GPS smartwatch maker Suunto launched its online data-crunch website Movescount a while back, but now it is moving to a deal with Strava. This will allow users to track runs, rides, swims and hikes and track heart rate and cadence via the Suunto watches and will add the social fitness ability to provide motivation and camaraderie.
Tag: Swimming
Dive Fins
Ted Ciamillo knows a thing or two about cycling, but he also has a passion for the water. He has designed a special water propulsion system that basically puts flippers on the feet! The 2014 Lunocet is the next best thing to turning into a mermaid, and can help humans swim better underwater.
The unique part of the Lunocet flipper is that it attaches to the human foot via cycling shoes – which are already pretty aerodynamic. Now the idea of wearing expensive shoes might seem odd, but then again the Lunocet will set you back nearly $600. But can you really put a price on being able to swim more like a fish?
Anti Shark Suit
Despite what movies such as Jaws or Discovery Channel’s Shark Week might suggest, shark attacks are actually not all that common. However, about 100 people are attacked by sharks each year and this isn’t all that comforting to surfers and divers.
Researchers have suggested that black wetsuits could make wearers look like seals, which just happen to be a shark’s favorite snack. Australian based Shark Attack Mitigation Systems (SAMS) has developed a line of wetsuits that are designed to look a little less appetizing to sharks. These feature a disruptive pattern that sharks may have trouble seeing, or even make them think otherwise about taking a bite.
While sharks can reportedly detect small amounts of blood in the water from miles away and can detect electric currents in the water for the kill – or rather bite – the shark depends on vision. This is where the SAMS suit comes in as it could provide enough to confuse the shark, and give the wearer time not to be the catch of the day. Video after the jump
The Water Viper
While various “speed suits” have been banned in swimming competition the new Roka Viper Speed Suit is ready to race. This new suit was designed for swim trainers and triathletes with help from NASA technology. It might not help you get to space, but with this suit you might just fly through the water.
Goggles to (Insta)Beat
Swimmers don’t get a lot of sensory data while in the pool. There have been efforts to provide ways to train with music and many heart rate monitors are now swimming compatible. But unlike with running and cycling, it isn’t so easy to see the watch while engaged even in long distance activities.
This is where the Instabeat could come in. The device is now being developed via an Indiegogo campaign.
The device provides a heart rate reading from the temporal artery so no heart rate strap is required across the chest, while a head strap to the goggles provides the read out via a colored LED that is projected directly to the eyes. This helps swimmers track their heart rate while actually swimming to determine if they are at their own specific fat burning, fitness or maximum performance heart rate. The device even tracks calories burned, while a motion sensor tracks laps, flip turns and breathing patterns for a post-workout analysis. Video after the jump
Goggle Search
If you are considering a goggle search – even if that search is on Google – look no further than the Aqua Sphere K180 Swimming Goggles. These offer 180-degree panoramic vision with a water-tight fit. There is a 100 percent Softeril gasket that provides comfort along with a leak-resistant seal. These goggles offer three interchangeable nose bridges and an adjustable headstrap. The goggle search may be complete.
Swim Trainer – No Water Needed
Trainers are interesting devices. These simulate an activity, and provide great exercise but without actually doing said activity. In other words a bicycle trainer lets you ride a bike and put in miles while you go nowhere. A cross-country ski machine needs no snow, and rowing machines need no water.
Keeping with the waterless concept the Vasa Trainer Pro is a swim simulator for those who don’t want to get wet – at least until you work up a sweat and then later hit the showers. It uses the same principal of a Nordic Track with pulleys and cables and your own body weight to provide the resistance. Video after the jump
Motion Capture Provides Insight into Olympic Swimmer Techniques
httpv://youtu.be/lDG2_K9N2ac
Under the water, it can be difficult to see every kick and every stroke a swimmer makes. But Manhattan Mocap did just that with Olympic swimmer Dana Vollmer to analyze her butterfly stroke and underwater dolphin kick.
