Professor Markus Reichert is Junior Professor for eHealth and Sports Analytics at the Faculty of Sports Science. © Privat

Sport science Exercise through digitalisation

In our increasingly digital world, physical activity is a key health resource. Digital solutions help us to harness it.

If digitalisation continues at the current rate, it will not only revolutionise professional sport, but first and foremost it will also produce digital solutions that keep people healthy through everyday (non)exercise activities, such as walks in the countryside. The digital spectrum already ranges from artificial intelligence in competitive sports to the fitness watch revolution and digital exercise apps in prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

While digitalisation can lead to a decrease in physical activity and thus increase the risk of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and depression, the digital solutions mentioned above present an opportunity to promote physical activity as a natural health resource.

What sounds trivial, however, is highly complex in detail. We need to better understand the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of the interaction between physical activity and health in everyday life in order to establish successful digital health solutions that will move people in the truest sense of the word, thus helping them to stay physically and mentally healthy and improve their quality of life.

About the person

Markus Reichert studied sports science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), conducted research at KIT and the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim and received his PhD on the subject of “Psychological antecedents and consequences of physical activity as they unfold in everyday life”. After his PhD in 2019, he initially remained at KIT as a post-doc and followed the call to Ruhr-Universität Bochum in January 2021.

Published

Thursday
18 February 2021
10:17 am

By

Markus Reichert

Translated by

Donata Zuber

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