Online Group-exercises for Older Adults of Different Physical Abilities

TL;DR

This paper presents Gymcentral, a virtual fitness platform designed to motivate older adults with varying physical abilities to exercise and socialize remotely, demonstrating its feasibility and positive impact through an intervention study.

Contribution

It introduces a novel virtual fitness environment tailored for older adults with diverse abilities, integrating personalized exercises with social interaction features.

Findings

High engagement and adherence among users.

Enhanced social interactions observed during the intervention.

Positive effects on physical activity levels.

Abstract

In this paper we describe the design and validation of a virtual fitness environment aiming at keeping older adults physically and socially active. We target particularly older adults who are socially more isolated, physically less active, and with less chances of training in a gym. The virtual fitness environment, namely Gymcentral, was designed to enable and motivate older adults to follow personalised exercises from home, with a (heterogeneous) group of remote friends and under the remote supervision of a Coach. We take the training activity as an opportunity to create social interactions, by complementing training features with social instruments. Finally, we report on the feasibility and effectiveness of the virtual environment, as well as its effects on the usage and social interactions, from an intervention study in Trento, Italy