Humour

Digital workouts

T A Balasubramanian on the use of technology for staying fit

Bobo Jitter, perennially stressed-out CIO at Bazooka Corporation is back for a new session with Dr Don Jong. Popularly called ‘The Oddfather,’ Dr Jong has a reputation for coming up with outrageous solutions to deal with the ups and downs of the IT highway.

“Ah, Bobo, what seems to weigh so mightily upon your back today? You look like Atlas carrying the world, if I may observe,” says Dr Jong, with a beatific smile.

“Well, Doc, my wife tells me that I need to find ways to improve my physique and my stamina. She goes for a brisk walk and does yoga each day, but you know how little time I have for such frivolous diversions,” says Bobo, nodding his head unhappily.

“Ah, maybe she is correct. So the busy man of technology, glued to his desktop all day has little time to pay attention to mundane matters of the flesh?”

“That’s right, Doc. I know the awesome benefits of exercise. It is the bit about getting to strain myself more than twice a week that’s the problem.”

“Maybe it is time, then to get the technology to do some work on your physique. Have the cake and eat it too, perhaps?”

“Uh. I do not comprehend.”

“Well, being quite of the same lazy nature as you are—when it comes to physical exertion—I have recently been introduced by my good friend, Dr Gym Tendo, to his invention, the Stay Fit videogame.”

“A videogame? You must be joking, Doc.”

“I assure you, I am not. I know for a fact that even a half hour on a machine like an elliptical cycle or a treadmill can be boring. Studies have shown that earlier games like ‘Dance Dance Revolution,’ where you move hands and feet to music, can burn calories by making you want to come back for more. So by combining exercise with the addictiveness of videogames, you have a win-win situation. Then, of course, there is the ever-present challenge of meeting your weight-loss goals, which the ruthless scale-based system excels in tracking. Stay Fit brings the gym—or rather, a digitally-drawn version of it—to your Gym-bot.”

“My what?”

“Gym-bot—your alter ego. It is the onscreen representation of you on your computer.”

“Oh, all right. A digitized image. What can I do with it?”

“I am coming to that. The original version, Mega Fit, was a videogame that featured golf, boxing, tennis, baseball and bowling. It sounded way out of reach for me—I assumed that it was for the sports fanatics, not me the lazybones. But the new version, Stay Fit, is just my cup of tea. It includes fitness training of four types—aerobics, strength training, yoga and balance games. These exercises are all fun, and I can tell you that they increase your heart rate or muscle tone while developing your balance and posture.”

“So how does it get you fit if you are in front of a computer?”

“Ah, yes, you have to get off your chair, of course. The key to all of this is the Stay Fit balance board that you stand on. It looks like a glorified kitchen vegetable chopping board, but has these weight-sensitive areas for both your feet. The idea came to Dr Tendo when he noticed sumo wrestlers on weighing themselves with two scales. Since Japanese scales go up to only about 300 pounds, two scales are needed for these hulks. While fiddling with the two-scale idea, Dr Tendo found that keeping the balance between your left and right legs is actually a physical challenge. So he called in a Japanese trainer and they came up with the game play based on exercises.”

“That sounds like fun, Doc. At Bazooka, we are used to sitting on a board and nodding off. A board meeting, that is. Standing on a board can’t be too much of hard work, though.”

“Well, don’t even think about trying to fool this board. Four sensors measure your body weight 60 times a second. It calculates not only the total pressure on each foot but also how your weight is distributed. It notes your smallest wobbles and smartly finds out all there is to know about your posture and balance.”

“Hmm. So where does the computer fit into all this?”

“This is where the motion sensors come in. Your Gym-bot on the screen is controlled by your movements on the board. Many of the activities are amusing, such as when you are heading soccer balls. Here, a mis-timed lean to one side can mean that you get socked in the head with a flying panda. Finally, at the end of each of the 40-odd exercises, you receive not only a numeric score but also a one-to-four star rating, from ‘unbalanced’ at one end of the scale, to ‘yoga master,’ or ‘bodybuilder’ or ‘calorie incinerator’ at the other.”

“I am wondering if it would become monotonous after a while, Doc.”

“That would take a very long time, my boy. Stay Fit actually prods you to try a big range of exercises that you might not try otherwise. In the early days when I was more adventurous, I used to find that at the gym, it was easy to get stuck in a regimen of stair-climbing and weights, or the bike and treadmill. With Stay Fit, I keep sampling all four types of training, because it is all right there on the board.”

“I see what you mean, Doc. This could just be the breakaway exercise program that I need to get up and get moving.”

“Voila, you see? It’s like playing at your workout, so it does not seem like a workout. And then, of course, you would end up looking more fit and feeling more lively—and your wife would notice it too.”