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You can't nail the perfect squat with just an iPhone app
The Squat. Capital 's'. With or without weight, it's widely regarded as the best exercise you can do. But one that's easy to get a little bit wrong and ruin all those benefits. So here's Kaia Health's Perfect Squat Challenge app, developed with input from both physiotherapists and sport scientists to help you nail the form. Notably, there's no wearable, no special hardware. It's just your iPhone camera and roughly seven feet of space.
Fitbit's Xbox coaching app helps you work out between games
If you're a gamer, you know it can be difficult to tear yourself away from the screen to get in some exercise. Fitbit, however, doesn't think you have to. It's trotting out an Xbox One version of its Coach app (released on mobile and PCs in the fall) that lets you squeak in guided fitness routines after your game sessions. You'll get a range of audio and video workouts, personalized training programs and custom streaming music to keep you going. And logically, there are tie-ins if you have a Fitbit device. The app will show your heart rate on the screen, and recommend workouts based on your current activity levels.
Exercise stick trains your muscles with light-based feedback
Of all the products ripe for technological gimmicks, training gizmos take the (low-fat, sugar-free) cake. That said, a new gadget called Axon does look pretty cool, if you're willing to risk Kickstarter. It's a stick that resembles a stout pool cue, with sensors and lights that measure the force you apply when pushing it against a wall, floor, ceiling, rock or tree. You can then train your body to match the lights, helping you improve muscle and back strength.
Olympic athletes are training with brain-altering headphones
Many of the athletes heading to the Rio Olympics are using some form of technology to help them out, but some of them are relying on particularly unusual gear. Halo Neuroscience has revealed that several athletes are using its Halo Sport headphones to (hopefully) improve the effectiveness of their training. The wearable is meant to stimulate your brain's motor cortex into a momentary "hyperplasticity" mode, where it can more effectively build neural connections -- if you're in the thick of resistance training, you may move on to heavier weights that much sooner.
A high-tech spin class took me from San Francisco to Wonderland
I enjoy stationary bikes because they offer the exercise benefits of cycling without annoyances like bad weather and dangerous traffic. But there are times when I miss some of the benefits of being outside, like a cool breeze and changing scenery. While a gym's AC unit can never really capture the magic scent of flowers and pine as you pass through a peaceful glade, workout designer company Les Mills has come up with a way to at least restore the sense of excursion with its new program, "The Trip."
Robocouch takes students to class without all of that exercise nonsense
There's a different kind of two-seater roaming the sidewalks of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia: a motorized couch. Thanks to the efforts of a few engineering students, what started as a joke amongst friends is now a Xbox gamepad-controlled robotic sofa. Under the cushions, there's an electric scooter motor and an armrest-mounted Raspberry Pi to wrangle the vehicle's four independent wheels. All told, it took a group of nine students a year to get the kinks worked out of the mechanical, software and assembly systems. "We were thinking about making a fridge robotic, too, so you could call it over," said co-creator Will Andrew. One thing's for sure: they'd certainly improve gameday lounging.
