British Boot Camp on Your iPhone

Workout in your own time and location with My Fitness Instructor.

It’s a proven fact that some things are better with a British accent. These include political speeches, the evening news, and of course romantic comedies. Soon to be added to that list: fitness instruction. British Military Fitness, a company founded by a retired British Major as an alternative to “the lycra clad, Swiss ball using, water fountain world of gyms,” is releasing a My Fitness Instructor app for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch this week.

My Fitness Instructor delivers custom workouts to your iPhone so you can conduct your workout anytime and anywhere, fitting with the company’s belief that the world is your gym and your body is your running machine. Each workout will be different from the last. You can choose from a number of instructors and select your workout goals. Begin your workout. An audio clip will play where the instructor walks you through each of a number of exercises such as crunches, twistsets, leg lifts, and other moves. If you aren’t sure how to do the move, you can watch a video demonstration. My Fitness Instructor from British Military Fitness gives you a disciplined workout with the freedom of when you want it.

British Military Fitness

My Workout Instructor App

Wii do Yoga

Strike a pose with supermodel Anja Rubik in Yoga for Wii.

If you’d rather do your salamba sarvangasana, parsvakonasana and sun salute poses at home, we understand. There’s plenty of yoga DVDs on the market. But why not go one step farther with Yoga for the Wii? The interactive version features four levels with a number of yoga rooms and Asian-inspired settings. Model Anja Rubik shares her yoga expertise with tips and videos as she advises you through your progress.

Yoga for the Wii adds the Wii balance board controller as an option, so you can get feedback on how you’re doing on some of your poses. The console version advances at home Yoga by adding interactivity, letting you take your time on your poses and telling the Wii when you’re ready for the next one, and getting coaching and feedback based on your progress.

Yoga for Wii from JoWooD and DreamCatcher Games

Withings its Strange to Broadcast Your Weight

Withings scale sends your data to an online health profile.

Every appliance in your home will connect to the Internet some day. Today, the Withings scale connects to the Internet via WiFi. Step on the scale, and it sends your weight, lean and fat mass, and BMI readings to your computer. It will post your loss or gain on Twitter if you opt in to that feature. Now, it will integrate with Microsoft HealthVault.

Microsoft HealthValut is a personal health application platform. This is a good application for a WiFi scale. HealthVault is a place where you can create a profile for you and your family to track the basics, the history, and helps you keep up with the management of any illnesses or conditions. As the user, you get to decide who to share your profile with, and how much that person sees. At some point, maybe we won’t have to fill out forms at the doctor’s office before each appointment.

As for Tweeting about your weight and other stats, you can set up your profile if you want your vitals on Twitter. I think I’ll stick to my personal profile.

Withings scale, $159

Microsoft HealthVault

Primal Wear Clothing For Rockers and Geeks

When you think of cycling attire, you probably think of team jerseys, cycling sponsors and equipment makers. This is all great if you like the team-look, but what if you want to break from the crowd and do the distance not looking like a pro-wannabe?

Over the years there have been plenty of eclectic fashion statements, but the attire from Primal Wear Clothing truly offers something different! The company offers a line of heavy metal and hard rock jerseys that would at first glance seem more attuned to a bunch of burnouts in a van at a concert, than on the mountain bike trail or on the long road ride. But on a closer look these offer riders to strut their stuff and prove their more than pedal gear heads. Inspiring the look of vintage concert shirts, you can get on your head banging with Metallica, feel the long and winding trip with some Pink Floyd, or always good for the long climb the Led Zepplin Stairway Bicycle Jersey.

And if hard rocking isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other options including those for the armed services that will show that you support our troops and more. Primal Wear even has a line of Star Wars themed jerseys instead, and these feature the original movie posters of the first trilogy of films. Let’s just hope they make those in Jabba the Hutt size for the hardcore fans.

Look for Sports/Fitness in the Classifieds

Are you looking for a lacrosse team to join? Are you looking for a running partner? Do you want to sell the bike you just replaced? Esportsboard is a new local classifieds just for sports and fitness. It’s like Craigslist.org, but just the athletics. The site lets you buy and sell used gear, equipment, and apparel; promote local services such as a trainer, pitching coach, or fishing guide; post announcements including teams looking for players; find people looking for partners for running or cycling; and promote tournaments, camps, and fund raisers. Anything sports-related, there’s a category.

