Fitness

News & Features January 10, 2012

Fitbit / Striiv Fitness Devices.. Fight. A Gear Diary Faceoff

It is time for a health-gadget Faceoff. Let’s meet our contenders. In this corner… Weighing in at an MSRP of $99.95 we have the veteran. The Fitbit Ultra measures your step, calculates the calories you have burned, the hours you have slept and more. You can track online or on your iPhone. It is proven technology that has seen increasing popularity since its initial release. It is cute. It is simple. It has a splash of purple. And in this corner… Weighing in at an MSRP of $99 we have the newcomer. The Striiv seeks to motivate you as it…

Events, News & Features January 7, 2012

Magellan Gets in the GPS Fitness Watch Business!

The GPS watch market has been dominated heavily by Garmin. Ask a runner, “Do you have a Garmin” and they aren’t going to wax poetic about their Nuvi…they’ll know you mean a Forerunner watch. But Magellan is looking for a piece of that pie, and they’ll be debuting two new watches, the “Switch” series, designed to appeal to runners as well as “crossover sports” (triathletes, bikers, and swimmers, presumably). Based on the press release, it sounds like the Switch will have very similar features to the competition, including the ability to race against a specific pace, mark laps and miles,…

Editorials January 5, 2012

Jogging Is Scarier Than Calorie Counting?!

If you’ve eaten in a major fast food chain (especially in New York), you are probably familiar with calorie counts being posted next to ads of Big Macs and greasy, delicious fries. The idea is to discourage you from wanting to eat too many high calorie/ high-fat foods. According to a research study done in Maryland, there’s a more effective way-threaten to make people run! They found teenagers turned away from soda MORE when they were told drinking it would require 50 minutes of jogging to burn the calories. What really made my jaw drop was their logic: Researchers monitored…

Gear Bits January 4, 2012

Gympact — Encouraging Health or Just Another Gimmick?

When I first read about Gympact I thought it was a joke. Pledging money if you fail to check-in at your gym for at least a half hour? Really? When I realized it wasn’t, it got me thinking: would I sign up for this? If I wasn’t already physically active, would this have led me to work out more? The answer to both is no, but for different reasons. As of now, I don’t belong to a gym. We had a membership but canceled it after realizing I only run outside, and Sarah prefers to hike and walk the dog…

Reviews January 3, 2012

LifeProof Proof Case for iPhone 4S Review

I’ve had good luck with my iPhones since the very start. While I have had to have almost every one replaced at some point it has never been the result of physical damage. Yeah, I know, now that I wrote that my iPhone will get crushed within the next week. Still, since my iPhone comes with me everywhere, it makes sense to think about really protecting it. There are a lot of heavy-duty cases available for the iPhone already but most of them are pretty bulky. Take, for example, the Case-Mate Tank we reviewed ($41 through our NGD affiliate store)or…

Health and Fitness, Reviews January 2, 2012

C9 by Champion Flip Top “Glommit” Review

It hasn’t been too cold yet this winter, but I am sure now that it is January the cooler temps will be coming. And like every year, I’ll have two issues. One, my hands get super cold when I run, but then they heat up in gloves, necessitating a gloves on/gloves off routine every half mile. Second, using a smartphone in the dead of winter is a huge pain. It’s a juggling routine to free my fingers from gloves to tap the screen, then cover them back up before it gets too cold. I could use special gloves with capacitive…

Editorials December 30, 2011

Planet Fitness Has Way to Keep You Coming Back

Our five year old washing machine died two weeks ago and had to be replaced. We were told, at the time, that five years is about the lifespan for this type of appliance these days. That’s not so surprising considering the fact that the 25-year-old dishwasher at our lake cabin is still going strong. Yes, companies want to keep you coming back as a repeat customer and the lifespan of many things is growing shorter and shorter in order to help ensure it. It seems Planet Fitness has found a way to keep their customers coming back time and again…

News & Features December 9, 2011

Jawbone Offers Refunds to All UP Owners

Did you buy a Jawbone UP? I did, and I have been largely disappointed, but I haven’t completely given up on it. Evidently a lot of people are very unhappy with them, and amazingly enough Jawbone has stepped up and offered a full refund to all UP owners who want one, even those who don’t have their original packaging or receipt, as well as those who don’t necessarily want to return them. This arrived in registered UP users’ email today: UPDATE FROM THE CEO The UP™ No Questions Asked Guarantee To the UP Community:Earlier this year, we unveiled Jawbone’s vision…

Reviews December 7, 2011

Kammock Roo, a Kickstarter Project Quick Look

Gear Diary is a big fan of Kickstarter, and we have supported a number of different projects in the last year or so. One of them was the Kammock Roo, a new take on the hammock. The project was fully funded and our “rewards” came a few weeks ago. Judie is waiting to give the two she bought as gifts, but I brought mine with me on vacation. Here’s a quick video overview and some pictures. Here’s Judie and her ever-present Diet Coke… a video look follows after the break. The Kammock Roo is great for both sitting and laying…

News & Features December 7, 2011

Random Video — Treadmill Talent

I don’t know who this woman is, or whether she practiced this routine for hours or spontaneously busted out at the gym. I do know that this is highly entertaining, and if I tried it I’d go flying off the treadmill.

Editorials November 25, 2011

Ten Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs’ Biography: An Entrepreneur’s Take

My friend Peter K is a speaker, author, health and success coach, nutritionist and physical therapist. (His website Peter K Fitness tells his story, introduces his method and explains how his approach has helped countless people lead a healthier lifestyle. Some impressive testimonials are there too!) Peter is Elana’s health coach and played a huge role in her becoming as fit as she now is. (It also turns out that I had the privilege of officiating at his wedding more than a decade ago. A connection we did not make until Elana met him for her first training session.) Peter…

News & Features November 11, 2011

How Fast Is an Elite Runner?

