensitivity and avoid the loss of lean mass.

A myth we need to dispel is that aerobic work can harm the joints of obese people. When we talk about aerobic activity, in fact, we don’t only refer to running; on the contrary, simple continuous walks can be very useful, as it gets the body used to the imbibition into the cartilage, which in turn will improve hydration and give benefits to the cardiovascular system.

Playing sports gets obese people numerous advantages: not only losing weight, but also enabling all those functions that were previously compromised. In addition to increasing joint mobility and muscle tone, sport improves insulin sensitivity, cardiac and respiratory function, bone mineralization, and increases thermogenesis.

Furthermore, it increases the production of endorphins, stimulating a good mood and motivation. So there’s probably no better medicine as sport for dealing with obesity.

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But now things have changed: thanks to modern technology, video gaming, which was once the enemy of physical activity, has become its new “ally”.

A brief history of fitness video games

Fitness video games have revolutionized not only video gaming, making changes and introducing advanced technologies, but also fitness. This trend took off very slowly, but the change was irreversible and eventually led to the birth of home fitness and virtual trainers.

When did this love relationship between video games and fitness begin?

It was Nintendo, with the launch of Wii in 2006, that generated a slow and progressive boom of fitness video games. And it was Wii, which then evolved into Wii Fit, that first featured a remote control with infrared LEDs, a sensor bar and an accelerometer capable of perceiving acceleration, tilt and rotation in movement.

These modern peripheral devices allow to play and move around at the same time, having full control of both aspects, and this aroused not only curiosity, but also led to a great success of fitness video games.

In 2010, also Sony launched a motion-sensitive controller called Move, followed right after by Microsoft’s Kinect, introducing the possibility for users to play without wearing or holding any particular devices.

Technology and entertainment

So has training without going to the gym become possible, as well as daily adjusting and reach our goals and finding the right motivation to train: such features, for some, were previously missing without the video game aspect. In addition to this, thanks to the Internet and online communities made available by the various manufacturers, it has become possible to even challenge friends and confront each other.

The advent of virtual reality, then, has offered fitness video games a new and interesting feature, as it brings the player into the center of a completely new experience.

This combination of a surprisingly precise technology ─ which records, monitors and corrects errors ─ and the ability to entertain and involve users through a video game, is fascinating. And all this happens while training.

The response to this new trend has been surprisingly positive, to the point that new, intriguing fitness video games are continuously launched on the market and, if we had to choose one, we wouldn’t know which one to go for.

The growing popularity of zumba as a new fitness activity, for example, has been accompanied by the spread of themed video games, which we now find on top sales charts, such as Zumba Fitness.

Just Dance, which seemed to be the protagonist of a wave of transient success, continues to have many new users because, as well as being a fun dancing game that frees our mind, allows to burn up to 350 calories in an hour.

In 2004, fitness video games were once a gamble, or anyway nothing more than an interesting innovation introduced by technology, but today we can say that they have become an integral part of the lifestyle of many people, introducing a real revolution in the world of video games and fitness.

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The automotive sector, for instance, uses virtual reality to design safer vehicles; in architecture, it is used to build more resistant buildings; travel agencies use it to simplify the planning of stays abroad. VR can also be used in art and culture to engage people, and in fitness to stimulate workout, so making it much more fun.

It is no coincidence that even doctors and psychologists are experimenting with VR to find effective solutions to various disorders and problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and social disorders, and that’s not all: it has been proven that VR is an invaluable support tool during chemotherapy cycles.

Moreover, VR can help people with physical disabilities, so that they can rediscover certain functions of their body.

The benefits of virtual reality

The application of VR in all these fields shows the impact it can have and the benefits it can bring.

What are these benefits and why is VR so effective?

The main feature of virtual reality is the fact that it allows to experience self-presence: the user feels inside the experience, is completely immersed in it and can interact with the environment.

This is stimulated by the perceptive, cognitive and emotional processes associated with virtual experience: by involving all the senses, the virtual representation is perceived as authentic, creates a sense of existence within this environment and can alienate people from reality.

All these factors make VR a feature that can help concretely, also and above all, in different clinical pathologies, as many medicine studies have shown.

VR and autism

Researchers at the University of Texas have created a program that uses VR to support children suffering from autism and help them develop socialization skills.

After putting children in a context where very good socializing skills are required ─ such as work environments or appointments with virtual friends ─, and after monitoring brain waves with sophisticated equipment, it came out that brain areas related to the social sphere were “awakened” through the use of VR.

VR and surgery

In 2014, Doctor Shafi Ahmed of the Royal Hospital in London performed the first surgery which was streamed and is usable in virtual reality.

The event, as well as having billions of views and being much participated around the world, marked a turning point in surgery, allowing millions of people to enter the operating room. The doctor himself founded an association called Medical Realities, with the aim of changing medicine, by exploiting all the new technologies and so create an innovative and cutting-edge learning method accessible to young doctors, with a considerable reduction in costs and waste.

VR and chemotherapy

The physical and psychological effects of chemotherapy treatments can be devastating. Among various solutions to alleviate treatment disorders, the benefits of VR are being studied as well.

All the studies carried out on this subject have in common the use of the VR headset, the choice among several scenarios and the possibility to stop the treatment if it’s not tolerated. Some studies have even introduced smells into the reproduced environments.

These research studies have all led to one great result: during the chemotherapy cycle, VR reduces respiratory distress symptoms and, perhaps most importantly, makes therapy time flow faster, allowing subjects to better tolerate the therapy sessions and reducing the psychological impact.

VR as a support for the elderly

VR is also being proved as a very valuable aid tool for the elderly, especially for their balance problems that often compromise mobility.

The University of North Carolina conducted a research using VR headsets to help the elderly, and more generally people with neurodegenerative diseases, avoid falls. It seems, in fact, that VR makes possible to identify balance problems in advance.

In order to provide further proof of this, researchers created VR environments and asked patients to walk on a treadmill in front of a large screen: during the walk, the visual flow was disturbed to simulate a fall. Thanks to some sensors, researchers were able to assess people’s ability to react on time. From the collected data, researchers could understand who had difficulties in maintaining the balance, and intervene on time, which wouldn’t otherwise have been possible.

VR is making its way into our lives: we live virtual experiences in many contexts today, from the most entertaining to the most professional one.

The benefits VR brings are no longer negligible: it has the power to isolate us from reality but, at the same time, it activates all our senses and makes us plunge into a new world completely, giving us full awareness of our body and allowing us to fully interact with reality.

It’s not a mere “game” anymore.

The scientific community has noticed that and is doing everything possible to understand how to use it for greater issues.  

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