When you visit Esportsboard it recognizes what city you’re in, and asks if that’s where you’re looking. The site says it aggregates classifieds for over 4,500 local sports organizations, and serves 160 million Americans actively participating in sports and recreation. If you’re looking to put your kid in little league, or want to find a group of runners to train with, it’s a good place to find that, and get the gear to outfit you for your sport.

Classifieds: Esportsboard.com

Adidas Gets in on the Game

If you’re caught playing with a phone or a video game in class, chances are it could end up in the teacher’s drawer. So does this mean that some kids might be going home barefoot? Could be as Adidas has released a line of shoes called the “Originals,” sneakers, which include the Superstar, Stan Smith, Forum, Nizza and Samba. Each of these has a barcode in the tongue of the shoe (no tongue and cheek here), which can be read by a Webcam to open the world of the 3D Adidas Originals neighborhood.

 The shoes in turn become the controller, and shoeless Joes can play in a series of interactive games in this world, including a laser blaster game, a skateboard game, a Star Wars themed game and a music-based game. Let’s hope that each player has to use their shoes/controllers and that these don’t get that nasty shoe smell. That might be one reality no one needs!

Garmin Offers New Edge for Tour of California

Going off for a long bike ride can be enjoyable, even if you’re not sure of your final destination. But there are times when knowing where you are going is crucial, and for those times a reliable GPS device is a must. To help you on your way Garmin has introduced the new Edge 500, a new nuvi navigation device that features designed inspired by the iconic orange and blue patterns of the Team-Garmin-Transitions.

The new Edge 500 in both argyle and black and white versions will be introduced at the Tour of California this year, while the argyle nuvi models will sold exclusively during the race from May 16-23. The Edge 500 ($349.99 MSRP from the official site) is ideal for racers or just those who want to keep their bikes as light as possible. The device is a mere two ounces, but still features a high-sensitivity GPS receiver that needs no calibration, and thus can be easily swapped between bikes. It connects wirelessly to third-party power meters, and can track speed, distance, time, GPS position, elevation, calories burned, and even climb and descent. This info can be displayed and reviewed post-ride at Garmin Connect.

The device further uses a barometric altimeter to pinpoint changes in elevation, and it can further be paired wirelessly with Garmin speed/cadence sensors. It features 18 hours of battery life, so it will probably be going long after most of us have called it a day as well!

And finally for the pro wannabes, in April Slipstream Sports and Felt Bicycles will be giving subscribers to Garmin’s fitness newsletters a chance to buy a team replica Felt F1 (the model the pros will be riding this season), completely built by the team mechanics and packaged with the argyle Edge 500.

Team Garmin-Transitions
Slipstream Sports

The Perfect Swing Through Motion-Sensing

If you’re looking to get the perfect swing you can spend more time on the driving range, video tape yourself to watch your form and get a golf pro to help you. Or you can fly over to Las Vegas or Dubai and hit the Butch Harmon School of Golf, where this golf expert is using technology from the Titleist Performance Institute.

The heart of this technology is TPI 3D, technology that has been long used in the video game industry and for movie animation. Now its being strapped onto golfers, where it can be used to study the biomechanics of a golf swing, and instead of just having the couch eyeball you, or going to a video tape, every intricate detail of a golf swing can be quickly examined and studied.

So while it might not turn you into a Tiger Woods (which given his “problems” is probably a good thing), but this technology might help you out on the course.

Via The National

The Butch Harmon School of Golf, Las Vegas
The Butch Harmon School of Golf, Dubai

Titleist Performance Institute: TPI 3D

Got an Off Beat Sport? CamelBak has a Bottle for You

CamelBak's Better Bottle is BPA-free.

CamelBak is on the lookout for unconventional teams outfit with its bottles and hydration systems. It began its search with the “Official Water Bottle Of” campaign last week. CamelBak will provide BPA-free Better Bottles and t-shirts with the team logo and have water-carrying rights at the teams’ sanctioned events. It will also promote the team on the CamelBak Web site and its Facebook fan page.

