If strapping a device to your wrist doesn't motivate you to walk 14,000 steps a day, perhaps the solution to get you moving comes from the device closest to your heart: Your smartphone.
A new study suggests that smartphone alerts can help remind people to move around. Although studies examining ways to motivate exercise are nothing new, this one comes from the American Cancer Society, which sees reducing sedentary lifestyles as a key part of the fight against cancer.
The study, which was conducted at the end of 2012, when smartphones were not nearly as ubiquitous as they are now, examined the differences in behavior between two groups that wore accelerometers that tracked their movement for seven days. One group received smartphone notifications reminding them to move about, including information about the risks of sitting for prolonged periods of time.
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The group that received the notifications ended up spending 3 percent more time moving than the control group. That may not sound like a lot, but it amounts to 25 minutes more activity per day, whether that means standing up and walking around or taking a three mile run.
The study was by no means representative of the nation as a whole. Two-thirds of the participants were women, more than half were African American.
And because the study was relatively brief and participation was not random, the researchers cautioned against drawing major conclusions.
"Overall, simple smartphone prompts appear to be a promising strategy for reducing sedentary behavior and increasing activity, though adequately-powered and well-designed studies will be needed to confirm these preliminary findings," said the authors in a press release from the American Cancer Society.
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