Articles tagged with "Fitness"
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Wii Fit Reviewed
Making exercise fun is something that Nintendo has tried before. In 1986, they licensed Bandai's Family Trainer peripheral for the NES and launched it worldwide as the Power Pad. In the 90's, they created the Exertainment system - essentially an exercise bike with a SNES inside. Both products were capable of raising your heart rate, but offered little else in the way of improving your health or building good habits. Wii Fit sees Nintendo's honed skill in software and peripheral development come together for another crack at the holy grail of software - making exercise fun. (read more...)
Swinxs: a toy for active play
The Swinxs is a unique games system which encourages children to move and run while they’re having fun. Designed for active indoor and outdoor play the Swinxs communicates, cheers players on, explains games, referees and keeps game scores with the help of RFID wristbands worn by each player. (read more...)
Aquatic Fitness Systems' advanced swim spas
March 11, 2008 Aquatic Fitness Systems has taken a multi-faceted approach to the low impact benefits of training in the water by incorporating walking, running, stretching, rowing and strength training functionality into its line of luxury swim spas. (read more...)
Game Ready injury treatment system
CoolSystems has released the next generation of its Game Ready injury treatment system combining form-fitting wraps, cold and intermittent compression, and adjustable pressure and temperature settings. The convenient system is designed to be used for treatment of musculoskeletal injuries and post-operative rehabilitation. (read more...)
FIRST unveils high-tech virtual home training system
March 6, 2008 Planning to climb Everest? You may want to do some training first and this prototype Fitness@home virtual training system is just the ticket. New technology developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology (FIRST) in Berlin transports the mountain training ground - or any other outdoor training scenario - straight into your lounge room. (read more...)
Tiny body sensor provides real-time athlete monitoring
September 14, 2007 Real-time athlete monitoring is now firmly entrenched as an essential tool for elite athletes, with a growing array of sports monitoring systems available for both top-level sportspeople and your average fitness fanatic. This new body sensor currently under development at Imperial College promises a new level of usability by virtue of its form – the cufflink sized device clips behind the ear so as not to impede performance and delivers extensive metrics on posture, stride length, step frequency, acceleration and the body's response to shock waves. (read more...)
Strap-free heartrate monitor fits like a glove
July 12, 2007 Heart rate monitors have become an almost ubiquitous tool in fitness training, allowing athletes to ensure they're operating in the right BPM range to maximize the effectiveness of their cardio training or weight loss programs. The chest-strap used to take heart rate readings isn't universally popular though, as many find it uncomfortable and annoying. Adidas tried to solve this by building the sensor into a tight training shirt, NuMetrex built the sensor into a sports bra for women - and now Beurer has come up with a new system that fits as half a glove and reads heart rate from your index finger. The PM 100 beltless heartrate monitor uses photoplethysmography to determine your heart rate - it's effectively a flexible, soft equivalent of the plastic finger clip you get in hospital. While it won't be perfect for sportspeople that need to use their hands, those involved in running or other pure cardio exercise will likely find it a comfortable and no-fuss way to keep a constant tab on their heart rate. (read more...)
Exercise under your desk while you work
June 18, 2007 The adverse effects of a sedentary, desk-bound lifestyle are well documented - weight gain, lack of energy, concentration issues and poor health result when we spend the larger proportion of the day not moving. Here's an interesting way to tackle the problem - the Webble is a cute little footrest you place under your desk and push around with your feet, exercising your lower body and stomach muscles through the day as you go. (read more...)
The Tanita Ironman BC554 - bathroom scales on steroids
June 4, 2007 Weighing yourself every morning only tells you a small part of your overall health and fitness picture. Is the extra weight you've gained in the last week muscle or fat? This innovative set of bathroom scales tells you your weight, body fat percentage, body water percentage, muscle mass, bone mass, basal metabolic rate and a bunch of other metrics to help you fine-tune your fitness training and better understand your body's composition. (read more...)
Developing a viable cure for office worker obesity
May 22, 2007 Sitting still at a desk all day - like you're probably doing right now - is making the average office worker fatter and less healthy than we've ever been before. Gym workouts and regular exercise are not the key to breaking out of this cycle - a new study suggests that it's the sitting down that's killing us, and that a simple change to spending 2-3 hours a day gently walking at around 1mph while we work could help obese office workers lose up to 30kg a year. Dr. James Levine devised the walk-at-work treadmill to test the effectiveness of getting office workers off their butts - with fantastic results. (read more...)
