Motivating consumers to engage in fitness activities may have little to do with buying a wearable or tracker, as researchers at Clarkson University released a study on May 23, 2016 showing students did not take more steps after being told their fitness would be recorded, versus days in which they did not believe their steps were being tracked.
These results indicate that fitness trackers provide little incentive to ramp personal fitness efforts.
Clarkson University Associate Professor of Physical Therapy & Physician Assistant Studies Ali Boolani and Oklahoma State University AssociateProfessor of Physical Education Timothy Baghurst set out to see how aspiring physical educators might change their physical activity levels when they know they’re being monitored.
For this Oklahoma State University-based study, a group of 36 physical education students were given a monitor, telling them it would measure the amount of sunlight they received each day. Later, they received another monitor to count their steps. Both monitors in fact tracked steps, however researchers were expecting participants to push farther after knowing their steps were being recorded.
“Students in the study took 11,000 or 12,000 steps a day, which isn’t much above the minimum, and their activity didn’t change with the monitoring,” noted Boolani. “We expected them to model good fitness, but now we wonder what we can do to get people to be more physically active.”
The study may highlight the need for emphasizing good health as a result of activity and boosted fitness, as opposed to a number on a wearable. “”This shows you, don’t rely on an exercise monitor as your motivation,” Boolani added.
