The Future of Fitness

Posted on 2 August, 2017

Looking to level up your fitness? 

We look to groundbreaking research and technology in professional sports for a sneak peek of what the future holds for personal health and fitness.

There’s no denying that the trend in fitness and healthy living has our society in a vice-like grip, with people increasingly taking cues from professional athletes and their sports to gain an edge in their personal recreational fitness. We no longer have ‘personal trainers’ – they’re now ‘coaches’. What once was merely ‘exercise’ is now ‘training’, and you’re just as likely to spot a person in ‘performance wear’ enjoying brunch at a local café as you are at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Like many industries, sport and fitness is a field that’s constantly influenced by developments in research and technology. Given the ever-narrowing gap between professional and recreational fitness, it’s interesting to see how these technologies—once reserved for high-level professional athletes—are now available to the wider public.

WELLNESS MONITORING

Perhaps most notable is the availability
of wellness monitoring technology. It’s common for people to wear devices such as Fitbit, or to use apps on their smartphone to track their nutrition, exercise and sleep.

Dr Kate Pumpa is an Associate Professor at the University of Canberra, an Accredited Exercise Physiologist and Accredited Practicing Sports Dietician. In her research and in her role as Performance Dietitian for the Australian Rugby Union Wallabies, Dr Pumpa frequently uses this kind of technology.

“I use wellness monitoring to look at how energy requirements change from a heavy training day to a light training day to a rest day, and then how to manipulate nutritional intake that impacts on body composition.”

While an athlete’s level of fitness was once measured by metrics such as body mass index or simply body weight, developments in technology such as DEXA scans have allowed for a greater focus on particular aspects of body composition, such as lean muscle mass and body fat. These measurements provide a greater reference point for measuring specific changes in training or diet.

“We can also use our motional sensor technology to more accurately determine their energy requirements, which then can be periodised. Their nutrition can be periodised which then impacts on their body composition, which then hopefully impacts on their performance.”

This technology is available to the general population as well. Devices such as the Fitbit or the Apple Watch are constantly being updated and improved to provide greater accuracy and functionality.

Similarly, apps such as MyFitnessPal or EasyDietDiary (the latter of which uses an Australian database, allowing greater precision) when used correctly can be reliable methods of tracking nutritional intake and energy requirements.

REST AND RECOVERY

It almost seems counterintuitive, but when it comes to athletic performance there is an increasing amount of research and interest in rest, specifically in sleep.

Any new mother, university student or
shift worker can attest to the serious repercussions of sleep deprivation. Not getting enough sleep can influence cognitive function, memory, immunity, pain perception, inflammation, appetite and protein synthesis, or the ability to repair and grow muscle tissue.

“When we train we have muscle damage, and we need appropriate protein and carbohydrates around training to stimulate muscle growth. There are strategies we
 can implement to try and stimulate muscle growth and repair overnight. For example, looking at having larger amounts or either whey or casein protein and how that affects muscle protein synthesis overnight.”

Dr Pumpa says there are studies that show that higher doses of protein closer
 to bedtime can be beneficial, as digestion slows down, meaning that the proteins are broken down in the body at a slower rate.

“Sleep is important from a muscle 
recovery point of view, as well as from a psychological point of view. You consolidate a lot of your memories and thoughts when you’re sleeping, so if an athlete has been practising a particular skill, a lot of those memories or tasks are actually consolidated at night while they’re asleep” says
Dr Pumpa.

While researchers look to find ways to maximise sleep for athletes, the public benefits from this kind of data as well. A greater quantity and quality of sleep means improved performance from the board room to the gym floor.

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

A brief scroll through any fitness focussed Instagram account will confirm that gym goers are increasingly documenting their workouts in video form. More than just millennial self-indulgence, this kind of video footage can provide insights into technical form that can help improve performance and efficiency.

For professional athletes and coaches, performance analysis is a field that holds great potential.

“What’s becoming really popular is video analysis or performance analytics – capturing training or game footage which is then cut up into smaller segments for individual athletes or for coaches, and that produces a huge amount of data.”

This data is what Dr Pumpa is examining in some of her latest research, looking at saliva testing and hormonal responses.

“Some of the performance analytics data feeds into the hormonal research I’m doing at the moment. If an athlete watches themselves doing positive things rather than negative things, they’re more likely to get a testosterone boost than if they’re watching images of them doing things that are incorrect.”

‘How does this type of research translate to performance on the field?’, one
 might wonder.

“Performance staff are looking at ways to almost subconsciously manipulate how an athlete might perform without increasing metabolic load—so instead of doing a training session, using the data they collect through video footage to get a better response out of an athlete or manipulate their hormonal profile without requiring the athlete to run or lift, or create that extra loading.”

Dr Pumpa says that despite the high volume of data available through new methods of research, this information isn’t being utilised. This field of research is one that holds huge possibilities for performance development in professional and recreational athletes.

In the meantime, however, it’s an exciting time to be a recreational athlete, with plenty of opportunities to take advantage of cutting edge fitness technology.

This article originally appeared in Magazine: Future for Winter 2017, available for free while stocks last. Find out more about Magazine here.