Fitness Gadgets to Get You Across the Finish Line
January 14th, 2013 by TiffanyIn case you’ve fumbled on your New Year’s resolutions, these gadgets will bring you right back on track! Make your resolutions – and life in general easier with these convenient and clever fitness gadgets and apps. Here are 10 of the best fitness gadgets on the market that are sure to help you make it to and across the finish line!
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Talking Strength Ball
Aimed at enabling anyone aged 9+ to build up their muscles, this talking ball enables you to use programmable workouts or personalized regimes. Perfect for young athletes, working professionals, or anyone that wants to skip the additional monthly fees for a personal trainer and still get results.
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PoolMate Watch
Perfect for the beginner or advanced swimmer, this waterproof watch has a detector which senses your strokes and laps while swimming. It detects your lap count, average strokes per lap, speed, calories burned and more. Swimming is one of the best ways to get in shape, and with this watch you can know exactly how much further you have to go to get to your desired goals.
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FitBit One
During the day this clever little device tracks your steps, distance covered, calories burned and stairs climbed with its motion sensor. The difference between this and other pedometers- come nightfall, it measures your sleep cycle! Make sure you’re getting the necessary exercise and sleep needed to reach your ideal goals. FitBit can also sync with maps, helping you to chart your progress online. You may find yourself taking the longer route or the stairs to increase your numbers!
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FitBit Flex
Like the Fitbit and want even more for your money? Well FitBit has moved past the clip-on fitness tracker. At CES 2013 the company announced its Fitbit Flex — a wearable wristband with Bluetooth 4.0 that keeps track of your workouts and sleep cycle. The slim wristband can be worn 24/7 and is a constant reminder of your fitness goals. iPhone and Android both have apps that sync with the FitBit Flex.
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Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale
Perfect for the combined data nerd and health nut, the Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale tracks weight, body mass index and body fat numbers for up to eight people (i.e. an entire family), which are sent to an online account by Wi-Fi. You can view your data on either the website or in the Withings app for iPhone, iPad and Android.
Storm Cotton Hoodie
This may look like your average sweat shirt, but it’s far from it. Storm has come up with a hi-tech cotton hoodie that repels water as soon as it touches its surface. The water simply beads up and runs straight off, like water repellent that is used on car windshields. Guaranteed to keep you dry and warm while you sweat it out, or if running in the rain.
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MiCoach Pacer
The MiCoach Pacer is composed of three devices, the receiver (miCoach), heart rate monitor and pedometer. The real advantage of using MiCoach is its heart rate monitor and coupled with the MiCoach itself, it will instruct you if you need to speed up or slow down based on your training plan. Pretty cool right? Serious runners know that the best way to train for a run (especially marathons) is by tracking your heart rate so you can maintain your tempo pace.
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Zombies, Run!
Picking between reading that novel and going for a jog just got easier! Zombies, Run! was co-created with Naomi Alderman, an award-winning novelist, and is the first fitness app to blend these vocations. When you start a run either outdoors or at the gym, the narration leads you through a story line telling you when to speed up, lay off, go for supplies or escape the living dead. This app gives new life to something that is tedious and dreadful to most people. If music isn’t enough motivation during your run, this app includes 30 missions so that you’ll always discover something new around the corner, and with more missions coming with each update there’ll always be a plot twist ahead.
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iBike Powerhouse App
If you routinely take your iPhone with you on bike rides, you might as well put it to work as a fitness trainer. The iBike Powerhouse phone app allows you to develop a customized training program to get the most out of cycling. The program measures speed and distance and analyzes your performance against your personal goals. The iBike Powerhouse also includes a waterproof iPhone case that mounts on your handlebars.
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Pulse Ring Monitor
The Pulse Ring from Firebox is super basic, it measures your pulse. One of the most important stats to be aware of is your pulse. Whether you’re building up your stamina or trying to lose weight, it’s important to know whether you’re hitting the high numbers every so often or keeping at a steady pace. So, the Pulse Ring from Firebox is ideal because it provides you with real-time and accurate readings about your pulse through a number of infra-red sensors that measure what’s going on in your finger. The ring itself is really lightweight and has an elasticated, adjustable strap to make sure it’s as comfy as possible as you’re working out, we all know tight gadgets that need to be strapped to your arm or chest can be really annoying when all you want to do is run, run, run.
These fitness gadgets are a sure way to reach those fitness resolutions you set at the end of last year. Choose your specific workout gadgets and exercise with purpose!
Do you have a favorite fitness gadget or any experience with the ones above? Tell us below…
Five Tips To Spark Consistency In Your Workout Routine…
December 7th, 2012 by Lifestyle StaffThe year that we were not predicted to see is right around the corner! For some that means adjusting their beliefs that the Mayans were right. For others that means setting some New Year’s resolutions. Eating healthier, getting finances in order, and working out are among the most popular resolutions made each year.
Every first week of January gyms are at full capacity with new membership cards being activated and consistently swiped. Then February attendance drops down to where it was just two months prior. People begin to lose sight of their goals and don’t stick with their resolutions. Although I am not one for New Year’s resolutions, I can definitely relate. Have you told yourself time and time again that you would work out consistently at the beginning of a season, and then fallen off before it comes to an end? I definitely have, however I have learned some tricks along the way that help me stay consistent when I feel myself slipping.
Here are five tips that can keep you going when those 1-mile runs and Bikram yoga classes sound unappealing.
1. Write down your goals.
Why are you working out in the first place? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to be toned? Or do you just want to get the weekly minimum of two hours and thirty minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, as suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?
Whatever the case may be, write it down and stick it up somewhere. Post it on your refrigerator, your bathroom mirror, office door, or wherever works for you.
