If you're not 'tech savvy,' these days, the ever-changing technology can either enhance your life or hinder it. Computers, cell phones, ipods, ipads-all become outdated before you even wear out your warranty. Texting is the preferred real-time communication standard instead of voicemail. Let's face it-as fitness professionals, we conduct our business with students and clients based on high human touch, interaction and physical reaction, quite the antithesis to technology...or is it?
I had the pleasure of speaking as a panelist representing Beaming and HOPSports, one of our new partners, at the Consumer Electronic Convention Jan 8th in Las Vegas, NV., the largest gathering of techno geeks, electronic master-minds and futuristic technology gadgets in the world. The topic was how technology enhances our ability to reach, teach and engage kids to exercise as a global platform to thwart the alarming rise of obesity.
Knowing I would be speaking in front of a packed room of techno junkies discussing fitness (clearly we are from different worlds), I wanted to find the common thread between fitness and technology: can we still use technology to reach a clientele that's not exercising and still be interactive? Today, there are thousands of phone and ipad apps, to engage the user to track and share workouts, watch videos etc. Fitness Technology IS the growing genre of our future. If we re-frame how we view technology, the answer lies in the body and the sensory system itself-we are already "WIRED FOR LIFE!" Just as a computer chip has a sophisticated and integrative design reactive system, when we push a button or shortcut on a keyboard, for example, we get the desired response. When we don't know how to use a computer or our-newly fangled, multi-purpose phone, we need to add that skill and figure it out. Our bodies do the same.
The body is comprised of billions of receptors, wired to react and respond, based on the physical messages we receive. Our bodies act as mini computers; these receptors, connected via the spine to the brain and every inch of your body uses these messages to figure it out-whether it be a new sport, balancing on the Beam, getting into a new yoga pose, or simply reacting to a rocky hiking trail.
The beauty of Beaming is the Beam is the physical technology that connects the body to the mind. A low- tech tool, which initiates real-time reaction, yet provides a high tech body response! Bottom-line, even if you don't consider yourself as technologically smart, your body is.
I had the pleasure of speaking as a panelist representing Beaming and HOPSports, one of our new partners, at the Consumer Electronic Convention Jan 8th in Las Vegas, NV., the largest gathering of techno geeks, electronic master-minds and futuristic technology gadgets in the world. The topic was how technology enhances our ability to reach, teach and engage kids to exercise as a global platform to thwart the alarming rise of obesity.
Knowing I would be speaking in front of a packed room of techno junkies discussing fitness (clearly we are from different worlds), I wanted to find the common thread between fitness and technology: can we still use technology to reach a clientele that's not exercising and still be interactive? Today, there are thousands of phone and ipad apps, to engage the user to track and share workouts, watch videos etc. Fitness Technology IS the growing genre of our future. If we re-frame how we view technology, the answer lies in the body and the sensory system itself-we are already "WIRED FOR LIFE!" Just as a computer chip has a sophisticated and integrative design reactive system, when we push a button or shortcut on a keyboard, for example, we get the desired response. When we don't know how to use a computer or our-newly fangled, multi-purpose phone, we need to add that skill and figure it out. Our bodies do the same.
The body is comprised of billions of receptors, wired to react and respond, based on the physical messages we receive. Our bodies act as mini computers; these receptors, connected via the spine to the brain and every inch of your body uses these messages to figure it out-whether it be a new sport, balancing on the Beam, getting into a new yoga pose, or simply reacting to a rocky hiking trail.
The beauty of Beaming is the Beam is the physical technology that connects the body to the mind. A low- tech tool, which initiates real-time reaction, yet provides a high tech body response! Bottom-line, even if you don't consider yourself as technologically smart, your body is.
By Linda Shelton, Fitness and Wellness Educator; Beamfit™ Communications & Educational Resources Director
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