How does the Activity Score work? (1)

ANSWER

This article describes our rationale for the Activity Score and how to use the activity tracker.

The Activity Score is designed to provide you with one number that estimates your physical activity for the last seven days. The score includes a marker of low intensity physical activity and a marker of more intense physical activity, or exercise.

ACTIVITY SCORE TUTORIAL

How We Calculate Your Score

We add up all the activity you did over the last seven days. If it's equal to either 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity (or some combination of the two intensities), your score is 100%. The score of 100% approximates the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) weekly exercise recommendations. If you do more or less physical activity the score will be higher or lower, accordingly.

What Data Do We Look at To Calculate Your Score?

Low Intensity Physical ActivityThe low intensity physical activity marker is daily steps and we include that data in your Activity Score calculation if you have a step counter integrated into humanOS. Please see this article to entitled How to track steps in humanOS.

More intense physical activity, or exerciseExercise is tracked manually in humanOS. You should be able to track your activity in less than 20 seconds a day once you get to know the system.

For a clear explanation of the value of these physical activity guidelines, and how our Activity Tracker relates to them, please view our course entitled: How Much Physical Activity Do We Need?

Establishing Your Goal

Now that we have that reference number, it's also important to be able to set a personal goal. Perhaps you want to aim for less in order to increment your way up to the standard, or perhaps you want to aim for more activity in your week. This is why we let you set a goal that is above and below the standard.

How to Use the Tracker

A tracker should be able to capture any activity you do. You should also be able to measure the intensity of that activity to be more accurate. For instance, both a jog and sprinting count as running, but they are very different in their intensity.

We let you capture any type of physical activity you do from dancing, to CrossFit, to indoor cycling, to gardening, etc, and enter it in an intuitive way that takes seconds to record.

Tracker Entries

The main categories of our tracker are:

1. Cardio
2. Strength
3. Mobility

These entry types are also broken down into intensities:

1. Low: 55-70% effort (i.e. a jog)
2. Mid: 70-85% effort (i.e., a run)
3. Max: 85-100% effort (i.e., a sprint)

Sample Cardio Entries

Let's take an example indoor cycling class that's 60 minutes long. Over the course of the class, you work at different intensities. You guesstimate that your efforts break down as follows:

60-minutes of cardio but entered as:

• 60-minutes of cardio but entered as:
• 10 min → Low: 55-70% effort (i.e. a jog)
• 45 min → Mid: 70-85% effort (i.e., a run)
• 05 min → Max: 85-100% effort (i.e., a sprint)

And again, you can do this sort of breakdown for any exercise you choose to do (jiu jitsu, swing dancing, etc.)

Sample Strength Entries

Let's say you go to the gym to lift some weights. Here, instead of measuring by time, we measure by set number by intensity.

Let's say you did 2 exercises:

1. Bench press
2. Squats

For each, you did 2 warm-up sets and 3 working sets.

• 2 warm-up sets for 2 exercises
• 4 sets → Mid: 70-85% effort
• 3 working sets of 2 exercises
• 6 sets → Max: 85-100% effort

Body Weight Exercises

Because we have the InTUNE Training exercises in our system, our tracker also lets you select from those exercises specifically. For instance, you can select things like:

• Push-ups
• Lunges
• Sit-upses

In this case, you can enter the reps you do, specifically, just like you do in the InTUNE Training tile.

This powerful physical activity tracker gives you a valid reference upon which you can compare your own activity level, it is flexible enough to let you enter the exercise style you love doing (by translating it into cardio, strength or mobility), and lets you set your own specific goals to push yourself at a level that works for you. Try it now!