Manhattan Mocap worked together with the New York Times and the NYU Movement Lab to film Vollmer and create models of her strokes to analyze how the body and water move together. Findings can help coaches instruct swimmers in how to move better in the water to gain speed. A motion capture session might help a swimmer learn where their strokes go wrong, and how to correct them. Continue reading Motion Capture Provides Insight into Olympic Swimmer Techniques
Magellan Gets Active and Switch’s Up
The company that has made its business in helping people find their way is now looking at helping users find their way to better fitness. This week Magellan announced its new Magellan Active Website for fitness activity tracking. And to help users get there the company has released its new Switch and Switch Up crossover GPS watches.
Magellan Active’s Dashboard is designed to help multisport athletes from a single location for viewing all of their performance activities. Users are provided with total control of data and given the ability to quickly search through all of their activities with a range of filters. Activity analysis is easy with summaries, lap comparisons and easy-to-read maps and charts. Multisport athletes can further record each segment on their Switch GPS watch, upload the data to Magellan Active, and then view all of the segments with a single view. This ‘True Multisport’ experience presents multisport activities naturally with a single view of the entire activity and the ability to drill into each segment such as swimming, biking, running and transitions. Continue reading Magellan Gets Active and Switch’s Up
Aussie Athletes Face Bans of Sleeping Pills at Olympics
Imagine flying half way around the world, having to sleep in a strange bed the night before a big event and then being told you can’t take a prescription sleeping pill! All that worry is probably enough to have many competitors tossing and turning, but this is no joke!
The Australian Olympic Committee announced that it amended its team medical manual to prohibit the use of Stilnox and other zolpidem related drugs by athletes at the Olympics. The reason is that former Olympic swimming champion Grant Hackett said he became heavily reliant on the sleeping pills at the end of his career.
So the committee has responded by saying that there is an “obligation… to protect the health of our athletes.” But isn’t serious insomnia a health problem as well?
How ridiculous does some of this get? Well, consider that the World Anti-Doping Agency once considered caffeine a performance enhancer and it was on the list of banned substances. That has since changed, but it still doesn’t address how athletes with insomnia will deal at bedtime.
The Australian Olympic Committee has made a few other questionable decisions this year. Two Aussie swimmers, Nick D’Arcy and Kenrick Monk, have added a self-imposed social media ban prior to the games. The reason is that the pair visited a California shooting range in June and posed for pictures with “high-powered pistols [sic] and shotguns.” The AOC reacted to their posting the photos online.
“They showed poor judgement in posting what we saw as inappropriate photos, in which they appear to be skylarking with guns while in the US last week,” said Swimming Australia CEO Kevin Neil. “While what the boys did was not illegal, posting the photos on social networks encourages public debate, and that debate can be seen to have a negative impact on the image of the sport and their own image.”
The pair are adults and visited a legal gun shop so we see no problem? Of course we wonder if members of the Australian Olympic Team competing in shooting sports will be allowed to post photos of themselves with their firearms?
TYR Debuts Custom Goggle Program
When you’re competing in a triathlon you can customize just about every aspect of your uniform. But then you strap on a pair of standard goggles that everybody else is also wearing in the swim component. TYR just announced a custom goggle program that lets swimmers create their own goggles. Continue reading TYR Debuts Custom Goggle Program
Garmin Swim Watch Makes a Splash
Most heart rate monitors are waterproof, and therefore you can track your heart rate while doing laps, but it’s difficult to track what you do in the pool. The new Swim training watch from Garmin is designed specifically for swimmers, and provides feedback on laps. The Garmin Swim training watch was announced ahead of the U.S. Masters Swimming Championships in Omaha, Nebraska taking place July 5-8. Continue reading Garmin Swim Watch Makes a Splash
Fastskin Swimsuit Comes from the Aqualab
Designing a completely new suit for swimmers isn’t so much about going back to the drawing board as it is about going back to the desktop, and the Aqualab. That isn’t some “Bat Cave” secret base for lackluster super hero Aquaman, but it could help competitive swimmers see gold in London in a few weeks. This was also the center of a simulation that helped the designers of the revolutionary Speedo Fastskin Racing System, which utilized the engineering simulation software ANSYS.
When worn together as a complete system, a Fastskin suit, cap and goggle can reduce full-body passive drag by up to 16.6 percent, improve oxygen economy by up to 11 percent (enabling the athlete to swim stronger for longer), and reduce active body drag by up to 5.2 percent. And to help make this possible Speedo looked to ANSYS. Continue reading Fastskin Swimsuit Comes from the Aqualab