A study carried out by Bristol University in 2013 revealed that a staggering 80% of people in England fail to hit the Governments recommend physical activity targets, that is 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least 12 times in a four-week period. You could even break this down into small 10 minute bouts each day to accumulate your 30 minutes of activity, studies have show that this can yield as many benefits as people who exercise for longer periods - especially if you’re starting from a sedentary lifestyle! When you consider that there are 168 hours per week and to hit this activity target you would still have 166.5 hours left in your week you have to wonder how people can’t find the time. Is it long working hours? Lack of motivation? Not knowing what to do? Or all of the above?
As humans, we are designed to run, jump, climb and generally move, but as our lives have become more sedentary we are seeing a huge rise in obesity, heart attacks, strokes, musculoskeletal injuries, mental illness and stress. Unsurprisingly, these are some of the top causes of long-term absence from work and lost businesses in the UK over 15.4 million working days between 2017- 2018.
Unfortunately for people to realise the devastation a lack of exercise can cause it takes a health scare, either physically or mentally, to encourage them to take up regular exercise. So what if we could encourage more people to start moving to prevent them getting to this stage? After all, prevention is better than cure.
At Axtion Tech, we thoroughly believe that people should enjoy whatever exercise they choose and it should be an activity that you can see yourself continuing with long term. For a lot of people they’ve tried the gym, had a good few weeks then something happened - they got bored, stopped seeing results or life just got in the way - and they stopped. Back to square one. So for something to work long term it needs to be fun, accessible, challenging and engaging.
The interactive gaming products we offer at Axtion Tech combine all the fun of gaming with the benefits of regular exercise by incorporating movement, co-ordination, endurance and problem solving. By making small changes such as getting up from your desk for 10 minutes every couple of hours to interact with one of our specialist, high tech fitness games, you could improve your daily calorie expenditure (required for weight loss), build your immune system – reducing your chances of sickness, improve postural conditions which are induced by sitting too much for example bad backs (kyphosis) and shortened hip flexor muscles which could lead to many joint issues further down the line. The psychological benefits of increased levels of activity are also huge and should not be overlooked. Exercise has been shown to improve mood, self-esteem, reduce stress and improve cognitive function especially early afternoon after lunch and as our circadian rhythm dips.
By increasing daily activity levels, we could reduce our chances of stroke and type 2 diabetes by up to 50%, reduce stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, increase the production of endorphins, increase muscular strength and lose weight at the same time. By improving the health and fitness of our nation we could save the country millions in health care and take huge strain off of the NHS.
Having happy staff is the key to a successful business. Encouraging your staff to be active and healthy can lower your rates of absence, improve energy and are therefore productivity, provide better customer service, give higher job satisfaction improving staff retention, attract people to working for you and improve workplace relationships for example, you could use our products to run small inter office competitions to encourage team building. Most workplaces offer a health insurance to their staff, so why no reduce the chances of claims on this by investing in the health and fitness of the staff first? All of these things could save you thousands each year by investing a small amount to encourage your staff to get up and active whilst in the office!
Our interactive fitness games do not take up huge amounts of space and are suitable for all ages and abilities. For example, the iWall comes with a range of games which start from very low impact yoga style games though to high intensity games which involve running, jumping and squatting.
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Axtion Technology Limited
160 City Road
London
EC1V 2NX
+44 (0)20 3870 9367