Abstract
COVID-19 has changed our lives and limited our ability to have adequate physical activity (PA). It is necessary to replace outdoor PA with home-based fitness. However, people lack access, skills, and even motivation for home-based fitness. To address these issues, we designed a free access self-monitoring and coaching and music-based interactive online squat fitness system. Body weight squat was utilized for fitness exercise and evaluated based on three indices: knee width, hip depth, and rhythm. An online survey on changes in exercise due to the COVID-19 pandemic and exercise habits was conducted to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on PA. We collected data from 557 respondents 5 months after the system first released and analyzed 200 visitors' performance on squat exercise and the other relevant parameters. Visitors were divided into three groups according to their age: younger, middle, and older groups. Results showed that the younger group had better squat performance than the middle and older groups in terms of hip depth and rhythm. We highlighted the lessons learned about the system design, fitness performance evaluation, and social aspects, for future study of the design and development of similar home-based fitness systems. We provided first-hand results on the relation between the COVID-19 pandemic and physical exercise among different age groups in Japan, which was valuable for policy making in the post-COVID-19 era.
Highlights
On April 7, 2020, which was the beginning of a new fiscal and school year in Japan, the local government declared a state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for Tokyo, Osaka, and five other prefectures [1]
Staying at home was necessary to curb the spread of the COVID-19, but it may lead to a lot of stress, anxiety [3], mental health problems [4, 5], and negatively affect sleep pattern [6]
Recent research showed that sedentary people increased and worldwide physical activity (PA) decreased rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
On April 7, 2020, which was the beginning of a new fiscal and school year in Japan, the local government declared a state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for Tokyo, Osaka, and five other prefectures [1]. After 1 week, the state of emergency was extended to all prefectures from April 16 [2]. Students were asked to take lessons online, and company employees were asked to work from home. Staying at home was necessary to curb the spread of the COVID-19, but it may lead to a lot of stress, anxiety [3], mental health problems [4, 5], and negatively affect sleep pattern [6]. An online survey demonstrated a significant decrease in PA time in April, when compared to January 2020 in older adults [8]
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