March is National Nutrition Month, a time to look at what you eat and how you exercise.
This month is National Nutrition Month, a campaign created by the American Dietetic Association to raise awareness of our diets. It’s a time to learn to make informed food choices and reinforce your physical activity habits. This is low tech, unless you want to use the Web to research exercise, nutrition, and recipes. That’s all good. But we’re all for the diet and exercise the ADA is promoting here. So see it as a time to evaluate, and learn about what you can do to increase your fitness and overall health.
Video games such as Rock Band allow players to go on a virtual world tour, even if they’re not jamming in the same city, and first person shooters let players squad up from around the globe. These are just of the advances that gaming has brought to the social experience of virtual reality. Soon you might be able to take part in the Tour de France, or go on a bike tour in distant lands, and instead of faking it ala a game, you can get your sweat on while actually spinning.
At this year’s CeBIT in Germany, Paul Zernicke, a research at the Technical University in Berlin, demonstrated technology that combine an exercise bike with a wall-sized 3D Google Earth map that offered riders to take spins through Beijing’s Forbidden City as well as past the Great Pyramids of Egypt and even to the first stage of last year’s Tour de France.
The bike part offers the usual stuff such as tracking heart rate, calories burned and distance traveled while the VR part offers better scenery than just a TV show or the living room wall. Better still Zernicke promises that this can be more than just a visual travelogue from a bike seat, and offers that a competitive element could be added. So far he’s tested the system with up to six riders at a time.
The CompuTrainer Pro 3D
There are still questions to answer, such as whether you’d actually see your competition – or at least a generic version – added to your screen. And how much flexibility will it offer in where you ride? Otherwise, you’re just racing a clock and a fixed video. Still, this sounds like a great way to see the sights while getting a workout.
In the meantime, there are solutions available today such as the CompuTrainer Pro 3D by Wired Bike.com. It might not be quite as impressive as the technology shown at CeBIT, but it beats just ready a magazine or watching cartoons while you put in the in-door miles.
This SP16-SPAX tool from the Ontario Knife Company has many uses.
An axe is one of the oldest tools in humankind’s toolbox. However it has evolved over the years to be less unwieldy and more practical. The Ontario Knife Company based its newest axe tool, the SP16-SPAX, on a WWII emergency crash axe model, and continued to improve the design. The new SP16-SPAX is useful for emergency first responders and firefighters, but also for outdoor activities such as camping and hunting.
The blade is made of razor-sharp 1095 epoxy powder-coated carbon steel, and has a special hole used for opening and closing fire hydrants and gas valves. The handle is ribbed with Kraton polymer, and features tang construction meaning the blade and handle are all one piece. Sturdy. The hole mentioned above serves a second purpose. The Axe can be gripped higher up to handle tasks that are more precise.
HardGrip from Human Soft, a virtual rock climbing challenge for the Wii.
Most games played on the Nintendo Wii require the user to stand and move around. This is likely to be true for the upcoming HardGrip from Human Soft. HardGrip is an extreme rock climbing game for the motion-based system. Using the Wii MotionPlus grip players will grab on, take a foothold, and rock faces in exotic locales. The game is expected to include competition with play against other opponents, and include races and scores for technical climbs. HardGrip will first be released for the Wii, but the game developer said Human Soft is working on versions of the game for additional, upcoming motion-based game systems.
The iPhone can do many things, and seemingly it can even be used as a running training aid. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of fitness apps for Apple’s smartphone, but among the most interesting is one call iTreadmill. OK, while the app doesn’t somehow actually let you run on the touchscreen – but it would be cool if you could somehow do so – it does however act as a digital chronometer, keeping track of the distance you’re doing.
This is whether you’re actually doing miles outside, walking around your house or apartment, or just running in place. Put it in your pocket and go, as this app detects the slightest movement and thus tracks the distance you’ve covered. Should you stop to tie your shoe or wait for a light, or just answer the phone, the chronometer will automatically stop. Based on what it reads it can provide you details of your average speed, distance, pace, step count, strike rate and even calories burned. It doesn’t track heart rate however, so you’ll have to stick with a traditional heart rate monitor if that’s important. However, this app includes some interesting features, including a pace setting that provides a flashing light and ticking sound to get you moving. Now if only this app could actually make running in place at a hotel a little more exciting.
Nike makes team uniforms from recycled plastic bottles.
The recent trend in sports and fitness clothing is green, sustainability. Nike is part of this trend and especially when it comes to football (that’s soccer to many of you), and the upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa. This year Nike is outfitting the Brazil team with home and away kits, plus eight away kits for other Nike-sponsored federations appearing in the games. What’s so sustainable about these kits or outfits you ask? Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced plastic bottles from landfill sites in Japan and Taiwan to produce the jerseys and shorts.
Eight plastic bottles produce one jersey. To turn bottle into soft, breathable fabric bottles the manufacturer melts the plastics down to produce new yarn and then convert that yarn into fabric to construct jerseys. Just because the jerseys are made from plastic doesn’t mean players will drown in their own sweat. Designed to keep players drier, cooler, and more comfortable, the outfit has a handful of features. The Dri-Fit fabric is 15 percent lighter than previous Nike kit fabrications, which also benefits players’ ability to do their stuff out on the field. The coordinating shorts have additional ventilation zones below the waistband and near the base of the spine to keep the outfit breathable.
