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Activity guideance data processing method

  • US 5,387,164 A
  • Filed: 11/13/1991
  • Issued: 02/07/1995
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/08/1989
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method for scheduling and monitoring physical activities of an individual over an interval of time to tend to achieve progressively improved levels of fitness, while minimizing the individual'"'"'s chance of injury and loss of fitness, the interval of time extending a plurality of multiday calendar periods, the method comprising the steps of:

  • (a) displaying on a display output of a data processing system a plurality of biographic/fitness-level prompts adapted to elicit biographic/fitness-level data from an individual for calculating a starting-fitness-level fitness-level point total for the individual, the starting-fitness-level fitness-level point total representing an estimate of an amount of physical activity which if performed by the individual over the course of a multiday calendar period would tend to improve the fitness level of the individual;

    (b) calculating a sequence of fitness-level-progression point-total preliminary goals for the individual with the data-processing system from biographic/fitness-level data entered into the data-processing system in response to the biographic/fitness-level prompts, each of the sequence of fitness-level-progression point-total preliminary goals corresponding in turn to one of the multiday calendar periods, with the fitness-level-progression point-total preliminary goal corresponding to the initial multiday calendar period being the starting-fitness-level fitness-level point total, a fitness-level point-total goal for the initial multiday calendar period being defined to be the starting-fitness-level fitness-level point total, the fitness-level-progression point-total preliminary goals generally differing one from another and representing estimates of amounts of physical activity which if performed by the individual in the corresponding calendar periods in sequence would tend to result in progressively improved levels of fitness for the individual;

    (c) for each of a plurality of days in a multiday calendar period, displaying on the display output of the data-processing system a plurality of daily-physical-activity-accomplishment prompts adapted to elicit daily-physical-activity accomplishment information from the individual, the daily-physical-activity accomplishment information including an identification of each type of a plurality of types of physical activity engaged in during the day by the individual and, for each type of physical activity so identified, the time and intensity of the physical activity carried out during the day;

    (d) for each of such plurality of days in such multiday calendar period, calculating a daily fitness-level point-total with the data-processing system from daily-physical-activity accomplishment information entered into the data-processing system in response to the daily-physical-activity accomplishment prompts for that day in accordance with predetermined fitness-benefit formulas, the daily fitness-level point total being representative of the cumulative physical benefits of the various specific types of physical activity engaged in by the individual for that day;

    (e) for each of such plurality of days in such multiday calendar period, calculating with the data-processing system a fitness-level-points-remaining difference between a cumulative sum of the daily fitness-level point totals calculated for days to date during the multiday calendar period and a fitness-level-point-total goal defined for the calendar period and displaying fitness-level-points-remaining data on a display output of the data-processing system;

    (f) for each of such plurality of days in such multiday calendar period, calculating comparison data between the daily fitness-level point total for that day and the fitness-level point-total goal for the calendar period with the data-processing system, and, in the event the comparison indicates that the daily fitness-level point total is excessive relative to a predetermined limit fraction of the fitness-level point-total goal, displaying a caution message on the display output of the data-processing system to minimize the individual'"'"'s chance of injury and loss of fitness, the caution message cautioning against excessive activity by the individual;

    (g) in correspondence with the conclusion of each multiday calendar period, generating with the data-processing system a new fitness-level point-total goal defined for the following multiday calendar period, the new fitness-level point-total goal being based on the fitness-level-progression point-total preliminary goal corresponding to such following multiday calendar period as possibly modified in accordance with an outcome of a comparison carried out in the data-processing system between a cumulative sum of the daily-fitness-level point totals for the multiday calendar period just concluded and the fitness-level point-total goal for such calendar period, so that in the event the cumulative sum of the daily-fitness-level point totals for the calendar period just concluded substantially equals or exceeds the fitness-level point-total goal for such calendar period, the new fitness-level point-total goal is defined to be a value which generally equals or exceeds the fitness-level-progression point-total preliminary goal for the following calendar period to tend to induce progressive improvement in the level of fitness of the individual, and, in the event the cumulative sum of the daily-fitness-level point totals for the calendar period just concluded is significantly lower than the fitness-level point-total goal for such calendar period, the new fitness-level point-total goal is defined to be a value which is generally lower than the fitness-level-progression point-total preliminary goal for the following multiday calendar period; and

    (h) displaying the new fitness-level point-total goal for the multiday calendar period on the display output of the data-processing system.

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