The Vitality Group Adds TrainingPeaks to Help Members Reach Their Health and Fitness Goals

CHICAGO, March 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- To make it easier for members to achieve their health and fitness goals, The Vitality Group has added the TrainingPeaks interactive online training and nutrition tool to its incentive-based health and wellness program. The addition of TrainingPeaks adds to the already expansive list of devices and other fitness partners in the program used to measure and verify activity. The Vitality Group has developed the largest network of health and wellness providers in the U.S., including nearly 100 GPS, heart rate and pace tracking devices and more than 8,000 health club locations.

Vitality members register for TrainingPeaks through their Vitality account. A verified workout is considered to be 30 minutes or more at 60 percent of maximum heart rate.

"We recognize that robust incentives are required to facilitate behavior change," said Arthur C. Carlos, CEO of The Vitality Group. "To preserve the return on investment for employers the Vitality program rests on 100% verifiability. We have created a network of partners such as health clubs, biometric screening retailers and devices that lowers the burden of access and cost to members, in addition to providing data linkage to Vitality for verification. The addition of TrainingPeaks provides our members with a significant number of new devices to track and validate their activities."

How Vitality Works

Accessed online, the Vitality program begins with a Health Risk Assessment that identifies relative risk factors for each member and provides them with their Vitality Age™. This is a scientifically calculated representation of their risk-adjusted or "true" age, allowing each member to easily understand how their current behaviors are impacting their health. Additionally, each member is presented with a Personal Pathway™, or a personalized set of activities and goals to assist them in improving their health. This provides a verifiable and clinically sound mechanism to track and reward more than 30 health-related activities including exercising, achieving health goals such as losing weight or stopping smoking, receiving routine preventive care, such as a prostate exam or mammogram, and participating in health education programs. Members are incentivized for their participation throughout the program and earn Vitality Points™, redeemable for merchandise on the Vitality Mall.

"We are honored to provide the software tools for Vitality program members to accurately record their walking, running, cycling and other exercise tracked using a GPS, heart rate, power or speed and distance monitoring device," said Gear Fisher, CEO of Peaksware. "We continue to make tracking exercise convenient and easy for active people, which when paired with the Vitality program will result in more people achieving their health and fitness goals."

About Peaksware

Founded in 1999, Peaksware, LLC, develops software systems to help motivated individuals and professionals achieve health, fitness and peak performance. TrainingPeaks.com customers span the entire lifestyle continuum from elite Ironman and Tour de France podium finishers to first time marathoners and everyday individuals looking to take control of their personal nutrition and fitness goals. In addition to their own direct to consumer product offerings, Peaksware provides private labeled solutions to companies such as Timex; events such as the Rock 'n' Roll Marathons Series and the New York City Marathon; publishers such as Runner's World and Outside Magazine; and wellness platforms such as The Vitality Group. For more information or to discuss business development opportunities, contact [email protected].

About The Vitality Group

The Vitality Group is a member of Discovery Holdings Limited, a leading international financial services institution founded on the principles of consumer engagement and wellness and the originator of the Vitality health promotion program. Vitality wellness programs serve more than 1.9 million members in companies in a wide range of sizes and industry categories, improving individuals' health and well-being as well as employers' and health plans' bottom lines. Early adopters in the United States include some of America's most forward-thinking companies. They join global organizations in the United Kingdom and South Africa who together are proving the effectiveness of the Vitality health enhancement solution in reducing healthcare costs. www.thevitalitygroup.com

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Arthur Carlos
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SOURCE The Vitality Group