Bluetooth health monitoring lets you upload your vital stats to your doctor from home
May 9, 2007 Turning the health-care model upside down, a small Australian company is working on bluetooth technology that logs and transmits medical observation data to a central network through a mobile phone - so your doctor can call YOU when a problem is developing. Alive's bluetooth technology is already proving useful in the recovery of cardiac outpatients and the diagnosis of sleep apnea - and a range of products in development aim to make advancements in health monitoring for diabetics, mountaineers and athletes in training. (read more...)
Cooling glove invigorates overheated athletes - and also delivers training performance gains
May 9, 2007 While traditional body cooling systems such as ice vests, wet towels and misting fans may feel like they're working to the benefit of the user, they're actually quite ineffective at reducing the body's core temperature, as they work against the body's natural insulation and heat retention systems. Through extensive research into mammalian heat regulation systems, AVAcore has developed a simple, portable device that effects heat exchange to the body core extremely quickly. You don't necessarily feel cooler, you just feel completely refreshed and less fatigued - and the system is producing some remarkable and unexpected results for athletes. (read more...)
The amazing InnerScan Segmental Body Composition Monitor
March 2, 2007 We’ve written about Tanita’s Innerscan previously, but the newly released Tanita BC-545 is such a leap forward in technology that it deserves more than just a mention. The BC-545 is designed to assess the impact of your training routine on different parts of your body. It is able to give individual body composition readings for five body segments (each arm, each leg and the trunk area). The measurements are taken quickly and accurately by standing on the 4 footplates and by pulling the hand electrodes that are housed in the base using retractable connecting cables. The monitor then sends a safe low signal from the hand and footplate electrodes through the body. The resistance to the measurement (known as Bio-electrical Impedance Analysis or BIA) is then fed into researched equations to provide your personalized body composition readings. As the device includes a calendar function, it can track the changes over time for you, so you can create comparison graphs showing a history for each segment of the body and for each of the body composition readings, so that you can see your progress, day by day, week by week and month by month over a three year period. The backlit buttons and animated illustrations are clear and user-friendly, and the scales come with batteries included and a three year guarantee. Needless to say, because the device sends electrical signals through the body, it is highly inadvisable to use this device if you have a heart pacemaker. (read more...)
The CelluBike burns cellulite and detoxifies the body while you work out
January 29, 2007 The CelluBike integrates cardio-vascular exercise with modern infrared technology to assist in weight loss and the reduction of cellulite. The CelluBike developers claim the infrared energy penetrates the body to warm and soften the hardened cellulite, then flushes it away through the increased cardio activity and accelerated metabolic processes. In addition to aiding in flushing cellulite from the body, infrared helps in ridding toxins from the body that are stored in the fatty tissue. This means the multiple-technology bike has many applications in the health, rehabilitation, wellness and medical professions, as it facilitates a deep cleansing treatment for the body, aiding detoxification of narcotic drugs and hormones, heavy metals, hydrocarbon residues, alcohol, nicotine, sodium and cholesterol. To its biggest market, the Cellubike looks like a more natural, less invasive alternative to liposuction with exceedingly bright prospects. In some of those other industries, it looks even more promising. Whatsmore, the monitor that tracks and displays your progress is also an entertainment centre to help you while away the hours. (read more...)
The step2play and CyberBike promise exercise for overweight children
November 18, 2006 Civilisation has a problem - the number of obese children (Ages 6 to 11) in America has more than doubled, and the number of obese adolescents (Ages 12 to 19) has more than tripled in the last 30 years with both representing more than 15 percent of their respective age group populations. Whatsmore, the number of overweight children represents another 15 percent and growing, so the recent development of a novel way of incorporating exercise into the health regime of children bears some thought. A British children’s fitness specialist has developed Step2Play, a step exercise machine that links directly to a child’s Playstation. A rate of exercise can be set at the start of the child’s game and then as long as the child maintains a constant rate of exercise as they play their video game, the game’s controller will remain active. If the child stops, the game pauses and the controller stops working. Two players can use different steppers and controllers to play two-player games. There is also another product named CyberBike which is designed for children as young as four and achieves a similar result. (read more...)
