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The recommended minimum amount of exercise for adults is 150 minutes of moderate to intensive aerobic activity and two strength training sessions per week. Do you meet this minimum amount? Many people fall short of this weekly recommendation. How can we change this? Karlijn Sporrel, a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Geosciences, is conducting research into this question together with her colleagues at the UU, UvA and HvA.

The Utrecht Marathon will be held on 12 May. Over 200 Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ members of staff will be participating. This year’s theme for the Marathon is Healthy Urban Living, but what exactly does that entail? Healthy Urban Living includes more than just physical fitness. Mental fitness is also important in Healthy Urban Living. According to Karlijn, sports such as running can contribute to this.

Motivation and possibilities

A core topic within Karlijn and her colleague’s research into ‘Playful data-driven Active Urban Living’ (PAUL) concerns the development of a mobile app. This app involves a multidisciplinary approach. From psychological perspective the app will be used to examine the best way to motivate people to get off the couch; from geological perspective it will establish the extent to which spatial planning can play a role in getting people to exercise. The app learns automatically and can adapt in a smart way to the users behaviour. Knowledge from data science is used for this. 

The app motivates people through reinforcement learning. When you install the app, it asks you about several personal matters, such as your work schedule. That way, the app can ‘learn’ what the best time is to send you messages about exercising. After all, there’s little point in receiving a motivational message about exercising while sitting at your desk at work. This smart app will send you messages when you have time to exercise, after dinner, for example, when you’ve just sat yourself down on the couch. The app functions like a personal trainer. In addition to pushing you to exercise, the app also offers validation once you’re done. By entering your goals in the app, it can keep track of your progress towards these goals. The app’s messages should be seen as an encouraging pat on the back for all your hard work. Game elements (gamification) will be added to enhance the experience of playfulness.

Unfortunately, without any sport opportunities in your neighbourhood, this motivation is meaningless, which is why the app will also determine the extent that your environment influences the amount you exercise. There are numerous ways in which spatial planning can create sport opportunities; parks and other open areas for running, safe spaces with lots of green and shade and training areas with fitness equipment could all be used to make it more attractive for people to practise sports. The research will provide insight of how an app can make the environment more interactive and attractive for people who don’t practise sports to get off the couch and adopt a more active lifestyle. The City of Utrecht will be able to use these results for optimal spatial planning for the purpose of getting its residents to exercise.

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In the spirit of Playful Active Urban Living, the new route is an improvement over the old one, which covered the same ground twice, according to Karlijn. Going through changing landscape and environment for the entire course of the marathon will contribute to a more positive experience.

Karlijn emphasises that not everyone needs to do the entire marathon, since every little bit helps. The main thing is that everyone should meet the minimum recommended amount of exercise. Moreover, for those who are interested in running a full marathon, the app can help them get ready for doing so. Why not begin with an easier goal, like the quarter marathon? That way, the 2020 Utrecht Marathon might not actually be impossible after all ...

Would you like to take part?

Have you just completed a period of intensive training and are you still looking for a new goal? Why not for the 2019 Utrecht Marathon, which will be held on 12 May.

Are you interested in being one of the first to try out this new health app? Send an email to K.Sporrel@uu.nl. The only condition is that you must live in or near the  district or go there often often to exercise. If you have any other questions about this study, you can send them to the same email address.