A pair of scientists on the Anschutz Medical Campus have developed fitness technology aimed at getting people out of their chairs.
Ray Browning and James Hill have formed Physical Activity Innovations to commercialize a device that tracks time spent in daily physical activities.
Browning is an assistant professor and director of the physical activity energetics-mechanics lab at Colorado State University, and Hill is a professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Colorado Denver and executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center.
The Fit Companion is a small Bluetooth-enabled sensor that can be mounted in any shoe. It wirelessly sends data to the user’s cellphone and tracks calories burned and progress toward fitness and weight-loss goals.
But more importantly, the Fit Companion is designed to make sure the user doesn’t sit too much.
“It’s a biofeedback device,” Browning said. “It’s not just a pedometer. Your pedometer doesn’t tell you what to do. This makes suggestions based on your goals or your physician’s goals for you. The hope is that a combination of the hardware and software can lead to the behavior changes that improve health.”
The device, expected to be commercially available in about a year, will cost about $110.
Browning and Hill worked with Edward Sazonov of Clarkson University in New York and Yves Schutz of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland on the device. They received about $500,000 in federal grants to develop the idea.
It’s a tool that Hill says will be useful in counseling patients at the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Health and Wellness Center and the Center for Human Nutrition, which will open next year.
It has been long believed that a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity five or more days a week is the minimum to maintain optimum health. But research increasingly suggests that prolonged sitting can be hazardous to your health. Several studies have linked sitting to heart attacks, Type 2 diabetes and obesity — even if a person gets regular exercise.
“You should be up and out of your office chair at least once or twice an hour for a short period of time,” Browning said. “It doesn’t have to be very long — just a minute or two. It’s the muscle contractions that are the key thing.”
Erin Bogar, a personal trainer at The Denver Athletic Club, said the device has potential.
“Many of my clients have desk jobs and are sitting for the majority of their day,” Bogar said.
“The Fit Companion and other similar devices can play an important role in weight loss, avoidance of weight gain, and injury prevention.”
