Category: Gym

Moving the People that Move America

If it wasn’t for long haul truckers, you might not have many of the goods that you currently possess in your home, and if you did, chances are they’d cost a lot more. Those men and women spend just as many hours behind the wheel as you spend behind your desk; but for most they do not go home at the end of a long day, they eat at whatever restaurant is along the highway and typically sleep in their cabs. If you have driven across country, you know the restaurant choices can be very limited, and getting in a workout can be a little challenging.

When is the last time you have seen a gym next to one of these fast food restaurants or gas stations? However, Snap Fitness is looking to change this fact, and provide some fitness options for truckers. The company is partnering with Rolling Strong, a firm that specializes in health of truck drivers, to create Snap Fitness Rolling Strong clubs. Continue reading Moving the People that Move America

Sony Ericsson Xperia Active for Android-Loving Fitness and Outdoors Buffs

Sony Ericsson Xperia Active

It’s a given that cell phones tend not to play well with the Earth’s elements, but whether it’s summer at the beach or a bike ride down a muddy trail, Sony Ericsson’s good-looking Xperia Active smartphone is designed to take a beating.

Rugged cell phones aren’t new, and the Xperia Active also isn’t the first rugged Android-based smartphone, either (Motorola and Casio have them). But the Xperia Active targets those with a fitness-focused lifestyle. Besides being water- and dust-resistant, the Xperia Active is ANT+ compliant for use with other compatible products such as exercise equipment and pulse monitors. Other sporty features include a Gear Kit that comes with an arm case, wrist strap, and headphones with ear straps; fitness-related apps; GPS, barometer, and compass functionality; and a screen that’s usable even when your fingers are wet.

Beneath its ruggedness is a full-featured Android smartphone that runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It’s powered by a 1-gigahertz processor and features a 3-inch, 320×480 display with what Sony Ericsson calls the Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine. You can shoot videos in high definition, and you can download apps as you would with any Android phone. It’s slightly on the thick side, but what you sacrifice in size you get in protection (it is lighter than an iPhone 4, however, which is good news for those who don’t like being bogged down by stuff).

No pricing or market announcements have been made, yet, and there’s a chance it could never make it onto our shores. If it does, look for it in the third quarter of this year.

SONY ERICSSON XPERIA ACTIVE

Kranking Spins Your Upper Body

Spinning has remained popular for several years. It’s one pitfall is that workouts tend to focus on the lower body. Krank, not to be confused with the drug nicknamed crank, is gaining in popularity. Kranking is akin to a spin cycle, but using your arms to turn the wheel. Similar machines are often used in physical therapy offices and it’s a good upper body workout.

The adjustability on some krank models are much easier than spin bikes. Apply pressure to a lever to make the parts move rather than loosening a pin and sliding. The machine also has various ways to turn a rotation. In addition to resistance you can krank one arm at a time, both arms together, or both arms in alternating pattern similar to pedaling a bike. You can also krank from a seated or standing position to vary the exercise and work muscles just a little bit differently.

There really are few aerobic workouts designed to target the upper body. Kranking is one that does just that. It’s a great workout to alternate with spinning or running to change up what muscle groups you’re exercising each day.

Find information at KrankCycle.

The Gym as the New Power Plant

When you go to the gym, do you think about how much power you’re expelling? The Columbia Athletic Club, part of Columbia Association, in Columbia, MD, just installed 28 Green Revolution stationary bicycles to divert the power exercisers produce and put it into the facility’s power grid.

The bikes in the spin class work to power the building. Each 45-minute cycling class averages about 20 bikes, and produces as much as 3.6 Megawatts of energy over the course of the year. That’s enough power to light 72 homes for a month. It reduces about two tons of carbon emissions per year, according to Green Revolution Inc.

Does it feel like you’re generating energy on the bike? “The ride is actually smoother than it was previously, so that has been an added bonus!” said Leslie Flynn, general manager of the Columbia Athletic Club.

