Social Workout

Wired Workout

FitOrbit Launches, Online Dating for Personal Trainers

How to get a personal trainer on the relatively cheap? Well, you could try FitOrbit.com, which just launched today.  FitO. matches you to real live trainers based on your "fitness profile."  Think Match.com-meets-New York Sports Club. Once you're matched with a trainer, you pay anywhere from $9.99 per week (for six month plan) to $29.99 per week for "an interactive fitness plan filled with personalized workouts and meals that easily fit into your lifestyle and schedule." We signed up, just to see....

Online & Video

Wired Workout

Gargantuan Garmin Goodness

Garmin is out with a new uber-gadget, the Forerunner 310XT. Wired calls it the king of wrist-mounted trainers, citing numerous outstanding features: 

• Uses GPS to track distance and pace on your rides, runs, and swims.
• So, truly, for real, no kidding: Waterproof.
• On board heart rate monitor and altimeter track calories burned, heart rate, and elevation.
• Vibrating alerts let you know when your speed or heart rate speeds up or drops, or when you've clocked certain distances. 
• All vital data fully-uploadable, or downloadable, and web enabled. Of course.

This all sounds quite complicated, but apparently it's a breeze to use. We love all that awesome functionality, but we have another, girlier reason for digging this gadget. It looks hot!

Wired Workout

EA Sports Active Chases Wii Fit, Hot Moms

EA Sports, better known for guy video games like Madden NFL or Fight Night, released yesterday its would be Wii Fit-killer: EA Sports Active. (Prepare for media blitz featuring very fit, very happy, 30-nothing women, working out in sun drenched, Crate-and-Barrell fantasy living rooms. Sample vid at bottom!)

Early reviews are positive: "We're favorably impressed," writes Yahoo's PluggedIn blog. "A few minutes [of] jogging or thigh-lifting
exercises will have you muttering curses at the on-screen trainer." The game is designed for the Wii console, and comes with a velcro band to strap the Wii "nunchuck" to your leg -- allowing it to track your high stepping and jumping -- as well as a rubber resistance band for various sorts of muscle-y moves like curls. It also comes with a food logging app, and, nicely, it tracks calories burned, not pounds lost. All this, as well as the general vibe on the game's blog, suggests that EA is going after the ladies. Indeed, EA Prez Peter Moore, told the San Francisco Chronicle in March:
"Women are aware of the EA Sports brand but they thought of it for
their boyfriend, son or husband. This game can change that."

Wired Workout

Tune In, Work Out, Log Off

You need a home workout, and it's not going to be yoga. You could troll YouTube and sift through “workout videos,” (ruling out anyone in tube socks, giving a second click to anyone in spandex). But if you’d like a well-edited selection, hit up beYOU.tv. It’s a fitness video portal with over 250 workout videos.

Online & Video

Wired Workout

Know Yourself Intimately

If you're not into gadgets, read this cute, ReadyMade-style post. If EKG machines turn you on, however, then let's talk about the new  GoWear Fit "body monitor" from a company called BodyMedia. The inspiration behind this product is that you might want to keep tabs on your body not just when working out, but also "while shopping, playing with the kids, doing household chores, and sitting at the movies." In other words, says the web site: "When you’re wearing it, you’re measuring your life!" Cut to dimly lit Upper West Side bedroom.

Elliott: "Honey, we just burned 743 calories!"
Ruth: "I have a headache."

Online & Video