Gadgets

Are you spending too much time on the Internet reading blogs about crazy fitness gadgets?

Remedy: Get the Springflex UB and workout those arms and shoulders while staring at the screen.

An amazing new mobile phone has been demonstrated at a Japanese electronics show. The prototype "Wellness" phone from DoCoMo Inc. comes with infrared sensors, gas monitors, and electrodes that allow it to perform a number of healthy checks.

Researchers at MIT have created a robot who acts as a weight loss coach. The robot (called "Autom") was demonstrated at a recent expo.

Two new services allow nutrition information to be accessed from your mobile phone.

Then you need the SofaHanger.

Made by a German design company, the SofaHanger is constructed according to the specifications of your sofa.

You need never get out of the couch again.

via DesignSpotter

In among the plethora of gadgets that hit the shelves every week, one or two catch my eye (or rather the press release catches my eye). BodiBeat is a portable music player from Yamaha that detects your jogging or walking speed - and alters the music selection accordingly.

Why clip a pedometer on your belt when you can stick it on your shoe?

"SHPedometer accuratly [sic] counts X-treme foot action. One SHPed on each shoe will prove accuracy for each foot."

Japanese company Kao has created a handheld body fat checker... for dogs.

The device is applied to certain areas of the dogs body - and a body fat percentage is displayed.

Cell phones can do just about anything these days from searching the internet to downloading music and now cell phones may be used to help people achieve their weight loss goals.

An innovative new program is being tested in Japan where participants can use their cell phones to take pictures of there daily meals and send them to a nutritionist for feedback.

The fitness industry has produced another machine that will no doubt find its way into most gyms. A gravity machine - looking something like a hack squat machine and leg press - is being used in group sessions as well as individually.

There are other ways to make gravity your workout partner - and here are some of the best.

Salter have a new gadget out that combines a tiny set of scales with a diet diary. The small fold out scales has a database of 1,400 foods and can record food intake for up to seven days.

This may be useful to some - but I cringe at the thought of getting out a pocket-size set of scales to weigh my grapes before I eat them.

Note: This is not a paid advertisement or any such thing.

Philips are releasing a cell phone targeted towards women.

What's intriguing about the phone is the feature set. The features include both a Body Mass Index calculator and a Basal Metabolic Rate feature.

Apparently women need to be able to calculate their BMI anywhere anytime.

"Super fit and on top of their game, the 20 second workout girls are serious about fitness;..."

Put these figures on your desk then wind them up. Choose from leg extensions, treadmill, stair-stepper, or recumbent bicycle. See them here.

(via Healthbolt)

Do you approach the scales with trepidation? Feel like you're walking on egg shells?

These scales from Vice-versa. They also have scales shaped like a calculator!

(via Neatorama).

See also celebrity weighting scales.

Audio and video workouts for portable devices have become very popular over the last year. There are also workouts for certain mobile phones.

There are many places you can download these - with sites offering very professional and effective workout packages.

Here are some sites to check out. This list will be maintained.

HP have introduced a new feature to their digital cameras. The "slimming feature" will "instantly trim pounds from your photo subjects" (via).

Just like fitness equipment - purchasing a gadget doesn't guarantee that you will actually use it. The last few years have seen an endless parade of intriguing gadgets. Here are a few weird and wonderful inventions that caught my eye over the last few months.

A pedometer is a portable step counter. Clip it onto your belt and you can count how many steps you've made. Pedometers are excellent little gadgets that measure your progress in both planned and incidental exercise sessions.

Cheap pedometers are easy to come by - some are even given away for free. Unfortunately it seems that many pedometers are inaccurate.

It's unfortunate that so many people view exercise as a painful chore. There are so many different forms of exercise out there. You don't have to bore yourself with 45 minutes on the treadmill, or a repetitive weight lifting routine.

One such unusual form of exercise is Kettlebell training. Over the last 6 months or so, there's been a lot more talk about this old and rugged form of training.