Can Your Workout Be Cooler Thanks To The Kohler Effect?

New research performed by the MSU Department of Kiniesology and funded by a grant from Health Games Research has shown that working out with a virtual partner may provide better motivation for exercise than even working with another real person. Deborah Feltz is the chairperson of that department and her team was the first to extensively study the Kohler effect on motivation particularly during what are deemed “healthy” video games. The games were originally marketed to increase the exercise of children in the light of the childhood obesity epidemic in the country. But, adults soon found out that they were a great way to get the exercise that they needed as well.

The Kohler effect is described as a naturally occurring phenomena in people who exercise. When a person is working out in a large group they will either follow someone who is slightly better than themselves and strive to equal their performance, or they will stick to a person who is not as capable and therefore not get as much of a workout. With the healthy video games, the virtual partner can be adapted and adjusted to enhance the performance. The goal will be to keep the performance of the virtual partner as better than the exerciser but not so much that the person will be discouraged and will keep striving for that level of fitness.

The study was completed with 200 participants who did several series of five exercises, all monitored by the Eye toy Camera and following the direction on a PlayStation 2. During the first round of the exercises, which included the plank, an intense, abdominal exercise, all of the participants in the study were asked to work out alone. In the following rounds, the exercisers were all told that they would be working out with a virtual partner that they could see and monitor while performing the actions. For each set, the exercisers were asked to hold each position for as long as they possibly could then allowed to rest before going on to the next set.

In the study, the computer generated partner was created to always do better than the exerciser. The results showed that all results were improved by over twenty percent when working with the virtual partner. Working out with a live partner did not yield such positive results however, especially when the person was greatly superior or much slower than the exerciser.

Motivation, or rather, a lack of motivation, is often the number one reason that people give for not exercising even when they accept that they need to do so. A second reason that is often given is a lack of confidence which keeps people from enjoying group exercise, particularly in a gym or health club setting. Using the health video games at home can eliminate that problem.

These findings are going to be used to improve the performance of the health games that are currently being sold as well as new ones that are being developed. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which provided the grant money for the research is funding additional research in this field, with around ten million dollars to be doled out for continued research in this field.

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