Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

A few months ago, Life Fitness announced that they are making treadmills (and other machines) compatible with Nike+. That’s only a good thing if your gym uses these new Life Fitness machines. If you’re a member of 24 Hour Fitness, tracking your workouts just got easier.

• MacDailyNews – 24 Hour Fitness first to offer Nike+iPod experience in the gym

Beginning in July, select 24 Hour Fitness clubs in New York, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, Portland and Salt Lake City will begin receiving Nike iPod enabled gym equipment, just in time for members to use the new machines to prepare for and compete in the Nike Human Race on August 31, 2008.

I KNEW there was a reason I kept my 24 Hour Fitness gym membership! I’m so lucky to be in one of the lucky cities where they are testing this new technology. All of a sudden I am excited about going to the gym again!

If you don’t know what Nike+ is, I’ve written several articles about it:

• Starling Fitness » Tune Your Run With Nike and iPod

• Starling Fitness » How to Use Nike+ on ANY Type of Shoe

• Starling Fitness » First Glance: Nike+iPod

• Starling Fitness » Nike+ After Two Weeks

• Starling Fitness » Ask Laura: Should I Buy a Nike+?

• Starling Fitness » Nike+ Distance Inaccuracies

• Starling Fitness » Nike+ Addicted

If I had to choose one invention of 2006 that totally changed the way I exercised, it would be the Nike+. Knowing that Nike, Apple, Life Fitness AND 24 Hour Fitness are going to support this innovative program just makes me more happy.

Via: 24 Hour Fitness will install Nike+ gym equipment – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have your weight bench in your living room where it was easy to access? What if it looked nice as well? That’s the idea behind this concept from Gabriel Prero:

• Gabriel Prero – IndustrialDesign-Otto-Bench

I live in a tiny 850 square foot house, so this weight bench looks like a dream come true to me. How possible is it to make this on my own? Could I “hack” my own weight bench and make an ottoman bench myself?

Life Fitness, please make this bench. I know a ton of people who would buy it.

Via: CraziestGadgets.com » Ottoman Converts to Self Contained Exercise Bench

If you have ever watched The Biggest Loser, you know who Jillian Michaels is. She is the tough trainer who pushes her contestants to a win. In fact, last year, the two finalists for The Biggest Loser were both from her team.

If you have been wishing you could workout with Jillian, it looks like Majesco video game producer is going to give you a chance:

• Jillian Michaels makes fitness game

Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton said the title is aimed squarely at the growing casual gaming audience, especially women. He said exer-gaming should create a growing opportunity for fitness celebrities, especially those who already have make their mark on TV and DVD.

“Exercise and entertainment have gone hand in hand over the past 20 years,” he said. “So we think bringing that to games is the next big step.”

I have really enjoyed working out with Wii Fit and it’s great to know that serious trainers are excited about it. I love to know that my Wii Fit balance board will be useful in games long after I’m sick of running on Wii Fit Island.

Via: Jillian Michaels has a Wii fitness game in the works – TV Squad

I couldn’t help laughing at this video for the Treadmill Bicycle.

If you love your treadmill as much as I do, then you know that deep down, you kind of wish that the treadmill bicycle wasn’t a joke. Honestly, I only like to run and walk outside when the weather is perfect. If it’s too cold or hot, I head for the treadmill and watch one of my walking videos instead.

Major props to the people at Bicycle Forest for thinking of the Treadmill Bicycle:

• The Bicycle Forest :: Treadmill Bike

In all sincerity, though, funny gadgets like this remind us that all we really need to be fit are a good pair of running shoes and a door out of the house.

Via: CraziestGadgets.com » Treadmill Bicycle

There is no question in my mind what my absolute favorite activity on Wii Fit is: Running on Wii Fit Island. So far, I’ve opened up the Short Run, the Long Run, Island Lap and Free Run. With Free Run, I can run for 10-30 minutes without stopping.

When I first started working out with the Wii Fit, I was worried that I wouldn’t really be able to get a good cardio workout. The Aerobics activities were intense enough to get my heart rate into the high range, but they were only a few minutes long. With the addition of Free Run, however, I can get a REAL aerobic workout and enjoy the scenery of Wii Fit Island.

Here is a video of the Short Run:

This video only shows you a small part of Wii Fit Island. Here is a map of the running trails:

Anyone familiar with the Nintendo/Mario Universe will recognize many little in-jokes and familiar sites. Wii Fit Town looks a lot like Delfino Square and the run through Rocky Peak is very much like a Mario Kart drive through Choco Mountain (try to see the choco boulders falling off the cliffs).

Everything that I wished for in that Island Worlds program, has come to pass in Wii Fit with the Basic Run and Free Run activities. They’re better, in fact, because I’m running with my Miis. Every time I pass a Mii that we created, it feels like I’m out exercising with my friends. If you watch carefully at the end of the video, Mike is waiting for me at the end of the run. Just seeing that one of my friends is ahead of me while I’m running makes me run a little faster to catch up to them.

