Motivation seems to be the key to keeping elderly people active, and pedometers are apparently a good motivator. These are the findings of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Western Sydney, which was published in the journal Annals of Family Medicine.
The study found that pedometers could possibly encourage the elderly to mix in more physical activity in their daily schedules, and showed that the simple devices motivated wearer’s to seek exercise. Those using the devices participated in more “leisurely” walking, but also tried to complete more daily tasks via walking, such as walking to the store for groceries instead of driving there. Continue reading Pedometers Motivate Elderly to Walk
Riding a bike is a good way to get some exercise and it can also be good on the wallet. According to new data released by the League of American Bicyclists, the Sierra Club and National Council of La Raza (NCLR) the savings can be big with a capital B. U.S. bicyclists save $4.6 billion per year by riding, instead of driving. The study’s release coincided with last Friday’s National Bike to Work Day, which saw more than one million U.S. resident participant by riding instead of driving to work. 
We know sports drinks can seem like a godsend when you’re out on a long ride or doing a serious workout. But now a new study, published in the clinical journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD), found that the increased consumption of sport and so-called “energy” drinks can lead to potentially irreversible tooth damage!
Last year Virginia Tech – Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences began testing adult football helmets. The school just released its 2012 ratings, and added two helmets with five-out-of-five stars, joining last year’s pick.
Many athletes participating in contact sports wear mouthguards to prevent injury. Some researchers are finding that a custom mouthpiece might also aid recovery after a strenuous workout. Researchers from the Department of Health, Exercise and Sport Science at The Citadel and from the Department of Health and Human Performance from the College of Charleston, both in Charleston, South Carolina, conducted research on the recovery benefits of wearing a mouthpiece. 
Automotive designers have long used the so-called “crash test dummies” to determine how a passenger in a car will fare in a crash. Now students at Ottawa’s Carlton University have developed a crash test dummy specifically for testing bicycle equipment.
Electric powered bicycles are helping people commute, but the technology is finally seeing a major shift in the development of the lithium battery industry, reports BusinessInsider. This addresses one of the dirty little secrets of the so-called green technology of electric bikes. At present, a fact which is widely reported, is that the majority of bicycles in the developing world rely on the route are dirty sealed lead acid batteries, rather than the cleaner – and more environmentally friendly – lithium batteries.
or centuries British soldiers have wanted to look smart with their dress uniforms. But now the British army is experimenting with a different type of smart uniform, one that actually includes not smart looking fabrics, but rather actually smart fabrics that could include electrically conducting yarn woven directly into the clothing.
Carbon fiber is a wondrous material, but it has some shortcomings including the fact that it isn’t that easy to recycle. However, last week came word that the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory was working on a way to transform used plastic bags into carbon fiber, and this composite could even be fine-tuned, allowing different types of carbon fiber to be created for specific applications. 
Our friends at BikeRadar.com reported that Specialized has announced its new Turbo electric bike. What makes this Specialized bike so special is that it reportedly is the fastest ebike on the market, and can hit 28MPH. 
It is probably an obvious point, but we need to be smarter about our fitness, and here is where technology can help. But to be smart, we can be SMART – as in using Self-Monitoring and Recording with Technology. These were among the findings of a new study announced at last week’s American Heart Association conference in California, that overweight adults who used handheld devices to deliver personalized dietary and exercise reminders were actually able to better stick to their diets than those who simply kept paper diaries or used unresponsive electronic devices.