Fitness Monitor | Evolving Consumer

Strength Through Numbers

There are plenty of fitness monitors that track calories and activity during a cardio workout – but most times those looking to increase strength and conditioning (S&C) are left without such digital aides. Push Strength is a start up that is looking to change this.

While heart rate monitors are typically worn on the chest, the Push system utilized a strap that goes around the arm – and in can track reps & sets, force, power, balance, speed and even be used to answer the phone remotely. This could prove there is strength in numbers.

Push Strength Official Website

Suunto Moves to Strava

GPS smartwatch maker Suunto launched its online data-crunch website Movescount a while back, but now it is moving to a deal with Strava. This will allow users to track runs, rides, swims and hikes and track heart rate and cadence via the Suunto watches and will add the social fitness ability to provide motivation and camaraderie.

Movescount Strava Website

Griffin Covers the Trackers

Griffin Technology has introduced a new line up of accessories for wearables, including the new Shoe Pouch for Fitness Tracker (above), which can provide a secure and convenient pocket for Fitbit Zip, Flex, and One; Misfit Shine; Sony Smartband; Nike+; and other shoe-based monitors. The ultra-light Shoe Pouch slips under shoelaces or can be laced through secure loops on the back of the pouch. The tracker is protected in a pocket with a Velcro flap that securely fastens keeping the device screen protected. Reflective accents provide extra visibility during nighttime runs. Continue reading Griffin Covers the Trackers

TICKR Run to Reduce Injury

Fitness trackers can monitor your results and progress, while some can even track your stance, posture and form. Now Wahoo Fitness has introduced what it calls the world’s only heart rate monitor with activity tracking that provides real-time analysis of a runner’s form, helping to improve efficiency and avoid injury rates. The TICKR Run is Wahoo’s new heart rate monitor that pairs with Android and iOS smartphones and devices.

It utilizes triple axis motion sensors along with an accelerometer that together can measure a runner’s form in three planes: vertically, side-to-side and front-to-back. Those sensors and Wahoo’s fitness app for Android and iOS produce a measurement of each runner’s form called Running Smoothness, a sophisticated algorithm that assigns varying levels of importance to each axis and combines them into a single, easy-to-understand index.

With Running Smoothness athletes can improve their form to avoid unnecessary body motion, which improves efficiency and reduces the risk of common running injuries. Using Wahoo’s app, runners can even track Running Smoothness through their workout history to see improvements over long periods of time. Continue reading TICKR Run to Reduce Injury

Watch and Learn

There are plenty of cardio-focused fitness trackers on the market, but a heart rate monitor and calorie counter only goes so far at the gym. This is where the GYMWATCH comes in. It is a new fitness tracker, which is being developed through an Indiegogo campaign to measure strength and motion. It is thus aimed at those who hit the gym to gain weight and mass instead of losing it. The GYMWATCH is worn on an armband and features a built-in accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer to record movement and strength during a workout.

It is paired with a smartphone so users can monitor the process – but of course not phone it in! Video after the jump

Fly It On

It seems everyone is creating wearable fitness trackers for the wrist. However, the designer of the Flyfit is now looking to have cyclists, runners and swimmers put in the ankles instead!

Designer Jimmy Leu, who has taken his concept to Kickstarter, believes that the wrists are not exactly the optimal place to track body movement while exercising. By placing a monitor on the ankle it can better track movement and even different kinds of leg activity. It can thus track cycling rotation and cadence, swim leg strokes and steps taken while running or jogging. It can then stream the data collected via Bluetooth to an Android or iOS device on the fly. Video after the jump

Pyle It On

Pyle Audio has introduced the Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor and Watch (PSBTHR70), which measures heart rate, average speed, distance traveled, number of steps taken, lap speeds and calorie consumption. This data can be wirelessly transmitted – by Bluetooth of course – to various third party apps on compatible Android and iOS devices. Supported apps include RunKeeper, MapMyRun and WahooFitness among others.

This watch, which is available in black, green, blue or pink for around $70, can display time in a 12 or 24 hour format and features optional hourly chimes and daily alarms, as well as a built-in calendar system. Continue reading Pyle It On

Reign It In

There may be a new fitness monitor that is looking to take the top spot. The Reign Activity Tracker from Jaybird rules by providing more flexibility – not so much in letting you slack off in your workouts, but rather by featuring materials that shape to your wrist over time. There are eight interchangeable size options and this provides just enough customization. This activity monitor is compatible with Android, iOS and web apps and features wireless connectivity. It tracks your sleep and daily activities and helps you “reign” in your workout.