The outfits have some protection built in as well. Nike Pro Combat, adds protection against light impact and abrasion in the Slider and Impact shorts. The Pro Combat also features a therma Mock that protects a player’s neck against harsh conditions such as sun.
The process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to the manufacture of virgin polyester. For the upcoming season and competition, Nike salvaged roughly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling around 254,000 kg of polyester waste from landfill sites. That’s enough to stretch a distance of 3,000 kilometers if the bottles are laid out end-to-end.
The games take place in South Africa with teams from Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, U.S.A., South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia. Get your own team kits at nike.com and nikefootball.com.
Four-way stretch gives you freedom in a workout while providing shape.
It helps to look good, even while you sweat. Lucy Activewear offers a line of clothing with performance built in. The lucy Power Pant II provides shaping and is constructed from materials that are odor-inhibiting, moisture wicking, offer core compression, and 4-way stretch. The Power Pant II gives you a
yoga pant-style that skims the body including the hip and thigh area where we could all use a little slimming help. The garment’s Powermax material is a machine washable Supplex lycra fabric.
Another feature of the lucy line is that the company doesn’t believe in the one-size-fits-all approach, at least when it comes to height. Pants are available in short, regular, and tall. It’s too often overlooked, and the wrong length can lead to awkward workouts and injuries if the pant leg gets underfoot.
There are plenty of smart looking handsets, but there are times when a stylish smartphone isn’t a smart move. If you’re travels take you to the rough part of town or on rugged treks, consider the new Sonim XP2 Spirit handset, which is now available to our friends in Europe. It can handle a drop on concrete from up to two meters, and can endure temperature shifts from -20C to +55C, and this handset can even get wet and wild to boot.
This week Sonim announced a new partnership with Nimbuzz, an award-winning next generation mobile messaging service, which would see the Nimbuzz Java client pre-installed on the XP2 Spirit handsets. This gives users access to IM and chat client that aggregates multiple social networks into one contact list. The phone further features an in-phone app store, plus an MP3 player and still/video camera making this a communication and entertainment device for your mobile adventures!
Omega has kept track of time for the Olympic Games since 1932.
Omega has had its hand in the Olympic Games since 1932. At that time Omega supplied 30 stopwatches to track all 14 sports events. Over the years Omega developed timing technology such as the photo finish, which captured images of athletes as they crossed the finish line. This helped determine who had the lead when all the competitors finished in a group.
The drive to advance its accuracy and reliability in timing for the Olympics means Omega does much more than supply 30 stopwatches to the games. In Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games Omega deployed 220 timekeeping professionals and engineers supported by 290 local volunteers. The watch manufacturer brings roughly 250 tons of equipment for timekeeping, on-venue results, and TV services. The equipment and support from timekeeping professionals tracks athletes to the split second, and often means the athletes wear sensors so they are accurately tracked during competition.
Remember that very early episode of The Flintstones where Barney invented the gyro-chopter that he had to pedal to get off the ground (and for those who care, Fred had to flap his arms)? Well that’s sort of what the iTech Fitness Flight Simulator brings to mind, except of course you can pedal without ever actually taking flight (and no one needs to flap his or her arms).
But if you’re looking to get a workout with your games, the company offers a line of products built around the concept of adding fitness to gaming. In the case of the iTech Fitness Flight Simulator players can dogfight against others, fly a variety of aircraft and even get a bit lighter in the process.
Lost? Check out the GPS readout on your thumb in the X-Plore.XGX gloves from Zanier.
While Olympic skiers have a defined course to travel, the rest of us skiers want to explore the whole mountain whether it’s Whistler in Vancouver or another slop. The X-Plore.XGX gloves have GPS built in. The thumb display tracks altitude, speed, distance, duration, and weather conditions on a planned route. You can also adjust the settings, just don’t do it while flying down the slope.
The SCUTA project is working on custom garments for individual athletes for football, Taekwando, and Cricket.
Certain sports require padding to protect athletes. That padding has sections, panels, seams, and doesn’t always conform to the body. The Tailored Injury Prevention & Performance Improvement for Protective Sports Garments project known as SCUTA is a joint effort with experts from Loughborough, Nottingham, Cambridge, and Cranfield University in the U.K. and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. SCUTA works on the areas of manufactguring, sports technology, sports science, remote sensing, and impact and aims to develop garments tailored to the individual.
SCUTA concentrates on garments for three disciplines: Football, Taekwondo, and Cricket,
though it doesn’t specify if that’s American or European Football, one can assume both sports would benefit from the research. The group researches garments made from an additive manufacturing method known as Rapid Manufacturing, which allows for the production of virtually any geometry. It
Garments are made from layers of protective fabric.
can be custom made through a three-dimensional scanning process so each team member gets his own garment that fits the body perfectly. The garment
will be made in one piece, without seams or joins, and can be optimized to reduce the particular impact conditions of the sport and even position player. The defensive players may get a garment that’s protective in different areas than the offensive players. The project utilizes state of the art manufacturing, biomechanical, and impact facilities to continue its reasearch.
The Vancouver Olympics have not been without disappointment. The Russians lost out in the mixed figure skating for the first time in decades, and there were disappointments for snowboarders as well. But the most underwhelming performance may have been from the electric powered ice cleaning machines. This followed delays in speed skating as the machines broke down.
This Olympic attempted to be “green,” and the results were less than spectacular. So much so that a traditional propane powered Zamboni machine was brought in from Calgary. We like the idea of a “greener” Olympics, but what exactly is so much better about an electric machine – especially if it doesn’t work?
