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Taiwan Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association
The Applications of
Fitness Equipment in
SportsTraining
By Hsiao-Yun Chang, PT, ATC, PhD
Associate Professor, School of Physical Therapy, Chung Shan Medical University President,
Taichung City Physical Therapist Association
In the recent years, the number of participants in road running, marathons, cycling
and triathlon has increased. Taking Taiwan for an example, we find that in the past two
decades, the running events from once a year to about three hundred running events a
year. The number of participating people is close to one and half million people. Besides,
more and more females also take part in these sport activities. The people share the same
attitude like professional athletes. They want to challenge their own physical endurance
and sports performances. Thus, they are active in fitness and sport-training courses. They
would also buy the personalized sport equipment for the sport trainings. As a result, the
industrial value of fitness-related software and hardware equipment is also going upward.
We also call the sports capability in doing sports as physical fitness. It defines the
combined capability of the body which adopts itself to living conditions and dynamic
environment such as temperatures, climate changes or illness, etc. Those with better
physical fitness have better vitality and adoptability in physical activities or sports. They