This week PumpOne pumped it up and launched the FitnessBuilder.com website, offering the largest collection of high-quality on-demand, streaming fitness videos for users on a Mac or PC. Additionally, the company introduced the ClassPass, a simple monthly or yearly subscription that provides users with unlimited access to all 370 full-length video workouts across iPad and FitnessBuilder.com. The ClassPass is now available for users of the FitnessClass App on iPad via the new update, which also includes support for the Retina display on the new iPad. The FitnessClass App is available for free from the Apple App Store for iPad, while ClassPass is available monthly for $9.99 or yearly for $99.99. Continue reading PumpOne Pumps Out FitnessBuilder Website and Updates App
Category: Home Fitness
Xbox Will Soon Offer Excercise Tracking with Kinect Play Fit and Joule Heart Rate Monitor
Microsoft’s Kinect was designed to bring a little exercise into the otherwise sedentary world of video games, and for the most part, it’s succeeded at doing just that. Now the Internet is buzzing about a potential new upgrade for the Xbox 360 and Kinect. As reported by The Verge, Microsoft will soon launch a new fitness-based service for the Xbox 360 dashboard called Kinect Play Fit. Accompanying the dashboard upgrade will be a heart rate monitor codenamed Joule. Combined, the service and heart rate monitor will let gamers track their physical activity across multiple Kinect games letting users store metrics, achievements, and badges all in the cloud.
A major component of this new dashboard upgrade will be the Joule heart rate monitor. It will function much like a traditional wireless heart rate monitor encouraging gamers to keep their heart rate within their target goal. The Joule monitor will be compatible with most Kinect games, although it won’t be mandatory for any of the games or services provided by Kinect Fit Play. Continue reading Xbox Will Soon Offer Excercise Tracking with Kinect Play Fit and Joule Heart Rate Monitor
Adidas miCoach Gets in the Game
Adidas miCoach is looking to follow The Biggest Loser and Zumba Fitness into the video game arena. This week 505 Games announced that it would publish the upcoming Adidas miCoach for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3. the Xbox Kinect motion camera peripheral and the PlayStation Move controller accessory will be not only supported , but will be integral parts of the game. Continue reading Adidas miCoach Gets in the Game
Milan Design Week 2012: Exercise by Design
The Italians take two things very seriously – design and bicycles. So it is no surprise at this week’s Milan Design Week 2012 several new fitness devices were introduced, which can only be described in a word as “cutting-edge.” Video after the jump
Made in America: SilverSport
Most of us who frequent the gym know that it can be a place with some ‘funky‘ smells. Not because the attendants do not keep it clean, but because some of the materials in the equipment like vinyl, rubber and plastics can be difficult to rid of smells. The warm and humid climate, along with the human contact is the perfect breeding ground for odor-causing bacteria to grow and thrive. This is where the company SilverSport saw a need and they have developed a line of products to help your workout be as clean and odorless as possible. Continue reading Made in America: SilverSport
Can’t Make the Gym? Go Online
You can find plenty of exercise tips and video demonstrations online, helping to make working out at home affordable and accessible without having to sign up and pay for a pricey gym membership and personal trainer. Unfortunately, like your Jane Fonda VHS tapes of yore, a lot of the Web content is infrequently updated and moves in a one-way direction, meaning that, with the exception for forums, you can’t ask your virtual trainers for feedback.
But a story from the Canadian Press is following a new trend of home exercises where users can stream live online fitness content and updated on-demand videos, creating a virtual gym within their homes. In addition to the convenience, these virtual gyms allow the gym-phobic to get fitness instruction without ever stepping foot in a facility.
Like a real gym, however, you will have to pay for the resource. But one gym profiled in the story, Flirty Girl Fitness, a women’s only center in Toronto, said that 6,000 people are using its online service, which features access to live classes.
The virtual gym won’t do much to encourage motivation, but it’s one less excuse you’ll have for not hitting the gym.
Winnipeg Free Press: Live online streaming brings the gym experience to home users
Sunday Q&A: Darren Capik Tells Why We’ll Watch It Now
Home video sales of DVDs have seen a sharp decline, but the fitness category is showing healthy growth. It isn’t too hard to remember the work out videos of the 1980s, and Darren Capik, CEO of Watch It Now Entertainment (WIN) believes fitness will continue drive the market.
