With the boxing day sales now on, it’s the perfect time to take your exercises to the next level with technology for your exercises outdoors, cycling, running, climbing or whatever else….
Advancements in technology and the development of much smaller electronics are allowing people to take a lot more processor power out on the road with them, I made a post about how technology is finding it’s way more and more into fitness, check it out here
1 – Portable MP3
This is of course a no brainer, we’ve had iPod’s or whatever MP3 devices for some time now, but if your out on the road exercising, and mp3 player is great for motivation and just relieving boredom because no matter where your exercising, the scenery can become pretty boring after a while. Also if exercising in an urban area it’s a great way to block out the noise of general traffic, go for high tempo songs such from 140bpm upwards. Generally house, dance and trance music are all up there in terms of tempo but there are many more genres with fast tempo songs, check out my post on the best music for exercising here
Recommendation:
iPod is what most people know as the MP3 player and for good reason, very reliable and decent sound quality, the nano would probably be the best choice for exercising due to it’s size and lack of a screen to break!
2 – GPS devices
This product is very important if you are exercising anywhere remote or somewhere new, it’s very easy to get lost, especially if out in the bush or country in hot countries where becoming lost can actually be deadly! GPS has been around for a while now but recently many devices have had GPS chips put in them to allow you to not only track current position but also calculate distance travelled, speed and many more. This makes it invaluable for distance events, the best thing about GPS is it’s actually free to send the signal up to the satellite so there are no subscription fee’s
Recommendation:
The Garmin Forerunner has a very sensitive GPS chip inside, speed and distance trackers, heart rate monitor and more – all inside a stylish sports watch….
3-Heart rate monitors
You can use your heart rate to keep a track of your intensity, to make sure you are in the fat burning zone and keeping towards your fitness goals, of course if you don’t want to shell out for one you can use the PRE method to keep track of how hard you are working but no where near as accurate as a good heart rate monitor. Try to avoid cheap ones as you’ll probably find a lot of variance in the reading of your HR. The best type of heart rate monitors are of course the chest mounted devices, however watches on the radial artery are nearly as good.
Recommendation:
The Garmin Forerunner as before has a heart rate monitor which is programmable as well as the plethora of other features
4 – Pedometer’s and Nike+ running shoes
Pedometer’s are great for calculating how many calories you have burned although this is a very rough estimation at best, the Nike+ shoes get their category – they are great, the trainers have a small chip inside which calculate distance, running cadence and more and they look great!User’s can post their distances, times and more automatically when plugging their shoes into the computer and have competition’s with thousands of people around the world, giving you more motivation to put your running shoes on! If you bought an iPod like the first recommendation, these shoes were designed specifically with them in mind, adjusting song tempo, etc. as you run, pretty clever!
Recommendation:
The Nike+ iPod kit starts as low as $29!
5 – Action camera’s
If your into extreme sports such as rock climbing, off road biking, water sports, etc. then you may at some point want to video your heroics, this previously has been impossible without the use of someone else to video you but with the processor chip getting smaller and smaller it’s allowed for the use of camera’s in more and more previously inaccessible places. There are many head mounted camera’s around and some are even waterproof, most are very shockproof and as such perfect for extreme sports.
Recommendation
LaunchHelmetCams.com are the leading suppliers of head mounted cameras in Australia.
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