The Future of Exercise is All About Data

From epidermal electronics printed on your skin, to flying drones encouraging you to run, does the future hold a promise that we will be able to keep our bodies well conditioned? And even as technology and data improve, will we have the will power to go the distance?
We have a question for you. If you were to design a video game to help people get fit, what would it be? Let us know in the comments below!
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[TRANSCRIPT]:
Feeling sluggish and out of shape? Maybe you need to play some video games.
You know, I often think to myself I should really draw up an exercise plan. And then I think when was mayonnaise invented. And then I get on the Internet to find out and then it's 4am (mid-15th Century as it turns out).
For a health adult, the US Department of Health recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercises and two sessions of physical strength training per week at minimum. Even haters like me have to admit that exercise is really good for your body, particularly for preventing things like cardiovascular diseases. But still it's a hard sell. I mean I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out the bare minimum amount of movement I need to make to prevent birds from building nests on me.
Does the future actually hold a promise that even people who are not natural athletes will still be able to keep their bodies well conditioned? First and foremost, the future of fitness is all about data.
Today, personal fitness trackers count your steps and calculate how many calories you've burned during exercise. In the future, smaller, even more seamless form factors could replace them. Epidermal electronics are basically smart temporary tattoos. Tiny flexible electronics printed directly onto your skin, which can monitor heart rate, brain waves, and muscle activity. They could revolutionize the way we monitor vital signs on patients in hospitals, but they could also be perfect for silently collecting data on your fitness performance.
Or how about something a little less up close and personal? Like a drone that actually encourages you to exercise. No kidding, there are people who are working on this - quadcopter drones that fly ahead of you and then encourage you to pick up the pace and just keep on going.
Whatever form factor you choose, you're probably going to be wearing piezo-electric nano-generators. And yes, that really is their name. These are actually tiny little devices that can harness energy from everything from your foot hitting the ground to your muscles contracting. That energy might recharge your phone!
But even when we have better tech and better data at the consumer level, there's still a risk that we won't have the willpower to go the distance. I call that a motivation gap. How do we address it? Well, there are some controversial ways, like drugs. A 2004 study found that a psycho-stimulant used to treat narcolepsy could prolong the amount of time adult males could do intense exercise before exhaustion. That's great, but keep in mind that the negative effects of this drug could outweigh the benefits of exercise.
On the other hand, there's another method that's been around for thousands of years. I'm talking about sports! Or if you're one of the corporate drones like me, the "gamification of fitness." Now, not all of us have the time to fit a soccer league into our schedule, so how about a more flexible approach. You know, like that app that turns your smartphone into survival horror zombie invested nightmare!
I was on the beta program of that, you had to run away from zombies and try and route your way around them, and uh...I was eaten on day two. Birds build nests on me.