Dance and movement artist Ben Dunks worked with Dr Polly McGuigan at , the University of Bath鈥檚 motion analysis research centre to analyse how the range of movement of three volunteers changed during an exercise programme over a period of six weeks.
Ben took the participants through the dance exercises and their movements were recorded using the motion capture system.
The CAMERA studio team processed the motion capture data to create animations of the participants and Dr McGuigan took the data to calculate joint angles and ranges of motion to quantify the movement patterns to look at whether these changed over the course of the programme.
Participants also wore activity trackers to monitor how active they were outside the sessions and whether this changed over the course of the programme.
The researchers looked at how much time the participants balanced on one leg, the range of movements of various joints in the body, and how far they were able to reach in different directions whilst standing on one leg.
Dr McGuigan, Deputy Head of the Department for Health at the University of Bath, said: 鈥淭he premise behind the programme is that if people build their strength and are more able to push the boundaries of their movement in a safe and controlled space, such as an exercise class, they will be better able to use their body in the best way to prevent them from falling if they trip or slip.鈥�
The collaborative project is part of the South West Creative Tech Network in partnership with the University of Plymouth and funded by 69色情片 England.
Ben Dunks explained: 鈥淚n this project we worked with vulnerable older people living in sheltered accommodation in Plymouth to devise an exercise programme that aims to fundamentally change the health of participants as well as decreasing their chances of falling.
鈥淪o much of the older population we work with feel that this issue of falls is one that is only recognised when you have already fallen. There is also a feeling that there isn鈥檛 a programme available to help their strength, as ours is a culture that believes older people can鈥檛 improve their physical skills and strength. But this programme has shown this simply isn鈥檛 true 鈥� even if you鈥檙e ninety, you can still build strength, learn new movements and learn new ideas about yourself.
鈥淏y doing our programme, our participants have gained in confidence and are demonstrating they are still valuable members of society.鈥�
Gillian, from Plymouth, has been doing the exercise programme for 18 months and took part in the study. She said: 鈥淭his project has been a joyful experience! I鈥檝e gained more confidence in doing new sporty activities like ballet and tai chi, and increased confidence to help others that might be lonely or need help. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also helped me to avoid falls on a few occasions when I鈥檝e slipped or tripped.鈥�
Dr McGuigan said: 鈥淲hilst motion capture has been used to evaluate fall prevention programmes for older people in previous studies, what made this project particularly interesting was that we were collecting data on improvised movements rather than asking them to do a very specific movement pattern. This made the project more challenging but much more relevant to the real world.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really encouraged by initial results and look forward to continue working with Ben to use this method in the future to assess similar exercise programmes.鈥�
For more information about the Renaissance exercise programme, please email Ben Dunks.