Gamified fitness for healthy living (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Physical inactivity is a significant risk factor for chronic diseases and is often associated with physical disability. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has established guidelines on the amount of physical activity individuals should engage in each week. Nevertheless, a significant portion of the population fails to meet these guidelines due to insufficient motivation. The advent of digital technologies has led to the growing popularity of gamified exercise, or exergames, which aim to sustain user engagement and enhance adherence to physical activity routines for both physical and mental well-being. OBJECTIVE In this work, we evaluate the benefits of exergames in comparison to traditional video-based upper body strength training workouts. METHODS A two-arm experiment comparing exergames and traditional video-based workouts was designed. The experiment measures the percentage maximum heart rate (%MaxHR), muscle flexion, as well as muscle strength in both groups. RESULTS Our results indicate that participants in both groups exhibited a reduction in %MaxHR, while those in the exergame group showed a modest increase in biceps strength post-training. CONCLUSIONS The improvement in biceps strength post-training may be attributed to the consistency in muscle flexion observed in the exergame group, which can potentially promote better muscle hypertrophy or endurance. These findings highlight the potential of gamified fitness programs to address the issue of physical inactivity and improve overall population fitness.