Get fit with tech
It’s the holidays. Which means lazing by the pool and over-indulging on food and drink. But come the new year and you’ll probably be vowing to shed some weight and get fit for 2010. Exercise is not that much fun, however, unless you can use it as an excuse to play with some technology. We look at some of the best online, and offline, exercise tools.
Gmaps Pedometer (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/)
Gmaps Pedometer is one of the simplest tools available for planning and tracking running or cycling workouts. Gmaps Pedometer is based, as the name suggests, on Google Maps and is an online tool for planning workouts. To use it, find your starting position on the map, click “start recording” and toggle the automatic/manual buttons. Double clicking a point on the map creates a route marker and as more points are added the distance is calculated. Gmaps Pedometer is fine for planning your next running route, but in the rapidly moving world of mapping applications, it is starting to look a little dated.
MapMyRun (http://www.mapmyrun.com/)
A similar but more feature-rich site is MapMyRun.com which allows users to plan exercise routes and share them with fellow exercise fans. MapMyRun.com is one of the older sites and has been offering this service for a number of years, so it offers a number of services.
The downside is that it has a cluttered interface if you’re using the free, ad-supported version. MapMyRun is a little easier to use than Gmaps Pedometer and, even if you’re not logged in, it tries to locate you on the map based on your IP address. Where MapMyRun supersedes Gmaps Pedometer is in its ability to save your favourite routes and share them with the MapMyRun community. This feature is particularly useful if you’re in a new town and looking for a good running route to fit in an early morning run. MapMyRun also integrates with popular exercise equipment such as the Garmin Forerunner series or Nike+.
Garmin Forerunner
Getting a bit more serious, and pricey, are the Garmin Forerunner series of excercise watches. The Forerunner series does everything from recording distance and heart rate to wireless sharing of data on higher-end models, depending on the version you buy.
Data collected using the Forerunner can be uploaded to a PC to be analysed in the Garmin Training Centre software which runs on Windows and Mac systems. There is also a Linux-based tool available that will extract most of the data from the watch although it is not supported by Garmin. The other alternative is to use a service such as MapMyRun to record workouts over time.
The one drawback of the Garmin is its price. The entry-level watches start at around R3 000 and increase quickly in price, so you have to be serious about exercise to pursue this route.
Nokia SportsTracker (http://sportstracker.nokia.com/)
Similar, but with less of a financial overhead, is Nokia’s SportsTracker software. SportsTracker runs on most Nokia smartphones and records routes, speeds, heart rate and even calories burned.
To be of any real use the phone does, however, need to have a built-in GPS. This is used to record distances and the effort expended. If you’re really serious about your exercise then look out for the N79 phone which includes a Polar heart rate monitor to measure everything about your workouts. On phones other than the N79 the SportsTracker software functions as normal but doesn’t include features such as the pedometer and heart rate features.
Nike+ (http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeplus/)
Nike is a name long associated with exercise so no surprise that it has a sports tracking service as well. Nike+ can be used with a custom sports band or with an iPod Nano. In both cases the system uses a custom sensor, either placed in the shoe or connected to an iPod. All of these details can then be uploaded to the Nike+ website and then shared with training partners and the community.
Although the standard sensor is relatively straight forward to use, the iPod edition offers additional benefits for runners that enjoy listening to music along the way.
The in-shoe version of the Nike+ sensor can be attached to most running shoes but is specifically designed to fit Nike+ shoes which have a cavity in the heel to house it. Online, users can track their workouts, share them with friends, discuss them in forums or even set up challenges with other friends on the service.
Android
Google’s Android mobile phone operating system is relatively new on the scene but is starting to produce some interesting options. If you have an Android-based phone like the HTC Hero then a visit to the Android market will reveal a number of sports tracking tools.
By using the built-in GPS on the phone, tools like JogTracker and Softrace can be used to track workouts. Softrace is the most feature-rich and allows you to race against yourself or a friend, store statistics of workouts and even track multiple users.
JogTracker is a simpler version and tracks time and distance. But, with an account on JogTracker.com you can also record workouts over a period of time.
Loading ...