Inspiration
Challenge: There is no affordable way to engage in exercises constantly and safely for beginners and people with pre-existing health conditions.
Consistently engaging in exercises can improve our overall health. It helps maintaining muscle mass (especially important for older adults), bone health, reduces chronic disease risks, and improves mental health. However, resistance training has a high risk of injury for beginners and people with pre-existing health conditions (e.g., injuries, chronic pain, arthritis). How can we make resistance training accessible and safe for beginners and people with pre-existing health conditions?
Challenge 1: If you are new to resistance training, it is normal to feel paralyzed by so many exercise choices. You find yourself delaying the first workout again and again. Which exercises do you start with? Likewise, for people with pre-existing health conditions, it is difficult to know which exercises have lower risk to pains and injuries.
Challenge 2: Another challenge for these two populations is to keep proper exercise form. When the weight is increased to a level that is beyond the targeted muscle’s capacity, our body will want to engage other parts of the muscles to complete the movement. This is when injuries happen. We deviate from the proper form when our muscles are weak, or have been injured before.
Challenge 3: You may ask, why not hiring a personal trainer? The average cost in the U.S. is 60-75 USD/hr (https://www.thumbtack.com/p/personal-trainer-cost). This is not an accessible option to low-income individuals who are at higher risk of developing chronic disease and mental health diseases due to poor diet choices under budget, chronic stress from financial instability, and environmental pollutants in low-income neighborhoods.
In summary, there is currently no existing affordable solution for beginners and people with pre-existing conditions to build a safe and effective resistance training routine. Such a solution will lower their risks to exercise-related injuries, chronic diseases, and mental health diseases. As a result, each individual is projected to save at least $39,354 USD healthcare expenses. Healthy people are the foundation of good economy- good community health improves organizations productivity and lowers the law enforcement costs for crimes.
Audience
Low- and mid-income individuals with pre-existing health conditions or beginners who want to develop an exercise routine to stay healthy and lower the long-term risk of developing chronic and mental health diseases.
Within the audience, youth and older adults most likely to get injured from resistance training. While 47% of resistance training-related injuries occur among youth between age 13 and 24, the largest increase in injury frequencies arises among 45 years and older adults (reference).
The financial benefits for individuals and societies to exercise early and consistently:
Engaging in exercises in early adulthood and consistently throughout one’s lifespan significantly reduces the healthcare costs later in life by 22%, which is $1874 USD/year (reference). In other words, exercising early in life and consistently throughout life can save an individual $39,354 USD in their later adulthood (43–64 years).
Improved physical and mental health not only means lowers medical expenses for individuals, better health also strongly correlates with higher income, according to a Gallup poll in the United States (reference).
For the societies at large, better physical and mental health translates to better economies. World Health Organization published the global healthcare costs due to physical inactivity in 2023 was $67.5 billion (reference). Good physical and mental health increases workers’ productivity and leads to lower crime rates and law enforcement costs.
What it does
The conversation bot can address questions beyond just fitness and exercise, focusing on key factors that significantly impact your overall health. It provides insights into the reasons and benefits behind specific exercises and offers personalized recommendations based on medical conditions and individual needs. The chatbot also creates tailored dietary and workout plans to help you achieve your ultimate goal of a healthy lifestyle.
These questions provide personalized guidance tailored to each user's health status and needs, ensuring exercises are performed correctly and safely. By offering advice on proper techniques, modifications, and safe routines, the chatbot helps reduce the risk of injury. This personalized support aids in developing a well-rounded, effective exercise routine that promotes overall well-being.
A successful interaction between the user and the agent involves the user receiving personalized, accurate, and actionable advice. For example, if a user asks for exercises suitable for lower back pain, the agent would provide tailored recommendations, such as gentle core-strengthening exercises, along with detailed instructions and we hope in the future to include relevant YouTube video links.
Through the Vertex AI Agent builder we were able to utilize the platform’s features and components to come with a response that fits the app’s vision and goals. It allowed for a smooth development experience towards creating a conversational bot capable of delivering an accurate response using the Gemini 1.0 Pro model.
How we built it
FormFit is developed using React Native, leveraging the power of Expo Go for seamless development and testing.
Meanwhile, we used Vertex Agent builder to create our lifestyle bot "FormFit"
Challenges we ran into
We were unable to connect the agent with our mobile app
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Although we worked in the last few days, we are proud to complete everything as a team in a matter few days.
What we learned
We learned on how to create agent without writing a single line of code and the art of prompt engineering throughout the hackathon.
What's next for FormFit
We intend to incorporate the agent we built in the chat feature for our mobile app which is under development and also use Gemini vision capabilities to to provide real-time posture analysis to user while they perform exercises
Built With
- agents
- gemini
- no-code
- react-native
- vertex-ai
- visual-studio
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