Effect of education and e-bikes on rates of physical activity in sedentary adults

The study will require participants to attend two laboratorial sessions to complete the following: • The Physical activity stage of change questionnaire • The International physical activity questionnaire-short form (IPAQ-SF) • A bespoke process evaluation questionnaire (at post-testing only) • The Barriers to Being Active Quiz • 24-hr food record • Stature and body mass • Cardiometabolic health outcomes; resting blood pressure and fasted blood glucose • Cardiorespiratory fitness: Graded exercise test to assess peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak). • Maximal leg power: Vertical jump. After completing these questionnaires and tests, participants will be provided with an e-bike (a pedal-powered bicycle with electric motor assistance) to ride on an indoor circuit for 10-min, to familiarise with the equipment. Participants will then be asked to rank their likelihood of using an e-bike from a visual analogue scale (VAS) where zero will indicate ‘very unlikely’ and ten will indicate ‘very likely’. Participants will then be asked to record reasons for their given VAS score. Motion during the 10-min ride will be collected using a portable motion capture system to determine balance and steering of the e-bike. Laboratory testing will be conducted before the use of an e-bike, and after 4 weeks of using an e-bike. Participants will also be asked to use, as often as possible, an e-bike for 4 weeks before returning to the laboratory for testing. Travel data from their e-bike use will be monitored using the e-bike odometer. After this, they will return to the laboratory to repeat the tests. We expect that pre and post intervention tests will require a total of 60-min in each visit, along with 4 weeks of use of the e-bike. Motivational Interviewing with Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MI-CBT) will be incorporated into weekly audio meeting for participants (15-20 min each) with a trained member of the research team to discuss weekly the participants goals and expectations from the exercise intervention, past experiences with physical activity, how to identify potential barriers to long-term physical activity and strategies to overcome the identified barriers. Research team will implement MI-CBT strategies including open ended questions, affirmations, reflection, and summary to guide the participants through the intervention for four weeks engaging individually with participants. Adherence to the intervention would be through Polar Flow, with adherence to the MI-CBT intervention session attendance.