“The generator does not add any measurable resistance to the bike,” explained Mike Curnyn, chief strategy and marketing officer and co-founder of Green Revolution, the Ridgefield, CT-based company that supplies the green bikes.

Since adding the bikes to the gym, Columbia Athletic Association has seen an increase in participants in its spin classes. “We have added two classes due to an increase in demand, partly because of the new Green Revolution bikes, but also in part to the usual increase during the busy season,” said Flynn, referring to January to March when more people attend fitness classes. The club currently runs 22 classes a week and looks to put more on the schedule. “We are maximizing our energy producing potential,” Flynn said.

Columbia Association

Green Revolution

Gym-Pact Taxes Gym No-Shows

Would you skip going to the gym if you knew you’d have to pay a penalty? In the past gym goers might get a discount from their health plan when they go to the gym regularly. However the motivation to work out may be that much stronger if you pay for the days you don’t show up.

Continue reading Gym-Pact Taxes Gym No-Shows

Finding the Right Elliptical Machine

They seem like the ideal machine at the gym, especially for beginners. The elliptical seems like a low impact workout machine that is pretty straight forward. Every gym and health club has one, in fact they provide have several. The machines are also steadily making their way to homes as an alternative to exercise bikes and treadmills.

The problem for buyers is that most people have no idea what to look for, what are key features and what separates a good machine from one that isn’t so on the level. Steven Merusi has launched a website designed to help users – new and experienced – understand the benefits of the machines, while making sure to make a wise purchase. Continue reading Finding the Right Elliptical Machine

Kinetic(mis)Shift: Once-a-Week Fitness

Ever gone to the gym’s trainer and lifted weights just above your ability? Your muscles feel like used rubber bands and you don’t feel like visiting the gym for about a week. The MaxOut Strength Studio work on this premise, and charges you $140 (per month) for four workouts. That’s more than most gyms and this is a small “studio” with leather couches instead of equipment. The franchise states a guarantee of results, but never states what that guarantee actually is.

MaxOut Strength Studios

Kinetic(Mis)Shift are products that we think deserve to be called out for their utter lack of fitness benefits.

LIVESTRONG.COM and LIVESTRONG Make Good Partners for Cardio Training

It might seem a little ironic but LIVESTRONG.COM has announced a partnership with LIVESTRONG Fitness. The former is actually a Demand Media property and website destination for nutrition and fitness-related information. It will now partner with LIVESTRONG Fitness, part of Johnson Health Tech, to introduce a new brand of cardio products include treadmills, elliptical machines and even bicycles with personalized programming designed by Peter Park, Lance Armstrong’s strength and conditioning coach. Continue reading LIVESTRONG.COM and LIVESTRONG Make Good Partners for Cardio Training

The Material Girl Starts Hard Candy Fitness

Madonna is the face behind a new global fitness club, Hard Candy. You know she goes to the gym. You want your arm muscles to look like hers. Now you can work to achieve those arms, abs and other muscle groups in these new clubs. The first one is set to open in Mexico City in the exclusive Bosques de las Lomas area at the end of November. An additional 10 locations are planned to open in Russia, Brazil, Argentina and throughout Europe and Asia.

Hard Candy Fitness plans to offer innovative training methods in private, group and dynamic formats including classes such as Zumba, Latin Moves and Cardio Kickboxing. Each gym will feature a bike studio, mind and body studio featuring “The Great Wall” where members can practice BarWorks, sculpting, Capoeira and new trends in yoga. For strength and circuit workouts there will be cardiovascular equipment with personal viewing screens and more than 60 pieces of strength training equipment at each location such as free weights, PreCor, Hoist, Free Motion, Nautilus, Hammer Strength, StarTrac, AbCoaster and TRX suspension training. Expect also to find a healthy alternative juice bar or café to replenish post-workout. We do have to wonder if there will be any Pilates classes or equipment since Madonna was one of many celebrities that caught on that trend back in the day.

