Effects of Feedback Timing on Squat Posture Correction

Abstract

Interest in home training, which allows for greater flexibility in time and space, is increasing. The practice of exercising alone is being also being adopted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when exercising alone, it is relatively challenging to achieve correct posture because of the difficult in receiving timely posture corrections. People with a lack of experience in sports are more likely to exercise with incorrect exercise postures, which can lead to physical injury. Studies that evaluated and provided feedback on exercise postures have been conducted. However, there has been a lack of active research addressing how often the feedback should be provided to participants to effectively correct their exercise posture. This study aims to understand the relative effectiveness of three feedback conditions in correcting exercise posture: (1) Real-time feedback, (2) Repetition unit feedback, and (3) Set unit feedback. In this study, a popular exercise known as squat was selected for the workout posture analysis, and a motion capture equipment was used to analyze the posture. Twelve individuals participated in the experiment, and five key characteristic variables within the body parts were defined to categorize the squat performed by the participants. The defined feature variables were used to express individual squat postures as scores and provide feedback to the participants. In addition, the average and standard deviations for the squat scores were used in the Generalized Estimating Equations statistical analysis to determine the efficiency of the three feedback conditions, and the implications of the results were explained.