An interdisciplinary study conducted by researchers at Virginia Tech suggests the secret to obtaining your summertime fitness goals might not be the amount of weight you\u2019re bench pressing or how many miles you run, but generating friendly competition to keep you one step ahead of your fitness buddies.<\/p>\n
The concept of friendly competition in group exercise being explored by the researchers uses a smartwatch app that could help people in a group exercise program get \u2014and stay \u2014 more active.<\/p>\n
At the heart of the group exercise research is a Fitbit-like smartwatch and its software developed by Andrey Esakia, a Ph.D. candidate in Virginia Tech\u2019s\u00a0Department of Computer Science<\/a>\u00a0who\u00a0worked on the project to study the effects of technology in group physical activity. The work is supported by a multidisciplinary seed grant from Virginia Tech\u2019s\u00a0Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n Esakia collaborated with the\u00a0Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0College of Agriculture and Life Sciences<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0Department of Communication<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences<\/a>\u00a0to incorporate the hardware and software of the watch into an existing initiative, FitEx, from the Physical Activity Leadership Team of\u00a0Virginia Cooperative Extension<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Physical Activity Research and Community Implementation Laboratory.<\/a>\u00a0FitEx is an eight-week physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption program delivered in community settings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n