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The best fitness gear to upgrade your workout routine
You might be fitter, but your fitness equipment and tech are due for an upgrade. Here's what we recommend, from the best wearable tech to our favorite smart scale.
The home fitness tech that will help us stay active in 2021
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that home fitness surged in popularity in 2020. Exercise equipment went out of stock as soon as the lockdowns started here in the US, and a flurry of fitness apps and videos flooded our feeds.
ICYMI: Smart dumbbells, robot car seat and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864{width:100%;display:block;} #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864{width:100%;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: We are continuing our special Las Vegas coverage with a round-up of our favorite tech from Pepcom, a pre-CES event that showcases some of the technology at the show. Bowflex got our attention with a smart dumbbell that can count your reps and sync with an app over bluetooth. The dumbbells will cost $499 and are available later this month. But the stand that makes it fun to use is an additional $149.
These 'smart dumbbells' log your lifting sessions, call you out on your bad form
The "Internet of Things" basically now includes all the things: internet-connected slow cookers, tea kettles, baby onesies. And don't you think that also includes athletic equipment? Bowflex, the company best known for its all-in-one home-exercise machines, is showing off a pair of "smart dumbbells," which log your weight lifting sessions, and also use sensors to detect if you're moving your arms too fast (bad form, dudes). The SmartTech 560 dumbbells, as they're called, then send that data to an Android or iOS app over Bluetooth. Even then, there's a display on the weights, so you can glance at some of this info right there. Once you're in the app, you can view 70-plus video tutorials, courtesy of MyFitnessPal, as well as participate in a six-week training challenge.
Bowflex Boost fitness band coming to market in September for $50
A little bird at the FCC just tipped us off to a low-cost fitness band that's about to hit the market known as the Bowflex Boost. Like competing devices, it promises to track one's daily activities, calories burned and even quality of sleep, but as a key differentiator, it'll cost only $50. Similar to competitors such as the Nike FuelBand, Fitbit Flex and Jawbone Up, it'll also come with a companion iOS app, which syncs fitness data over Bluetooth and helps users stay accountable to their fitness goals. The Bowflex Boost was first announced this month during the earnings call of parent company Nautilus, which will leverage its direct-to-consumer sales channels to bring the bracelet to market in September. We're still curious to see what sort of sacrifices you'll need to make in exchange for the lower cost, but it seems that all will be revealed next month... perhaps in an infomercial.
First Look: iFlex trainer for Bowflex
As the owner of a new Bowflex system, I was excited to be able to try the $1.99 iFlex app from Redkab Creative [iTunes link]. For the new system owner, this app is really helpful. It provides a video reference library that shows you how to use the equipment to perform a wide range of exercises for every part of the body. Each movement is categorized into an area of your anatomy, including shoulders, chest, arms, legs, and so forth. Within each category are a dozen or more individual exercises. Each unit contains both a video overview and a starting and ending position -- very helpful when trying to understand exactly how to perform the exercise. In addition to the reference material, iFlex offers a virtual trainer. This section of the app includes suggested workout routines for gaining muscle, losing weight, and toning. You can track your sets, report the number of pounds lifted and your reps. Days 6 and 7 instruct you to "take the day off." I did not find any graphing tools or any way to track progress otherwise, nor can you create your own workouts. To wrap up the program, a simple fitness calculator figures out your BMI (Body-Mass Index, the same index used by Wii Fit), BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), and your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). It's a nice enough feature, but something of an afterthought. iFlex was nicely designed and for just two bucks, it's a great accessory to a Bowflex-style system. My personal unit is different from the one used in the videos, but it wasn't hard to adapt the instructions to the realities of the equipment in use. I'm looking forward to using iFlex over the next few weeks to add to my workout vocabulary.TUAW is commonly provided with not-for-resale licenses or promo codes to permit product evaluations and reviews. For more details, see our policy page.
