Wearable Technologies to Improve Physical Activity, Sedentary Breaks, Training, Sleep, and Safety: The ECSS-Wearable Technologies Special Interest Group Calls for Interdisciplinary Collaboration.
11 affiliations
- 1Department of Sports Science and Movement Pedagogy, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.
- 2Institute of Movement Therapy and Movement-oriented Prevention and Rehabilitation, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
- 3School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
- 4Sports Performance, Recovery, Injury and New Technologies (SPRINT) Research Centre, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
- 5Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
- 6Department of Sport Science, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
- 7Department of Sport Science, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
- 8Independent Researcher.
- 9Faculty of Sport Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
- 10Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
- 11Department of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
Abstract
Wearable technologies ("wearables") are lightweight sensor-based devices that detect, analyze, and transmit physiological, biomechanical or environmental data, and are increasingly used across physical activity, sedentary behavior, athletic training, safety and sleep research. Applications include for example large-scale physical activity surveillance, ambulatory assessment, and real-time feedback during athletic training. Despite promising use cases such as heart rate variability-informed endurance training or gait retraining via biomechanical feedback, critical challenges remain. These include insufficient data quality, inadequately evaluated and inaccessible algorithms, limited interoperability between systems, difficulties translating sensor data into actionable insights, and insufficient wearable technology literacy among users. The Wearable Technologies Special Interest Group of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS-WT-SIG) identifies the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to address these challenges. Key priorities include developing regulatory frameworks, promoting standardized and open data infrastructure, improving wearable literacy of users, and conducting rigorous intervention studies under real-world conditions. The ECSS-WT-SIG calls on researchers, industry partners, NGOs, and other stakeholders to collectively advance the scientific and practical application of wearables in physical activity, sedentary behavior, training, sleep, and safety research.
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BibTeX
@article{duking2026wearable,
title = {{Wearable Technologies to Improve Physical Activity, Sedentary Breaks, Training, Sleep, and Safety: The ECSS-Wearable Technologies Special Interest Group Calls for Interdisciplinary Collaboration.}},
author = {Peter Düking and Marco Giurgiu and Shona Halson and Rene Schilling and Billy Sperlich and Martina Kanning and Birte von Haaren-Mack and Alexander Ferrauti and Tomas Vetrovsky and Markus Reichert},
journal = {European journal of sport science},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1002/ejsc.70270},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42998303},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Wearable Technologies to Improve Physical Activity, Sedentary Breaks, Training, Sleep, and Safety: The ECSS-Wearable Technologies Special Interest Group Calls for Interdisciplinary Collaboration.
AU - Peter Düking
AU - Marco Giurgiu
AU - Shona Halson
AU - Rene Schilling
AU - Billy Sperlich
AU - Martina Kanning
AU - Birte von Haaren-Mack
AU - Alexander Ferrauti
AU - Tomas Vetrovsky
AU - Markus Reichert
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/09
JO - European journal of sport science
DO - 10.1002/ejsc.70270
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42998303
AB - Wearable technologies ("wearables") are lightweight sensor-based devices that detect, analyze, and transmit physiological, biomechanical or environmental data, and are increasingly used across physical activity, sedentary behavior, athletic training, safety and sleep research. Applications include for example large-scale physical activity surveillance, ambulatory assessment, and real-time feedback during athletic training. Despite promising use cases such as heart rate variability-informed endurance training or gait retraining via biomechanical feedback, critical challenges remain. These include insufficient data quality, inadequately evaluated and inaccessible algorithms, limited interoperability between systems, difficulties translating sensor data into actionable insights, and insufficient wearable technology literacy among users. The Wearable Technologies Special Interest Group of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS-WT-SIG) identifies the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to address these challenges. Key priorities include developing regulatory frameworks, promoting standardized and open data infrastructure, improving wearable literacy of users, and conducting rigorous intervention studies under real-world conditions. The ECSS-WT-SIG calls on researchers, industry partners, NGOs, and other stakeholders to collectively advance the scientific and practical application of wearables in physical activity, sedentary behavior, training, sleep, and safety research.
SN - 1746-1391
SN - 1536-7290
ER -