title: Cardiorespiratory Improvements Achieved by American College of Sports Medicine's Exercise Prescription Implemented on a Mobile App.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Strong evidence shows that an increase in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and physical activity (PA) reduces cardiovascular disease risk.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To test whether a scientifically endorsed program to increase CRF and PA, implemented on an easy-to-use, always-accessible mobile app would be effective in improving CRF.
  
  
  METHODS
  Of 63 healthy volunteers participating, 18 tested the user interface of the Cardio-Fitness App (CF-App); and 45 underwent a 2-week intervention period, of whom 33 eventually concluded it. These were assigned into three groups. The Step-based App (Step-App) group (n=8), followed 10,000 steps/day prescription, the CF-App group (n=13), and the Supervised Cardio-Fitness (Super-CF) group (n=12), both followed a heart rate (HR)-based program according to American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines, but either implemented on the app, or at the gym, respectively. Participants were tested for CRF, PA, resting systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP, DBP), resting, exercise, and recovery HR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CRF increased in all groups (+4.9%; P<.001). SBP decreased in all groups (-2.6 mm Hg; P=.03). DBP decrease was higher in the Super-CF group (-3.5 mm Hg) than in the Step-App group (-2.1 mm Hg; P<.001). Posttest exercise HR decreased in all groups (-3.4 bpm; P=.02). Posttest recovery HR was lower in the Super-CF group (-10.1 bpm) than in the other two groups (CF-App: -4.9 bpm, Step-App: -3.3 bpm; P<.001). The CF-App group, however, achieved these improvements with more training heart beats (P<.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A 10,000 steps/day target-based app improved CRF similar to an ACSM guideline-based program whether it was implemented on a mobile app or in supervised gym sessions.
authors.affiliation: Universita' degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2138-0244
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rospo
authors.forename: Viola
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2850-190X
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Valsecchi
authors.forename: Alberto G
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6731-005X
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Bonomi
authors.forename: Inge Wj
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1225-2507
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Thomassen
authors.forename: Saskia
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3289-1613
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Dantzig
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4987-2024
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: La Torre
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2254-9187
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sartor
keywords: ACSM guidelines; cardio-respiratory fitness; mobile app; physical activity