To meet the increased demand for home workouts owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study proposes a new approach to real-time exercise posture classification based on the convolutional neural ...network (CNN) in an ensemble learning system. By utilizing MediaPipe, the proposed system extracts the joint coordinates and angles of the human body, which the CNN uses to learn the complex patterns of various exercises. Additionally, this new approach enhances classification performance by combining predictions from multiple image frames using an ensemble learning method. Infinity AI's Fitness Basic Dataset is employed for validation, and the experiments demonstrate high accuracy in classifying exercises such as arm raises, squats, and overhead presses. The proposed model demonstrated its ability to effectively classify exercise postures in real time, achieving high rates in accuracy (92.12%), precision (91.62%), recall (91.64%), and F1 score (91.58%). This indicates its potential application in personalized fitness recommendations and physical therapy services, showcasing the possibility for beneficial use in these fields.
Background and Aims: Exercises and consumption of plant-based supplements are essential to prevent and control diseases. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of a four-week home workout ...plan and pomegranate supplementation on oxidative stress in overweight and obese postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: The present single-blind, quasi-experimental, and practical study was conducted on 60 overweight and obese women between 45 to 65 years with a body mass index over 25 (kg/m2) who were randomly divided into four groups. After participant dropout, 56 women were divided into four groups. The first group (n=15) took pomegranate supplements and had exercise, the second group (n=13) took the placebo and had exercise, the third group (n=14) was given the pomegranate supplement and the fourth group (n=14) was given the placebo. The intervention and placebo groups took a 225 mg capsule of pomegranate supplementation and placebo daily for four weeks, respectively. Resistance training was performed in 28 90-min training sessions for four weeks at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Results: The results of the present study indicated that exercise and supplementation significantly increase total antioxidant capacity, and decrease Malondialdehyde (MDA) (P<0/05); however, no significant effect was observed in the other groups. One-way ANOVA demonstrated that four weeks of training and supplementation significantly reduce the concentration of MDA compared to the control group (P<0.05). However, no significant difference was observed among the four groups in the total antioxidant capacity. Conclusion: Pomegranate supplementation together with a home workout plan can possibly reduce oxidative stress and prevent difficulties related to obesity.
This study investigated the factors that influence core muscle endurance, i.e., the symmetry of frontal core motion during indoor walking and cycling, the symmetry of lateral core muscle endurance, ...the symmetry of the hip abductor strength, the weekly workout time and fast walking and cycling speeds, while controlling for gender. Seventy-nine healthy young adults participated in this study. In a regression analysis, the core muscle endurance time was the dependent variable. The independent variables were the symmetry of frontal core motion (measured using a wireless earbud sensor during walking and cycling), the symmetry of side plank time and of hip abductor strength, the weekly workout time and fast walking and cycling speeds. In the multiple regression analysis, weekly workout time, fast walking speed, symmetry of frontal core motion during fast cycling and symmetry of lateral side plank time predicted core muscle endurance (adjusted R2 = 0.42). Thus, clinicians and fitness personnel should consider the association of core muscle endurance with the symmetry of frontal core motion during cycling and the symmetry of side plank holding time, as well as with the weekly workout time and a fast walking speed, when designing core muscle exercise programmes.
Depression is a severe illness that has accelerated with the spread of COVID-19 and associated lockdowns. As a result, reported physical activity has substantially decreased, further increasing ...depressive symptoms.
This study aims to explain the use of gamification principles to develop content for an interactive physical activity game for depression based on clinically proven depression diagnostic criteria.
We discuss related work in this field, the game design framework, the users' depression severity, how we customize the contents accordingly, the gradual progression of the game to match exercise principles, and user flow optimization.
We provide a brief description of each of the games developed, including instructions on how to play and design aspects for flow, audio, and visual feedback methods. Exergames (interactive physical activity-based games) stimulate certain physical fitness factors such as improving reaction time, endurance, cardiovascular fitness, and flexibility. In addition, the game difficulty progresses based on various factors, such as the user's performance for successful completion, reaction time, movement speed, and stimulated larger joint range of motions. Cognitive aspects are included, as the user has to memorize particular movement sequences.
Mental health issues are linked to behavior and movement; therefore, future physical activity-based interactive games may provide excellent stimulation for inducing user flow, while physical activity can help train various physical fitness factors linked to depression.
Health authorities have recommended the use of digital tools for home workouts to stay active and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, a machine learning approach is proposed to ...assess the activity of users on a home workout platform. Keep is a home workout application dedicated to providing one-stop exercise solutions such as fitness teaching, cycling, running, yoga, and fitness diet guidance. We used a data crawler to collect the total training set data of 7734 Keep users and compared four supervised learning algorithms: support vector machine, k-nearest neighbor, random forest, and logistic regression. The receiver operating curve analysis indicated that the overall discrimination verification power of random forest was better than that of the other three models. The random forest model was used to classify 850 test samples, and a correct rate of 88% was obtained. This approach can predict the continuous usage of users after installing the home workout application. We considered 18 variables on Keep that were expected to affect the determination of continuous participation. Keep certification is the most important variable that affected the results of this study. Keep certification refers to someone who has verified their identity information and can, therefore, obtain the Keep certification logo. The results show that the platform still needs to be improved in terms of real identity privacy information and other aspects.