2. Make a plan.
A study at the Dominican University of California showed that people tend to stick to goals and tasks when they have been written down AND shared with someone. Every weekend write down your workout plan for the week. When you have a solid plan going into the week, you are more likely to follow through. If you write down your daily activities into a planner or program them into an electronic calendar, try adding your workout times to your daily plans. Recording such things shows that you’re serious, and is also a way you can check your consistency and hold yourself accountable.
3. Have an accountability partner.
But let’s face it. Keeping yourself accountable is not always enough when you have more obligations. Get someone that will talk some sense into you when you feel like giving up on your goals. This could be a friend, a family member, or a workout buddy. This person can be also be a personal trainer that already knows your goals. Either way, it should be someone that will hold you accountable to the workouts you say you are going to do.
4. Buy a series worth of classes.
When you spend money on a class, it is more likely that you will attend, thus getting in your workout time for the week. You bought them, so that motivation to not waste money will help. Gyms often have classes available for their members already. If you don’t have a membership you can also look into recreational centers and studios in your neighborhood for fitness class offerings, or check out Groupon or Living Social for great deals.
5. Take on a challenge.
Every month HeyFranHey comes up with a challenge to put out into the cyber world. The challenge gives you a variety of tasks to complete every day of the week, often increasing in intensity each week. The #MadFree #30for30 challenge is also underway for the month of December. Taking on a challenge like this allows you to start off slow and push yourself as your body gets acclimated with the new routine.
What are some things that keep you going when working out seems like no fun? Are there any alternative workouts that make your exercise exciting? Any monthly challenges that keep you consistent?
Skyrocket Your Fitness Goals This Winter: Join the #MADFree #30for30 Movement
December 3rd, 2012 by Lifestyle StaffAs the weather turns to cloudy skies and blistery-cold days, staying in shape and maintaining an exercise routine becomes a challenge for many of us. Image Activist Michaela Angela Davis began the #MadFree #30for30 Movement to show Black women that #FitIsFly and to keep us motivated to exercise through the New Year. This online event started December 1, 2012 with the tagline: “30 minutes can make such a difference in our lifestyle and productivity!” Facebook group members pledge to be active for at least 30 minutes per day in an effort to be happier and healthier in 2013.
Approximately 360 members have joined the group. Posts range from sharing ideas about healthy snacks, tips on DVDs, apps and unique workout routines (e.g., hula hooping with weights, dancing in a musical, plank variations), and simply sharing in the progress of building a movement where Black women stay fit and healthy. The trending topic has also spread to Instagram and Twitter, encouraging women daily.
Diva Tip: For inspiration and a frequent reminder of your pledge – for the month of December, change the lock screen on your phone or tablet to a picture of your desired body image or to a graphic of exercise tips such the Say No! to Hibernation Winter Body Workout (below) from Fit Betty. As you go about your day, you’ll frequently be reminded to set aside 30 minutes for movement, exercise and healthy eating.
Need more than that to catch the #FitIsFly bug? Watch the official #MadFree trailer here:
MAD FREE Sizzle from MADFREEtv on Vimeo.
Feel the passion pouring from Davis through the screen, then join the movement and share your progress!
Already joined the movement? Have more winter workout tips? Share below…
New Year’s Resolutions: Fitness Motivation From Your Mobile Phone
January 6th, 2012 by ChristenGetting fit & improving your health is something that’s on everyone’s resolution list. This year, it’s easier than ever when you have a fitness reminder in the palm of your hand. Don’t believe me? Let me introduce you to FitFu!
What’s FitFu? Think of FitFu as a personal trainer in your pocket that keeps you active with little bits of exercise throughout the day. It’s so easy to use, that everyone can fit in a few reps between emails, TV ad breaks, phone calls or meetings. In fact, it even uses the accelerometer to count for you – the ultimate in lazy fitness 
FitFu 2.0 now comes with 23 courses to train you from just a few reps to 50 or even 100 in popular exercises like Pushups, Crunches, Squats and 9 others.
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We all know that keeping moving throughout the day is key to our health – but with FitFu you can use these exercise breaks to surprise yourself by achieving amazing new fitness goals! FitFu 2.0’s courses build on our hit apps CrunchFu and PushupFu by gradually training you from just a few reps to goals such as 200 Crunches and 100 Pushups.
Talk about a pocket-sized trainer! I’ll definitely be using this app for a few mid day workouts – who knows? I could be bikini-season ready before we know it…perhaps…
What apps have you used to keep you in shape? Would you consider using an app like FitFu?
THIRSTY? The iDration Workout is for You!
December 8th, 2010 by Christen
A water bottle that tells your body when you’re THIRSTY? Yes, the future is now. Research and development firm Cambridge Consultants will be showing off its intriguing “i-dration” concept fitness water bottle at CES next month, combining a series of sensors on the bottle itself that communicate with an app you’ve got installed on your smartphone. The bottle will measure ambient temperature, how much fluid you’ve pounded, and how often you’ve consumed it; the phone, meanwhile, will use its accelerometer to measure how hard you’re working out and combine that with heart rate data from a chest strap. After crunching some numbers, the app determines whether you’re low on H2O –
Some features include:
1. Provide the heat index based off the body’s temperature in it’s current location;
2. Display the level of heat-illness risk under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) heat index;
3. Allow parents, coaches and athletic trainers to schedule hydration reminders for before, during and after sports; and
4. Help facilitate the replacement of fluids lost during sports based on urine color and/or amount of weight lost.
I would love to get my hands on a prototype, since I’ve already made plans to hit the gym super hard – this might be just the gadget to keep me working out for the long haul!
