Schwinn Fitness is taking a backseat to the elliptical trainer. Well, that is they’ve created the Schwinn 520 Reclined Elliptical machine. This combines the recumbent-style seat with the fluid motions of an elliptical trainer. Read the rest of this entry »
The web is changing and evolving, but today there is the belief that 40 is indeed the new 30. Jonathan Keidan, CEO & co-founder InsideHook.com, tells how his new website can also give that InsideHook on staying fit, feeling young and living the life you’re meant to live. Read the rest of this entry »
MSN is introducing MSN Healthy Living, a new health and lifestyle website that will feature wellness content from respected brands including Prevention, Health.com, MayoClinic, Harvard and EatingWell. This is also a spin-off of MSN Helath, but with a redesign that includes an emphasis on wellness. The idea is help readers live more healthy and proactive lives
Sounds like an idea we might have had!
Runtastic added two features to its activity tracking app. Ideal Weight 2.0 and Altimeter are now part of the Runtastic Pro apps, which cost about $3.99 in the Android and iPhone app stores. Read the rest of this entry »
The newly opened Yoga Room inside Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport (CBS/AP).
USA Today is reporting on a growing trend at U.S. airports: fitness. As an alternative to the food courts, shops, bars, and lounges for travelers stuck at airports during long layovers or for those who check in early, airports are adding fitness areas such as walking paths and yoga rooms. Airport hotels are opening up their fitness centers to travelers, as well, but for a fee. USAT also highlights the community-based website AirportGyms.com, which lists exercise options that are available around airports. Even if an airport lacks the facilities for a proper workout, there are ways to keep fit before you board your connecting flight. So, the next time you find yourself stuck in a long layover, check out what the airport might have to offer besides bad food and beer.
USA Today: Airports get into the fitness craze for stressed travelers
CBS News: Yoga room opens in San Francisco airport
AirportGyms.com
Hey, where did everybody go? (Photo courtesy of Vagabond Shutterbug)
It’s February, we’re well into the year, and there’s no turning back. Which begs the question, how are your fitness goals coming along? Have you been going to the gym regularly since you signed up during the New Year? Have you stayed true to your resolutions? If you said no, you’re not alone. Most of us make unrealistic goals for ourselves, according to Purdue University.
It’s not rocket science: people give up on fitness because they have no goals to begin with, they make unrealistic goals, or they lack the knowledge, motivation, discipline or tools to achieve their goals without injury, according to Lane Yahiro, clinical professor and director of the A.H. Ismail Center for Health, Exercise and Nutrition at Purdue University.
Yahiro offers some very easy tips to stay focus if people wish to get fit. One, be accountable, and exercise with someone with a similar schedule to help you with accountability. “I am a firm believer in having accountability,” Yahiro said. “Having an accountability partner does wonders, especially if the partner is just as excited about exercising.”
Second, establish exercise goals that can be reachable. Yahiro says working with a personal trainer can help you create realistic goals. “Personal trainers should set up daily training session objectives that will help the client work toward reaching both short- and long-term goals. An accountability partner can also work with you in this way.” (In our experience, many personal trainers are expensive and lack the proper training. Before you work with a trainer, make sure they are certified and understand your needs.)
Third, keep track of your progress.
These aren’t bulletproof tips that will guarantee a fit body, but exercise requires motivation, so don’t set the bar too high for yourself.
There’s a number of activity monitors out there. They all have their own edge. But the Basis B1 band has the ability to track your heart rate from your wrist. You don’t have to wear a chest strap or touch sensors to get a heart rate from your pulse.
Next time you step on the scale, run a few miles or even wake up in the morning you can send your data to the cloud. That is if you have Withings Cloud platform and applicable workout devices. Withings, famous for the Wi-Fi scale that tweets your weigh-ins, is consolidating all your health and fitness data onto a cloud site.
Among Withings devices, you can set up your scale and Withings blood pressure monitor to upload to the cloud. A volume of additional data from other sources then joins these data. These can be fitness tracking apps, sites where you log your fitness and data from other devices such as a compatible heart rate monitor or cycling computer. A few that have joined in the cloud are Zero Sleep Manager and Runkeeper.
Withings is offering a free API for apps and fitness devices to get set up on the cloud. The platform the operates as a single source for all those devices. Data can be sent to the cloud, but also from the cloud to inform your iPhone or other device with updates.
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
Welcome to a weekly digest of web links I think are worth checking out. These items include articles, images, and video. Please comment on what you find interesting. If you have something to share, please submit links of interest to mike@kineticshift.com.
The Stages of Change
From Experience Life Magazine
Break a habit. Achieve a goal. Transform your life.
At one time or another, most of us have embarked on an effort to change some part of ourselves or our lives. We’ve decided to stop smoking, to start saving, to drop a few pounds, or to get a new job. As a rule, these sorts of changes don’t occur overnight. They take time and effort.And they tend to evolve through a multistage process — one that many behavior-change experts know as the Transtheoretical Model of Change.
Experience Life: Stages of Change Read the rest of this entry »
We’re sad to report that fitness guru Jack LaLanne died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, California. He was reported to be 96 years old.
We’d like to believe he lived to the ripe old age because of the decades he spent talking about the healthful benefits of exercise and fitness. LaLanne opened his first health spa in California in 1936, long before any fitness craze hit America. LaLanne was also one of the innovators of fitness technology, as he invented the first leg-extension machine.
Our condolences go out to his family and friends. The fitness world has lost a true icon.
We’ve long taken the opinion that video games are not an acceptable alternative to hitting the gym, but we also agree that fitness related games – including dance games, workout titles and anything that involves “moving” you off the couch is still a good thing. But now comes word from a few sources that the American Heart Association has found that Wii games such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit could be an actual “gateway” to the real deal.
According to Dr. Barry A. Franklin, who was quoted by My Fox Houston, games not a substitute for actual exercise, but do encourage people to get healthier. Franklin’s view:
“The fact of the matter is that 70 percent of Americans don’t exercise. Some of the reasons they don’t exercise s that it’s not enjoyable, it’s no fun, and it’s not readily accessible.
“Often times the boxing, the golfing, and other activities have an energy expenditure that is equivalent to slow, moderate walking. That’s a lot better than sitting on the couch.”
With the recent release of the PlayStation Move this past September, as well as this week’s release of the Xbox 360 Kinect we expect a lot of gaming to occur, but at least this could be a gateway to healthier gamers.
For new mothers it can be a struggle to get back into shape after giving birth, but the makers of Strollometer suggest strolling could be a way to do it. The company has introduced a new device that syncs with any buggy or stroller, and it tracks speed, time and distance. This wireless mini-computer is the brain child of Adi Weber and her husband Dan, who came up with the idea after the birth of their third child. Not knowing how far the strolls were, Adi and Dan conceived the idea of a wireless device, modeled on cycling and other fitness computers, that could calculate distance and time while taking the baby for a stroll.
It features eight different settings to allow users to monitor how fast they’re strolling, as well as maximum and average speeds and of course total distance. This data can be translated into calories burned as well. Just remember there is a baby in the stroller so no need to make this into a hardcore workout. Additionally, the Strollometer offers a clock – which might not sound like much, but this way users don’t have to reach into a bag for a phone or watch. And it even includes a temperature gage, so those doing the stroller can know whether a baby might need to be covered up.
The company also offers tips on getting started, provides buggy fitness tips and even offers a guide to getting up to 1.5 run as well as 5k training. In other words, it isn’t just about the stroll.