His full service production company enables clients the ability to produce and direct celebrity-driven fitness media by completing every aspect of fitness projects under one roof. WIN remains one of the premier fitness production houses in America and is poised to be a leader in the $30 billion a year fitness industry. It has been commissioned by studios and distributors including Lion’s Gate, Warner Bros, GAIAM, Anchor Bay Entertainment/Starz and Paramount Home Video to produce and direct celebrity-driven fitness media. Celebrity clients include Bob Harper, Jane Fonda, Billy Blanks, Richard Simmons, Kim Kardashian, Julianne Hough, Brooke Burke, Tara Stiles, Deepak Chopra, George St Pierre and Carmen Electra, among many others.
Darren talked to KineticShift about the business of fitness DVDs. Continue reading Sunday Q&A: Darren Capik Tells Why We’ll Watch It Now
IHRSA: TrekDesk Lets You Walk While You Work
Trying to squeeze a workout in during office hours is no easy task. Fortunately, companies such as TrekDesk are designing products that can help you do both. At last week’s International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, TrekDesk demonstrated its flagship product, the TrekDesk Treadmill Desk, which we covered back in 2010. The TrekDesk Treamill Desk (which doesn’t include a treadmill despite its name) was designed to sit over your treadmill and let you workout while you work, browse the Web, or watch TV. The desk itself can accommodate various setups ranging from a laptop to a dual-monitor workstation. Its main purpose is to prevent a sedentary lifestyle and get people moving. Continue reading IHRSA: TrekDesk Lets You Walk While You Work
Wii Will Cycle
Video games have opened possibilities beyond mere “gaming.” While no one is actually going to be a rock star playing the various musical themed games, the wave of Rock Band and Guitar Hero have reportedly inspired some young musicians while more recent releases have actually utilized more realistic instruments. On the fitness side of things games have tried to encourage exercise, with motion control opening up new possibilities.
But just as real music isn’t actually being created with video game controllers, real exercise isn’t happening either. And the interesting part is that it should be so hard. Dr. Werner Schoeman is one researcher who thinks that video game systems could be used as exercise machines.
“There remains a significant market segment untapped in the cycling game genre,” Dr. Schoeman tells KineticShift.com, “specifically it has been a practical hardware interface that has proven difficult. Most cycle simulator games require you to buy the whole cycle, such as the typical cycle simulator games found in up market gyms.” Continue reading Wii Will Cycle
Crestron Looks to Make Motion a Controller
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In the 1980s “The Clapper” worked with sound to allow lazy people to turn lights on and off without having to get up to do so. Now Crestron is looking to help simply our daily lives in a similar way – but by actually using some motion. Continue reading Crestron Looks to Make Motion a Controller
Sears Gets in Fitness Game
Mass retailer Sears has tried to redefine itself a few times. The store that is still probably best remembered for tires and its tasty popcorn, offered its “softer side” back in 1994. Now the company is following such retailers as Best Buy, showing that it can help customers get fit as well.
Sears has announced it is introducing its “Fitness Flagship” store-within-a-store at more than 35 sites across the country. These 6,000 sq. feet centers provide new fitness products and floor models. Is this the fitter side of Sears? Press Release after the jump
Fitness Products That Look Good in Any Home
The folks over at Apartment Therapy have rounded up nine stylish fitness- and sports-related products that look sleek enough to stand alone as furniture, even if you never actually use them.
As someone who has used one of the products, the Technogym VISIOWEB, I can attest it works as well as it looks. With its large 19-inch display that does TV and iPod/iPhone connectivity, this is one piece of exercise equipment that I absolutely drool over.
[Via Apartment Therapy: Resolution: Admire Good Design … And Workout More]
U.K. Survey Finds More Older Adults Using Wii to Exercise
According to a recent survey of people aged 50 and up in the U.K., one in 25 uses a video game to exercise. Of course, we aren’t talking about the latest Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty, but the popular Nintendo Wii and its Wii Fit accessories and games. While the survey specifically targets segments of the U.K. population past middle age, the results mirror similar surveys that have been conducted stateside since the Wii Fit exploded onto the scene; the Wii has been a been a hit with casual gamers thanks to the active movements and low learning curve required. And, Microsoft and Sony have recently entered the scene with their Xbox Kinect and PlayStation Move products and fitness-related titles.
As we have pointed out, video games are not a substitute for good-old exercise. However, according to a CNN report, the light intensity is ideal for older adults, particularly with systems that require full-body movements. These movement-based games are also great for those who never engage in any form of exercise. As we have reported in the past, institutions such as schools in Alabama and Iowa are using the Wii as part of their physical education curriculum to get kids active and help fight childhood obesity.
[Via The Huffington Post: More Post 50s Use Video Games To Exercise]