The Bodywall improves health for all age groups
The Bodywall is one of the most adaptable inventions we’ve ever seen. Designed as a way to assist athletes to stretch effectively, the high adhesion gloves and shoes and high-tech wall surface offer spiderman-like capabilities. So it’s a gym, a ready made game and new form of physical education and wil be undoubtedly incorporated into the training regime of every elite athlete on the planet. But its chameleon-like character solves different problems in different markets. As in the parable of the seven blind men and the elephant, each person experiences and perceives the Bodywall in a different way. The original concept was to use a combination of the wall and gravity to challenge the entire body – improving proprioception, building muscle, joint, ligament and tendon strength, maintaining flexibility, reducing injury, rehabilitating injuries and facilitating full stretching of almost every muscle in the body for the very young and the very old, and everyone in between. Bodywall can be used either privately or very publicly, and can be manufactured for an audience of one, with the manufacturers offering a personal service, accepting four-colour, high resolution digital imaging. For an individual training for their own life goals, the Bodywall’s massive surface is an ideal place to decorate with personal messages to absorb while stretching – a great place to focus energies, emblazon a life purpose or a “go get ‘em” motivational mantra. It can function as a personal billboard for athletes and on a team scale, it offers a mobile sponsor wall that can be set up quickly at any training venue, in the change rooms or beside the pitch, court or track. In a world obsessed with sport, it’s a new high-association, visual advertising medium for sponsors. Whichever way you look at this invention, it ticks ALL the boxes. (read more...)
OSIM releases US$600 horseback riding exercise machine
August 15, 2006 Singapore’s Osim is in the business of making a range of high quality exercise and health related machinery and it certainly didn’t take the company long to come out with a rival for the Panasonic Joba which has been under development for several years and captivated Gizmag's female readers when we first wrote about it in early 2005 because it’s a perfect machine for maintaining a trim figure. The OSIM iGallop appears to work in exactly the same way as the Joba, working on the body’s core to shape and tone the tummy, hips, seat and thighs. It’s a zero impact exercise machine, and works the body by requiring multidirectional movements to maintain balance, with this constant balancing engaging certain muscle groups, and helping to improve balance, coordination and posture. The new iGallop starts shipping today at Brookstone, and the really good news is that it comes in at US$600, waaay less than Panasonic’s US$2000. (read more...)
Nike+iPod
May 24, 2006 Nike and Apple have announced a partnership designed to bring the worlds of sport and music together with the launch of innovative Nike+iPod products. The first product developed through this partnership is the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, a wireless system that allows Nike+ footwear to record time, distance, calories burned and pace with info displayed on the iPod nano screen and real-time audio feedback through headphones. The new Nike+ Air Zoom Moire is the first footwear designed to talk to the iPod and Nike plans to make its other footwear styles Nike+ ready too. It’s simple and in our opinion gives you scant info you can’t get better another way – it’s just an in-shoe sensor and a receiver that attaches to the iPod. While we think the first product is a bit lame, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when Apple, the most consistently innovative company of the last 25 years, and Nike combine technologies with the reach of both companies. With two such innovative parents, we suspect some interesting children will be spawned. Our educated guesses at what they would logically be evaluating as potential products might include new capabilities such as a heart rate monitor to make the 24 hour a day calorie counter more accurate and to enable other useful data to be monitored, GPS functionality for additional info on position and speed and so we can be notified when we’re passing points of interest and hear a podcast about them should we choose, a blood oxygenation and lactose monitor for people who run really long distances, … oh, and maybe a cool Nike cap with a little heads up display incorporated so we can watch video podcasts without headbutting a lamppost. (read more...)
New Invention “Powers” TVs with exercise.
January 31, 2006 We’re not sure if this is a good idea, or akin to signing up for a tour of duty with a society of flagellant monks. The EnterTrainer Cardio-TV-Trainer is a wireless device that converts any exercise machine and TV, video game or stereo into an interactive workout system. The EnterTrainer combines a wireless heart monitor and a universal remote control and maintains the correct volume for the device you wish to watch/play/listen to when your heart is working in the target zone you have set. Too low or too high and the volume is lowered until you get your heart pumping in the right zone again. At US99 it’s not all that expensive compared to most wrist-worn heart rate monitors but then again, they can be used to monitor your heart rate anywhere whereas this is location-specific. For some people, the Entertrainer will be very useful, but most will probably find it a little one-dimensional and we figure it’ll get used for a while and unhooked so you can use the game console, telly or stereo in its normal mode … and maybe never get hooked up again. The company is also set to release an “iTrainer” Cardio Training Headphones for use with iPods. In our mind, the idea behind compelling and usable exer-tainment devices is to enrol and reward the participant, not to punish. But if you have an overweight child who watches too much telly, it might be ideal. See what we mean … oh no, not another wicked thought. (read more...)