Suunto has just released a new series of watches called the T Series. All of them are heart rate monitors that track your calories burned and time in each training zone. The upper end watches work with foot and bicycle pods to track your mileage.

Only the t6c comes even close to doing all that I would want and the Suunto website is so sparse that I can’t even tell if the computer program would be anything near as good as the Nike+ site.

• New Suunto Training Series

Sure, the Nike+ doesn’t track my heart rate or use a GPS to locate my position, but it has a place where there are a lot of runners who can compete with me in challenges. It’s nearly impossible for me to find a group of runners in my hometown who are running exactly as fast and long as I am, but on Nike+, I can find a large group easily.

Right now, it looks like the Suunto t6c is about $400 and that only includes the heart rate monitor. I’d have to pay extra for a foot pod or GPS tracking device. At that price tag, the new Suunto series doesn’t even pique my interest. I’ll stick with my low tech Nike+ for now. Ironically, it’s still better.

Via: Shiny Shiny: Suunto answer the ‘sun shining = diet’ equation

After a week of exercising with the Wii Fit, I have a few thoughts.

Is it a good workout?

When I started working out with the Wii Fit with my Nike Imara Heart Rate Monitor, I was worried that I wouldn’t get much of a workout. Some of the balance games (like the Soccer Heading game I showed you last week), barely got my heart rate above the low mark. The aerobic sections of the game were the BEST at getting my heart rate up.

Worse still, there is a lot of navigating through menus that wastes time. For example, I kept my stopwatch running and in over an hour of workout time, the Wii Fit logged only 45 minutes of actually working out.

Here are the stats from a typical workout:

Wii Fit Activity Time: 45 minutes
Total Workout Time: 1:07:14 minutes
Total Calories Burned: 536 calories
Average Heart Rate: 121 bpm
Time in High HR Zone: 26:37 minutes
Time in Medium HR Zone: 30:12 minutes
Time in Low HR Zone: 10:24 minutes

In this workout, I did every Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobic and Balance activity that had been opened. I’m sure you could workout for hours once you’ve opened up all the activities and repetitions.

Hands down, the biggest calorie burner is the hula hoop game. My heart rate shot up to 167 bpm while I played this game trying to keep all the hoops in the air and catch more. I’m surprised at how good of a workout it is and I’m excited to keep testing it over the weeks.

Shiny Shiny made a collection of the other week-long reviews of the Wii Fit here:

• Shiny Shiny: Does the Wii Fit actually get you fit? The reviews decide…

It doesn’t look like anyone is reporting weight loss any more than a simple one or two pounds a week, but it certainly is a fun way to add activity to your day.

It’s rare when I laugh out loud at anything. I love to read comics. Most of the time, I chuckle happily to myself at them, but this comic from Joy of Tech made me literally laugh out loud.

• The Joy of Tech – Wii Fit Makes a Killing

When the Wii Balance Board turned my Mii into a short and bloated character, I seriously thought the same thing. Yes, I know I’m fat. Why do you think I bought the Wii Fit in the first place?!

Other than that, I’ve LOVED the Wii Fit. I’ll write a full review for it when I’ve finished working out with it for a week.

After a lengthy quest all throughout the city, Mike and I finally found a Wii Fit. I set it up and it told me that I was fat (I knew that already) and made my poor little Mii character a short and pudgy icon after weighing me. I had no idea that the Wii Balance Board was also a scale, but it doubles in that capacity. When compared to my high-tech digital scale in the bathroom, it reads quite accurately.

The first time we played with the Wii Fit, I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, but I did get a good sweat on. The most fun Balance game to play was the Soccer Heading. You can see a video of it here:

We had plenty of laughs while I tried to dodge the soccer cleats and panda heads. I will be working out with Wii Fit for the next couple of weeks and give you more feedback about how many calories I burn while playing and how effective a workout it is.

Long before my tread on the bottom of my shoes wears out, the inside heel of my shoes gives up the ghost. This entry from Instructables shows you how to repair the inside heel:

• How to Repair the Heel of Athletic Shoes – Instructables – DIY, How To,

With some durable cloth, strong thread and shoe glue, you can add miles to your favorite shoes. They end up looking like this:

I’ve talked about cleaning my shoes and replacing the shoelaces to make my running shoes last longer here:

• Starling Fitness » Bringing New Life To Running Shoes

They say that you should replace your shoes every 400 miles, but if you can get extra miles out of your shoes, it not only saves you money, you don’t have to go through the trouble of breaking in new shoes.

Via: Craftzine.com blog: HOW TO: Repair the Heels of Athletic Shoes