Hasta La Gadget!

If your workouts never quite gel with your soundtrack, help may soon be at hand. The Guardian is reporting that Spotify has plans to measure heart rate and motion to help choose you the perfect playlist for any situation.

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Hardware maker, Heapsylon, debuted two new fitness products at CES 2014: a smart fitness sock that coaches users on their running techniques in real time and a heart rate monitor built into a T-shirt and bra. I got a hands-on demo with Sensoria Sock’s smartphone application that alerts users to improper foot technique and came away, shall we say, breathless.

Sensoria places sensors on the bottom of the foot so an app can give feedback on the most common types of runner errors. During my brief jaunt with the early prototype, Sensoria was able to quickly identify that I do, indeed, strike my heels first when I run and also that I had an inconsistent pace (cadence). Unlike an expensive running coach with a camera, the Sensoria gives real-time auditory feedback in a natural environment and can follow me around wherever I go. Initially, only professionals have had access to this kind of realtime, ubiquitous coaching.

As a new runner, I’ve been having all kinds of nasty knee and calf issues. This is a product my beleaguered body is begging for.

In addition to the Sock, Heapsylon also announced a shirt and bra with an embedded heart rate monitor. Heart rate chest straps are notoriously uncomfortable and an inconvenience to carry around. Never having to remember to bring my chest strap while I travel would be a pleasant bonus.

For the futurist, Heapsylon partnered with Google Glass developer, Race Yourself, to bring heads-up visual feedback to runners. Instead of runners having to sporadically check their heart rate, Google Glass will display it in real time, along with visual data on their foot placement.

Of all the wearables I’ve demoed at CES thus far, the Sensoria Smart Sock is probably the most useful. It identifies a population eager for self-improvement and delivers a product that conveniently solves a major health issue. I can’t wait for it to be available in the spring.

[Image Credit: Flickr User Heapsylon]

Raise your hand if you kept all of your New Year’s resolutions in 2013. Good, okay, now only raise your hand if you weren’t lying just now. Ahh, nice to see both of you. We always start the new year with the best intentions but, man, old habits die hard. Let’s see if we can do better this year. Here are five tips that might just help.

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Now that Christmas is over and you still have a few more days to go before you usher in the brand new year, how about starting to think about your fitness regime for 2014? After all, you have already had your fair share of crazy parties that would surely have added an inch or two to your waist, which means it is time to take a look at your gym membership terms and conditions again to see if there are any other better offers elsewhere. The $79.95 Automatic Start Gyroscopic Dumbbell might be worth looking at, as you might be encouraged to hear that it has been used by astronauts and professional athletes in order to help them tone and strengthen their upper body muscles.

The Automatic Start Gyroscopic Dumbbell works this way – press a button, and it will start to get to work. All you need to do is to hold the tennis ball-sized device and rotate your wrist in order to maintain the rotation of the gyroscope so that as it spins up to 15,500 rpm and provides up to 45 lbs. of torque resistance, the entire gamut of your wrists, biceps, triceps, and deltoids will be strengthened. In a study that was performed by Southern Utah University, it showed the gyroscopic dumbbell to be able to increase one’s maximum handgrip strength by an average of 11%. Not only that, since this exercise is low-impact, it can also increase the range of motion in hands while helping to rehabilitate carpal tunnel and tennis elbow injuries. Just make sure you have two AA batteries on hand always.
[ Automatic Start Gyroscopic Dumbbell adds another dimension to your workout copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Do you have trouble sticking to workout regimens? Maybe you start off strong for the first couple weeks, but then you start missing them here and there until, eventually, you realize there’s a you-shaped cavern in your couch. You’re in good company. But there’s a tool that our own bodies produce that might just be the missing ingredient. In fact, it can literally make you addicted to your workouts.

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