Jaybird Reign Activity Tracker Official Website

Wahoo Fitness and MyFitnessPal Partner to Track Every Move

Fitness apps are a great way to help keep you motivated. But those apps are often one-sided, and only track your steps, your exercise, or your calorie intake. Now Wahoo Fitness and MyFitnessPal have joined forces to combine some of those elements.

Wahoo Fitness devices and apps such as the Blue HR heart rate monitor, RFLKT bike computer and Balance Bluetooth Smartphone Scale can now get the calorie data from MyFitnessPal. The MyFitnessPal app is a free app that lets you track calories on its website and app by entering the food you eat. The app stores the foods you eat on a regular basis so it’s a matter of clicking on the box next to that food, such as toast. It also makes it easy to add foods on a one-off or regular rotation basis.

“Accurate calorie count and instant weight feedback is instrumental in reaching your fitness goals,” says Chip Hawkins, CEO of Wahoo Fitness, in a company statement. “With Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season, it’s more important than ever to stay on track. Everyone is pointlessly counting steps and inaccurately counting calories, with Wahoo’s hardware the MyFitnessPal community will not only be generating more precise data, but they will be generating the usable data, the data that actually matters when you’re tracking your results and working hard to reach your goals.”

Wahoo Fitness Official Website
MyFitnessPal Official Website

CES: Come To Your SenseGiz

A new Star is born, at least in the world of fitness monitors at this week’s CES in Las Vegas. The SenseGiz Star is a wearable fitness trackers that can monitor the number of steps a user makes, distance traveled and of course calories burned. The 24/7 monitor can also track sleep patterns.

Unlike other wearable sensors this one can also track falls and crashes thanks to an on-board sensor, and this can be used to alert others remotely should the wearer take a spill and not recover. This tracking functionality can be used with cyclists and skiers and help ensure that in an accident the user isn’t left waiting for help that might otherwise not arrive.

SenseGiz Official Website

Air(o) on the Wrist

Airo Health has released its AIRO, a next-generation health-monitoring device that can be worn as a sleek wristband to automatically monitor nutrition, stress, exercise and sleep. It can also analyze caloric consumption, stress patterns, daily exertion and sleep quality to help wearers obtain better overall health.

It can monitor nutrition by looking at different wavelengths of light to look into the blood stream and detect metabolites as they are released while and after a user eats; while it also measure calorie intake and determines the quality of meals consumed. From here it can provide recommendations on how to improve one’s diet.

On the stress end AIRO utilizes heart rate variability (HRV) to monitor micro-fluctuations in stress throughout the day, and can notifies users when their stress level is on the rise. It can work like other sleep monitors as well, as it looks at the autonomic nervous system to notice distinct sleep cycles; and from here can recognize when the body is in deep sleep, light sleep or REM sleep and can calculate how much of a user’s night was restorative.

As an exercise tracker the AIRO monitors daily exertion through heart rate and caloric burn, and from here it uses these metrics to detect how intense the activity has been, and even checks to see how the body has recovered from activity over the course of the following days. Video after the jump

Nike Refuels

While Adidas announced this week that it was entering the smartwatch market, Nike also made big news with the unveiling of its second-generation version of the Fuelband.

The Nike+ Fuelband SE features small tweaks that promise to offer improved performance. The iOS app has been updated as well, but we are still waiting for an Android one to follow. As with the original model it will track the intensity of workouts, count steps, monitor sleep and display progress in real time.

You’ll be able to get refueled starting November 1.

Nike+ Fuelband SE Official Website

Head Smart

iriver might just be on to something. The company has launched the world’s first smart exercise headset, the iriver ON. This Bluetooth headset can continuously monitor real-time heart rate, physical location and workout data via a sensor in the earbud.

It is powered by PerformTek Precision Biometrics, a state-of-the-art sensor technology that continuously measures real-time biometric data with a high degree of accuracy and consistency. This actually provides more data than other personal monitors, and includes heart rate, distance, speed, VO2 max (aerobic fitness level) and calories burned. Video after the jump