Study on Development of Sporting Equipment for Health Promotion

Abstract

This study aims to devise original gymnastic exercise applicable to dietary education and to verify its effectiveness. This original gymnastic exercise, "Vegefru -exercise", is the gymnastic exercise choreographed to the music "Vegefru" which an NPO, Japan Produce Alliance for Better Health, has produced for the purpose of promoting consumption of fruits and vegetables, by using an Indian club developed earlier as sporting equipment to promote health. In order to verify its effectiveness, cardiotachometry and a questionnaire investigation was carried out in the last week of classes starting in April and ending in July in 2007 where "Vegefru-exercise" was adopted as warming-up exercise, by targeting at 299 of first-year students at J women's college. Also by targeting at two students of the same college, measurements of MET-levels were performed in order to show the exercise intensity. The results are as follows. The cardiac rate became from 113.2 bpm at one and a half minutes after the start of the exercise to 118.2 bpm at 3 minutes after the start of the exercise, where MET-levels increased from 7 to 8 METs after 3 minutes. These results suggest that the exercise intensity of the exercise is suitable for the of health Promotion. The results of the questionnaire investigation are as follows. The tendency was analyzed by comparing three groups of students divided according to their competence for the "Vegefru-exercise", "high competence group", "medium competence group", and "low competence group". To the questions on "impression after the exercise", "experience of various movements and large-scale movements", "hope for re-experience", 90% of them answered in the affirmative, by answering as "It was pleasant.", "I could experience it." ,and "I hope for it.". It was observed that among the groups the higher in competence the more evident this affirmative tendency was. To the question concerning dietary education, "Is the 'Vegefru-exercise' applicable to dietary education ?", which had been the objective to develop this exercise, 90% of the students answered in the affirmative. This answer suggests that this exercise is effective in application to dietary education.