The new project for developing a smartphone application to increase the number of Interval Walking Training (IWT) participants has received a subsidy from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). A press conference was held on August 30th, 2017, to announce the news by IWT leader Associate Professor Shizue Masuki of the Institute for Biomedical Sciences (IBS).

Dr. Masuki and Professor Hiroshi Nose have developed IWT*1 and a remote individual exercise system*2 for maintaining and enhancing physical strength. Their next project is to increase the number of IWT participants by tens of thousands of people by developing a convenient application for mobile devices. Set to operate in 2019, the application will be designed using know-how from the current remote individual exercise system.

The IWT application is expected to not only raise the number of IWT participants, but also reduce healthcare costs. After entering their physical information, such as age, gender, genetic background, figure, strength, and health condition, users will be able to measure the positive effects of continued exercise from their results. In addition, this project will serve as a testbed for new products related to health foods and devices.

*1 Interval Walking Training:
A method of exercising in which brisk walking at 70% of maximum oxygen intake and slow walking at 40% of maximum oxygen intake are repeated alternately for 3 minutes each, 30 minutes per day, 4 days per week, for 5 months. It has been proven that physical fitness can improve by as much as 30%, a lifestyle-related disease index for metabolic syndrome can improve by 80%, and medical expenses can be reduced by 20% through IWT.

*2 Remote individual exercise system:
A database on the effects of IWT among 7,300 people and the gene information of 2,200 people created during “Jukunen Taiiku Daigaku”, a health and sports program for middle-aged people conducted over 14 years.