Background: This study assessed Korean residents’ health improvements by reducing chronic disease morbidity through customized health management. After identifying each participant’s strength and ...health through physical examinations and blood pressure tests, the effects of 24 weeks of online, non-face-to-face home workouts on body composition, physical fitness, cardiovascular function, and blood profiles in Korean adults with pre-metabolic syndrome were determined. Methods: Adults living in Chungcheongbuk-do, aged 19−65, and at the pre-metabolic syndrome stage were recruited at the Jeungpyeong-gun Public Health Center, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea. For 24 weeks, from February 2022 to July 2022, they exercised for 60−70 min, three times a week, on average, at a maximum heart rate of 60−70%. The “Mobile Healthcare” application was used to record exercise time, number of exercises, number of sets, and Rating of Perceived Exertion at the end of each exercise. Body composition, physical fitness, cardiovascular function, and blood profiles were measured before and after participation. Results: There were no significant differences in weight, body mass index, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, resting heart rate levels, or glucose levels after participation in the workout (p > 0.05). However, muscle strength/handgrip strength, sitting-rising test results, single-leg balance, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, and total cholesterol showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Although the 24 weeks of non-face-to-face home workouts did not positively affect body composition or cardiovascular function, it improved physical fitness and dyslipidemia.
University students frequently show high levels of physical inactivity as well as a sedentary lifestyle. This fact has been increased after the recent health crisis caused by the COVID-19. Physical ...exercise, as part of the programs of the Healthy Universities, could be a strategy to face this problem. The purpose of this pilot study was to analyze the effects of an exercise program on the level of physical activity, mental health, and body composition in sedentary university students. A longitudinal study with repeated measures was designed. 14 students were evaluated at three different moments: at the beginning of the exercise program, after program completion, and two weeks after the end of the program. The followings instruments were used: International Physical Activity Questionnaire (level of physical activity), DASS-21 questionnaire (level of stress, depression, and anxiety), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Questionnaire (quality of sleep), a body tape measure (perimeters), and a body composition monitor (weight, BMI, % fat mass and % muscle mass). After five weeks of intervention and two weeks post-intervention, the levels of physical activity, mental health and quality of sleep were improved (p < 0.05). Regarding body composition, muscle mass was the only variable that improved after five weeks of exercise program (p = 0.04). The results of the present study showed that the actions of universities based on healthy training programs improve the level of physical activity, mental health, and body composition of university students.
La inactividad física y sedentarismo se encuentran presentes en un alto porcentaje de los estudiantes universitarios, hecho que se ha visto acentuado tras la crisis sanitaria vivida recientemente a causa de la COVID-19. El ejercicio físico como parte de los programas de las Universidades Saludables se presenta como una posible estrategia para afrontar esta problemática. El objetivo de este estudio piloto fue analizar los efectos de un programa de entrenamiento sobre el nivel de actividad física (AF), salud mental y composición corporal en estudiantes universitarios sedentarios. Se diseñó un estudio longitudinal de medidas repetidas. 14 estudiantes fueron evaluados en tres momentos temporales: al iniciar el programa de entrenamiento, tras su finalización y dos semanas tras la finalización del programa. Los diferentes instrumentos utilizados fueron los siguientes: Cuestionario Internacional de Actividad Física (nivel de AF), cuestionario DASS-21 (nivel de estrés, depresión y ansiedad) y Cuestionario Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (calidad del sueño) cinta métrica corporal (perímetros) y bioimpedancia (peso, IMC, % masa grasa y % masa muscular). Tras cinco semanas de entrenamiento y dos semanas post-entrenamiento se observaron mejoras significativas en el nivel de AF, salud mental y calidad del sueño de los participantes (p < ,05). La masa muscular fue la única variable relacionada con la composición corporal que mejoró significativamente tras cinco semanas de ejercicio físico supervisado (p = ,04). Los resultados del presente estudio demostraron que las acciones de las universidades basadas en programas de entrenamiento saludables mejoran el nivel de AF, la salud mental y la composición corporal de los estudiantes universitarios.
In this paper, we present an intelligent interaction system capable of autonomous mobility for at-home workouts. Whereas the current interaction systems for at-home workouts have had much difficulty ...in mobility, the presented system is able not only to assist people to work out at-home through the use of advanced deep learning technologies such as action recognition, human pose estimation, and bio-signal recognition but also to have autonomous mobility through the utilization of a mobile robot. To verify the system's feasibility with regard to intelligent interaction capable of autonomous mobility, we have conducted individual experiments for each module in the system such as mobile robot navigation, interfacing, unity contents visualization, action recognition, human pose estimation, bio-signal recognition, and human data generation.
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the safety and quality of Turkish videos about the provincial age exercise program on YouTube. Materials and Methods: On August 22, 2022, an ...internet search was made using YouTube, the popular search engine in Turkey, and the exercises recommended for the ages were evaluated. Forty YouTube videos were rated by two supervisors (physiatrists). The videos included in the study were evaluated using the Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information (DISCERN) tool and Global Quality and Services (GQS) benchmarks. In addition, video duration, likes, dislikes, number of comments, duration of the video on the internet, video power index, viewing rate and liking rates were evaluated. Results: According to the evaluation of both observers, the videos were found to be of medium to poor quality. While the average DISCERN score of the first observer was 41.3±17.5, the average of the DISCERN score of the second observer was 44.2±17.1, and according to the analysis, the intraclass correlation coefficient value was found to be 0.898 and it was seen that there was a very good agreement. There was a high level of agreement between the two observers in terms of the DISCERN score category (κ=0.683, p<0.001). Again, according to both observers, GQS average of the videos was determined as moderate-poor results and positive correlation was found between both. Conclusion: It was determined that the content of the videos on YouTube about the age exercise programs was generally inadequate or of poor quality. It has been determined that there is a need for videos that can contribute to the preparation of higher quality and informational videos based on international guidelines, and to increase public awareness about patient compliance and exercise programs.
PDF