When I ran the Virginia Beach Rock n Roll half-marathon, one of the highlights for me was right around mile 3.5. The course looped out and back, so that was the crossover point where us “back of the pack” runners were officially lapped by the elites. When Ryan Hall, arguably the best American professional runner today, came flying by us, the entire crowd chanted, screamed, and cheered. It was amazing to catch even the slightest glimpse of an elite in action. The entire pack of professionals was running full miles in less time than it often takes me to…

Gear Bits November 6, 2011

Jawbone UP First Impressions

Although it is only just being released this morning, I was able to pick up one of Jawbone’s new UP wrist bands yesterday (Jawbone UP). It truly is the height of “geek chic”, and whether or not it will be a passing fad waits to be seen. I wanted to share a few initial impressions of it but first let’s look at what it does and does not do. The UP is like a super-duper pedometer. It tracks your steps and can “challenge” you to do more. Or, if you set it at “X steps planned today”, it will tell you…

News & Features October 18, 2011

FanVision provides NFL Fans an Enhanced Stadium Experience

I have spent the majority of my life in stadiums. Some are big, some are small; in some I am a fan, in some was a player, and in some I am coaching. Bottom line is that I feel comfortable in a stadium. It is just who I am. My father went to high school in Houston, so while growing up we made many a trip to stay with my aunt who happened to live just a few miles from the Astrodome. By the time I was in Jr. High, I knew the dome like the back of my hand….

Reviews October 17, 2011

The Fila Skeletoes 2.0 Review

To best describe Fila Skeletoes, you need a bit of background. When I started running last year, I became enamored with the barefoot running concept but found my feet just couldn’t adjust to it. So I tried Vibram Five Fingers, which were great for walking around but didn’t work well for me for running. After a great deal of experimenting with shoes, I finally settled on a lightweight pair of normal running shoes, paired with wearing Vibrams for casual use. It puts me in the odd position of being neither fish nor fowl; not really part of the “barefoot running”…

Reviews September 19, 2011

GPSRunningWatch for Android Review

Running is a pretty simple sport. All you need is a pair of shoes, a good pair of shorts, and a cheap watch. All the extra bells and whistles are optional (and really, even shoes and watch are optional — just don’t run naked, as police tend to frown on that.) But there are always ways for technology to creep in, and GPS watches such as Garmin’s Forerunner are near-staples in the running community. For those of us who don’t want a small computer on our wrists, or who carry a smartphone anyway on a run, there are apps that…

News & Features September 19, 2011

Keep QuikClot on Hand, and You May Save a Life

QuikClot is an emergency wound dressing loaded with blood clotting agents. You can go to YouTube and watch some extremely graphic training videos of QuikClot in action, but I suggest that you not do so if you have a weak stomach. If you are able to handle the graphic images, I’m sure that you’ll agree the results are pretty impressive. I had never heard about QuikClot until I stumbled on a recent Lifehacker post, “How to Survive a Gunshot Wound.” Yikes. QuikClot is the consumer version of a Z-Medica product that has long been used by the military, law enforcement and emergency medical…

Reviews August 26, 2011

Audio PlayerReview: The JLab Wave Waterproof mp3 Player

A few weeks ago we took a look at the Monster Cable iSport waterproof headphones. They are pricey but sound great and are, in fact, truly waterproof. They are machine washable!! If you don’t need the same level of audio quality but still want waterproof headphones JLab’s Wave headset is worth a look. While the Wave is not machine washable it IS waterproof and has the huge advantage of not requiring a separate mp3 player. You see, the Wave IS the mp3 player. It MAY look like a pair of in-ear headphones connected by a ridged neck wire but the…

Reviews August 23, 2011

Earbud Accessory Review: Acoustibuds and Acoustigrips

(Editorial note: Try as I might to get useful images of these products for some reason it just wasn’t happening. Therefore you will see mostly stock images in this review but they ARE representative of the actual products.) We’ve been looking at a lot of different earbud and headphone offerings lately. A number of them, like the YurBuds, the Monster Cable iSports, SkullCandy FIX earphones and the AblePlanet SI350 headphones are targeted toward use during active sports and exercise. We learned of two offerings from Burton Technology, Acoustibuds and Acoustigrips, that, while not audio products in and of themselves, seek to…

News & Features August 3, 2011

RunBike, the Duckbilled Platypus of Workout Equipment

When I saw the RunBike on Runner’s World this morning, it took a good two minutes before I stopped laughing/choking on my coffee. I was speechless, but once I recovered from my initial “WHY!?!” response, some more serious questions came to mind. 1) How on earth do you run uphill while strapped into that thing? 2) How long is a RunBike, and how do you get into it? Do you drop in from the top? Limbo in? 3) Is it street-legal? And do you follow biking laws, where you act like a vehicle and obey traffic laws, or do you…

News & Features July 31, 2011

Brilliant Marketing…Rock N Roll Half Marathon Style

I’m going to be running the Dodge Rock N Roll Half Marathon at Virginia Beach organized by Competitor.com. Note, the number of sponsors and trademarked names in the title says it all, this is a big, marketing-heavy race. It’s the kind of race advertisers love; it’s a hardcore audience that’s not afraid to drop major money on clothes and shoes. Now, if you’ve ever run a big race, or done a long hike, or any endurance event, you’ll know there’s some very important personal business that should be attended to before you start. No one wants to see you…

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