Polar F55 heart rate monitor combines cardio and strength training
January 29, 2006 Finish heart-rate monitoring specialist Polar invented the first wireless heart rate monitor (HRM) in 1977 and has been a step ahead of the rest in helping people understand the importance of monitoring your body’s most important organ ever since. It is now going one step further in helping consumers better understand their bodies and achieve their fitness goals with a new total body workout model, the Polar F55 heart rate monitor. Incorporating both strength training and cardio exercise, the Polar F55 is ideal for exercisers looking for a complete full-body workout. (read more...)
Sports bra monitors heart rate with built-in heart monitor
December 23, 2005 We’ve written a lot about heart monitoring and the advances in monitoring technologies over the last few years, reporting on Adidas’ Project Fusion, the BodyBugg, Garmin’s system for cyclists, Dual Sports combined heart rate monitor and MP3 player and Polar’s RS200sd Running Computer. With the exception of the first two, all of these monitors require the wearing of a chest strap and while this is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable enough for men, it creates much more of a problem for women. Now there’s an answer from heaven - a heart sensing sports bra. (read more...)
The Polar RS200sd Running Computer
Though the advanced Polar-Adidas Fusion training system is still some way off, Polar's new RS200sd running computer offers most of the benefits without the clothing integration, at a fraction of the cost. Features include a suite of software to analyse what you’re doing with your bod – calorie and heart rate tracking and even a fitness test. There are 5 heart rate zones that can be customised to support your individual training needs and graphics guiding the user to the desired training result. The screen effectively becomes a user-configurable dashboard for a human being when used with a Polar S1 Footpod advanced inertial sensor to provide real time speed, pace and distance. (read more...)
adidas and Polar introduce the world’s first completely integrated training system
August 10, 2005 Polar Electro and adidas have formed a partnership to introduce the world’s first completely integrated training system. Called “Project Fusion”, it seamlessly integrates Polar heart rate and speed and distance monitoring equipment into adidas apparel and footwear. The system combines the adiStar Fusion range of apparel, the adiStar Fusion shoe, Polar’s s3 Stride Sensor, the Polar WearLink transmitter and the Polar RS800 Running Computer into one system. Special fibers bonded onto adidas tops, work in conjunction with Polar’s Wear Link technology to eliminate the need for a separate chest strap to monitor heart rate. Just snap the tiny Polar WearLink connector onto the front of the shirt and go. The data is wirelessly sent to the wrist-mounted running computer, which displays and records all information in real time. The adiStar Fusion shoe has a cavity in the midsole which can house the Polar s3 Stride Sensor. As with the heart rate monitor, data is sent wirelessly to your running computer. Information like speed and distance, chronograph functions, along with heart rate, are shown on the RS800 in real time. And when the workout is over, all data can be downloaded onto a computer so workouts can be easily managed and analysed. (read more...)
New wearable body monitor continuously measures calorific output
June 3 Weight loss is a fairly logical thing – if calorific intake is less than calorific output, you lose weight. Measuring calorific intake and output is the difficulty though – if that was all automated, losing weight and understanding the process would be infinitely easier. Well now it is, thanks to the release of bodybugg. The bodybugg is a wearable body monitor that measures the calories burned by the wearer, continuously and over time. When uploaded to the bodybugg website, this data creates a "dashboard" of the wearer's progress that can be used to modify eating and exercise habits. Its ability to precisely monitor total energy expenditure, combined with the website's ability to automatically estimate calories consumed based on body mass changes, removes the need for individuals to log their caloric intake or exercise. (read more...)
Fitness cards break the monotony of exercise
November 20, 2004 FitDeck, a new cardgame developed by a former Navy SEAL, enables the creation of your own random fitness workout by simply shuffling the deck and performing up to 50 exercises pictured and described on the card faces. The novel approach to fitness introduces the element of fun and breaks up the monotony of standard exercise regimens. (read more...)
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