Unconventional sports on CamelBak’s radar include dodge ball, roller derby, and underwater hockey. They’ll be happy to hear about more quirky sports, and so will KineticShift. So far Santa Cruz Derby Girls and San Francisco Sea Lions Underwater Hockey are charter members of the search.

CamelBak began years ago as a hydration system built into a backpack. It now offers a line of backpack hydration systems, clothing, and hands-free bottles.

CamelBak

CamelBak “Official Water Bottle Of” page

CamelBak Better Bottle

Garmin-Transitions Turns to New Leaf for Training

Team Garman-Slipstream at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, February 2010

International cycling Team Slipstream, which rides under the sponsorship name Team Garmin-Transitions, known for its voluntary testing practice is adding metabolic and endurance training to its regime. Through a partnership with Angeion, the team will get the cardiorespiratory diagnostic systems company’s New Leaf metabolic assessment and training equipment.

Team Garmin-Transition’s president, Matt Johnson said, “We are focused on expanding our family of technology-driven partners, so adding New Leaf technology is something we’re incredibly proud of.” New Leaf will get to display its technology to a worldwide audience of potential customers and sports enthusiasts by association with the team.

The New Leaf metabolic assessment and training program is based on decades of medical research and learning. It’s New Leaf Active Metabolic Training System is available at some fitness clubs, corporate wellness programs, and sports training centers to measure human performance and how efficiently a person’s body burns calories.

Team Garmin-Slipstream

Team Garmin-Slipstream trains and races all over the world. Angeon

New Leaf Fitness

Google Maps Clears a Path for Biking

Map your bike route on Google Maps.

We applauded Google years ago when it added walking directions to Google Maps. Public transportation directions are also helpful. The newest addition to Maps is Bicycling directions. Now in beta (what at Google isn’t?), you can look up the bike routes you take, and learn about new ones. I just mapped a ride I took a few times last summer, Manhattan to Nyack, New York. It suggested two routes that differed even a little from the two routes I’ve ridden in the past. Now I’m looking forward to a nice enough day to take the new routes.

For discovery, Google highlights streets by bike friendliness. Dark green lines on the map indicate dedicated bike-only trails. Light green lines mark streets with a dedicated bike lane along the road. Dotted green lines indicate roads without bike lanes, but still appropriate for biking based on terrain, traffic, and intersections. In hilly cities such as San Francisco Google Maps will plot out a course that’s less hilly. Of course you can always drag and drop your route on the map to adjust to your specifications.

Google partnered with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that creates a network of trails from former rail lines, to build the data in over 150 cities for this project. To get biking directions you can go to Google Maps and select bicycling as your mode of transportation, or go to the specific page for bicycling.

Check out Google’s video on its new maps for bicycling.

Rudy Project Supports Olympic Medalists

Rudy Project was the eyewear of choice of Olympic athlete Anastazia Kuzmina of Slovakia who won gold in the women's biathlon.

As the Olympics close, the Rudy Project reports it had a hand in 18 medals, internationally. Before the torch was lit, Rudy Project said it would supply eyewear to a number of Olympic athletes. The round-up of athletes that placed on the podium included gold for women’s biathlon competitor Anastazia Kuzmina from Slovakia, who also won a silver medal. German cross country skier Claudia Nystad won gold in the team sprint. Johan Olsson from Sweden took gold in the cross country 4 x 10 relay.

Kinetic Shift congratulates all the athletes who competed in the Olympics. And kudos to Rudy Project for supporting so many winning athletes.

Rudy Project eyewear

Reebok Zigs and Zags With New Running Shoes

Are these really "energy drinks for your feet?" We'll find out soon.

Injuries with running often occur when you zig when you  should have zagged, but now zigging and zagging is something to reduce the load on your leg muscles. Reebok has developed a new form of soles utilizing that it calls the ZigTech, a type of zig-zag foam. According to the company’s press release “ZigTech allows your key leg muscles to do less, so you can do more. Simply put, it’s like an energy drink for your feet.”

We’ve seen (and even tested) a few different running shoes, and these are something a bit different. Also notable is that the ZigTech shoes will retail for $100 when the brand hits stores later this month. We’ll be interested to see whether this will give us the zip we’re after.

Reebok ZigTech Site