How to Wire Their Workouts
Technology can enhance just about anybody’s personal fitness regimen – from weakened warriors to triathletes in training. Here’s how to get with it
By Dana Carman
CTW Features
GPS for runners: Garmin’s Forerunner 305 offers high-sensitivity GPS with heart-rate monitoring, pace and distance tracking
’Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry. Spirits imbibed, cookies inhaled and calories consumed in the name of the holidays never count … until Jan. 1, anyway. Luckily, this season also brings a grand selection of new technology geared toward giving us a little extra inspiration to get fit and stay fit. Come the New Year, someone on your gift list may be making a resolution to train for a triathlon, lose a few pounds or simply find a sport they want to stick with. Wrap up a special gift for them: a technology-driven fitness product designed to make them want to sweat.
Lose Yourself in Your Workout
Back in the day, you put your shoes on, stepped outside and navigated according to street signs. How far? Get in the car and drive the course to figure out your distance. Nowadays, you can strap on a Global Positioning System-enabled watch and track speed, distance and route right on your wrist. Garmin’s Forerunner 305 ($299) combines high-sensitivity GPS with heart-rate monitoring, pace and distance tracking through an optional foot-pod accessory. The device can track training for multiple sports without resetting the unit, allowing users, say, to take it biking then hop off and go for a run.
Athletes who already own a watch and heart-rate monitor can acquire a GPS device with additional features that appeal to the sports-minded. Trimble’s AllSport GPS software for GPS-enabled phones measures time, speed, distance, elevation and calories burned, and it records route maps and allows users to download routes to the phone. Upload all the data recorded to a personal online calendar and share routes with others. As a standalone application, it’s priced at $6 a month through Sprint and Nextel. AllSport’s also available packaged with a Geocache Navigator and Trimble Outdoors, an outdoor trip-planning application, for $7 a month.
Listen Up
Pumping up the music while pumping iron isn’t a new idea, but every year advances in technology make it easier to tech up, tune in and maximize a workout. Partnering with Apple, Timex has introduced the iControl watch ($125), which wirelessly syncs with an iPod so you can change songs and control the volume without breaking stride. iControl, part of Timex’s Ironman collection of sport watches, features other training tools, such as a lap memory recall chronograph; a training log that stores current workout with date, best lap and average lap; and two interval timers for speed and endurance training.
Nike Web
Another well-known product in the sports market, the Nike+ Sport Kit ($29), combines music and personal training by connecting an Apple iPod to a sensor in your shoe. The device tracks pace, distance and time all the while playing a runner’s favorite music. Now more than a year old, the Nike+ Sport Kit offers new online features. When users sync up the iPod with a computer, they can log workouts, create goals, connect with other runners and also create challenges, set rules and select participants and team names. Essentially you can set up your own virtual event or participate in one that Nike has created. Nike also is creating original music that will be available on iTunes.
Movin’ to the beat: Yamaha’s BodiBeat, a portable music player and heart-monitoring system, selects tunes to match the pace of an exerciser’s heartbeat
The beat goes on, right in step with the intensity of your workout with Yamaha’s new BodiBeat ($300). The music player utilizes heart-rate monitoring technology to select songs to match the pace of a workout. Accompanied by software that categorizes songs by beats per minute and a heart-rate monitor that clips onto your ear, the player automatically matches the song to the pace of an individual workout. It also tracks an exerciser’s distance, time, pace and heart rate.
Give the Gift of Relaxation
For your favorite athlete, fitness fanatic or that special someone who deserves a break, make room under the tree for a portable massager. The rechargeable HoMedics Quad Extreme ($20) never needs batteries. It has four massage nodes and a glowing blue light, the better to relax sore muscles after a workout.
Get Your Heart Racing
Polar, the company that popularized heart-rate monitors, has introduced the Polar CS600 with Power ($700) for cyclists. In addition to measuring heart rate, calorie expenditure and incline, the device also measures power output through chain tension. Now all cyclists can train as if they’re riding in the Tour de France. The data collected can be downloaded using the Polar ProTrainer software, which also allows users to create workouts and wirelessly upload them to the CS600.
When the Weather Outside Is Frightful
There’s something to be said for braving the elements and persevering through that workout on cold, winter days, especially when you have to keep taking off your gloves to use your iPod track wheel. Well, not anymore. There’s a new glove in town designed to keep your hands warm and your listening pleasure intact. From 180s, the new Tec-Touch Gloves ($50) and lighter weight Tec-Touch Stretch ($30) gloves let you maneuver your MP3 player or even your cell phone without having to get even one finger chilled. Silicon gel pads strategically placed on the thumb and forefinger allow a user to manipulate mobile phones, iPods or Blackberries without taking off the gloves.
Heart-rate monitors have come a long way from the days when they came in one style: a hard and uncomfortable strap around the chest. The NuMetrex Heart Rate Monitor System offers a line of exercise clothing with tiny monitors literally built into the apparel. Sensors in the fabric of the new Heart Sensing Racer Tank ($56) for women relay heart-rate information to a tiny transmitter that snaps into a pocket of the bra and transmits the data to a monitor worn on the wrist. It’s compatible with the Polar WearLink transmitter, and all Polar heart-rate monitors, and can be purchased as a complete system. The NuMetrex line also includes a sports bra ($50) and a men’s cardio shirt ($59).
White Christmas
For the snowsport lover in your life, Tech4O offers two wristwatch options to enhance the fresh powder experience. The Alti-Ski Watch ($100) is an altimeter, barometer, thermometer and automatic run counter that displays cumulative ascent and descent information. The Snowsport Speedometer ($179) is not for skiers intent on spending a low-key day on the bunny hill. Using the same radar technology as law enforcement, the device measures miles-per-hour on the mountain through a radar sensor clipped onto a jacket or boot or strapped onto your leg.
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