The locker rooms are reported to be seen to be believed with fine materials that make the place you change and store your close a sanctuary.

It’s a shame that the new chain of clubs hasn’t named any U.S. cities for planned locations. They will no doubt feature the newest exercises and equipment. Hard Candy Fitness, however, will likely be among the more pricy of health club memberships.

Cycle the World Virtually

There are so wonderful places to ride a bike, but the problem is that it is really not all that easy or affordable to take a bicycle on a globetrotting trip. The next best thing might be to virtually ride the world. That’s where Virtual Active comes in. The company, which has a partnership with IndoorCycling Group (ICG) has announced the release of MyRide Version 3.0, which promises to be the next-generation media console for indoor cycles. It utilizes content from Virtual Active via a 17-inch touchscreen high-definition display.

This includes more than 60 hours of entirely of entirely new media content, with more than one million different workouts and plenty of variety to keep users riding through the winter and other bad weather. Locations include the Rockies, the Swiss Alps and even the Mojave desert, and each is available for a variety of workouts that include warm-ups, intense spinning and cool downs. The coached content is also available in English, German and Spanish. Continue reading Cycle the World Virtually

Cycling Fusion Gets Heart (Zones)

As the old Peanut Butter Cups commercial suggested some things go very well together, and we expect that to be true in the world of indoor and offseason training on exercise bikes. This week Cycling Fusion, the developer of indoor cycling programs, announced that it has purchased Heart Zones, USA, the company that created the first heart-rate training systems.

Cycling Fusion founder Gene Nacey had already established a relationship with Sally Edwards and her company Heart Zones. “After being certified by Mad Dogg and opening a dedicated Spinning studio, I quickly began to understand why the outdoor cyclists were not coming to class,” says Gene Nacey. “I raced MTB for 10 years and had a few years of road riding under me as well. The cycling community needed a lot more science and sport specific training than what they would normally find in Spin class. That lead to my work with Sally Edwards and Heart Zones. The heart rate training began to bring them in, but I have to say, it wasn’t until the Keiser power bikes arrived that they began to take us seriously. This combination became quite compelling.”

The new partnership will hopefully see even greater innovation in the world of indoor cycle training. KineticShift.com will follow the developments from Cycling Fusion and Heart Zones in the months to come.

Cycling Fusion Official Website

Exercise Bikes Lead the Pack in Global Market Trend

In a sign that we hope means people will take fitness more seriously, Global Industry Analysts, Inc. is reporting that the global market for physical fitness equipment will exceed $10.5 billion (with a B) by 2015. Much of this will be spurred by a growing fitness mantra, and it won’t be limited to the United States – as developing regions including Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East will be looking to get toned as well.

The new market report further suggests that the despite an economic slowdown, fitness related gear will continue to sell – and hopefully this won’t be limited to products offering quick fixes and easy solutions. You need to sweat and burn to earn that weight loss after all. The United States will represent the single largest market for physical fitness equipment, with Asia-Pacific emerging as the fastest growing regional market. Continue reading Exercise Bikes Lead the Pack in Global Market Trend

Koko FitClub Goes to Silicon Valley

The company that revolutionized the 30 minute in-gym workout is heading to Silicon Valley, and we’ll be curious if this results in any revolutionary technological innovation from the world of fitness. Koko FitClub will be opening a new club in February 2011 in Silicon Valley. Owners Jeff and Elaine Mossner have a belief that traditional gyms don’t actually work for 84 percent of the population, so it will be interesting to see if their club will take off with the potentially unique clientele offered from the high-tech world.

As we previously reported, the Koko Smartraining System guides users through a very personalized yet high-effective workout on the club’s proprietary strength and cardio equipment. “With Koko, we aren’t going to be selling people more stuff they don’t need,” says Elaine Mossner. “An invitation to join Koko is an invitation to make your life better. I can’t wait to meet people and tell them, we have a fitness solution for you!”

Koko FitClub