A History Of Excercise and Technology

This topic was particularly interesting to me. Working with technology everyday, it has become evident over the last few years that companies are truly dedicated to embracing technology and pairing that with old school exercise routines.

Exercise and obesity have always been problems in America. As we turned the page on the millenium, the problem became an epidemic as fewer children were exercising and more and more kids were growing up overweight or obese. As the rise in obesity and lack of exercise was occurring, kids, teenagers and adults alike were embracing another social norm at an unheard of rate. They were embracing technology like never before.

Technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. We are connected by cell phones, PDA's, computers and GPS technology like never before. With this rise in technology came a huge rise in video games. Many people blamed obesity and a lack of exercise on two things. One was a lack of healthy food options and the other was an overwhelming amount of stimulating activities you could participate in from the comfort of your living room.

Recently, technology has finally caught up with this huge social problem. Companies like Nintendo have invested tons of money into games such as "Wii Fit" which aims to get video gamer's off the couch and bring their heart rate up to exercise ready levels. In addition to video game companies, Nike and Apple teamed up to make the iPod and iPhone devices suitable for use during exercise. These technologies have helped to make exercise a more relevant discussion in the modern day.