New Fitbit smartwatches equipped with special trackers, features for kids

With three new smartwatches set to be released in the next few weeks, Fitbit has health covered for the entire family. With specially designed trackers and features for kids, adults, women and runners, here we round up what you can expect from the new launches.

Fitbit Ace

To get kids more excited about sport, Fitbit has designed the Fitbit Ace especially for those age 8 and over to reward activity and make fitness fun. With some help from mom and dad kids can set their own activity goals with the Fitbit Ace, and receive rewards and badges for achieving them. The Fitbit App: Kid View has also been designed especially for children so they can see how they are doing, with a separate Parent View available for mom and dad. To help keep kids moving children can also challenge friends to step competitions, with reminders to move giving them a nudge to stay active all day long. Sleep Tracking also takes note of their shut-eye. Available in electric blue or purple, the Fitbit Ace also has ten child-friendly clock faces to choose from. The Fitbit Ace is available to pre-order now priced at $99.95 (about P5,200) and is due to ship late May.


Fitbit Versa

The Fitbit Versa tracks all of the essential health statistics including steps taken, distance, calories burned, active minutes and heart-rate tracking, and of course allows users to set goals and monitor their progress using the Fitbit app. In addition, users can track specific workouts such as running, cycling, and swimming, and follow personalized on-screen workouts on the watch face, which will coach you through each move.

When you’re not on the go the Versa will also track sleep, including time in light, deep and REM stages, while guided breathing sessions will help users take a moment for mindfulness and reduce stress levels.

Fitbit has also included a Female Health feature, with the Versa allowing women to use the tracker with the Fitbit app to make a note of your period and any symptoms, and compare your cycle with other health stats such as sleep, activity and weight. The Fitbit Versa is available to pre-order now priced at $199.95 (over P10,400) and is due to ship in April.

Fitbit Ionic: Adidas Edition

In addition to the existing Fitbit Ionic, the brand is now also releasing a special edition of the smartwatch in partnership with Adidas. The Fitbit Ionic: Adidas Edition features a new and exclusive app, Adidas Train, which allows users to access unique workouts to improve running performance. Each workout will offer step-by-step coaching designed to improve a different aspect of running such as speed, form or power. The new smartwatch will also come with an adidas-designed clock face and new accessory options, with two-toned sport bands available in Ink Blue and Ice Gray with Silver Gray aluminum case. The Fitbit Ionic: Adidas Edition is available to pre-order now priced at $329.95 (over P17,000) and is due to ship in March. JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Treadmill studio classes put a spin on indoor running

NEW YORK - A New York City fitness studio is following fast on the heels of the indoor cycling, or spin, craze by beckoning outdoor runners to come in from the cold for group treadmill classes.

Equipped with 30 treadmills, lighting evocative of dusk or dawn, and group training designed to hone the skills of marathoners and newbies alike, fitness experts say the Mile High Run Club (MHRC) might do a bit to burnish the image of the most used, least glamorous, of gym cardio machines.

Billed as the first treadmill studio, MHRC is the brainchild of founder and program director Debora Warner, a running coach and group fitness instructor. She said the experience is similar to a group spinning class with many people on treadmills at the same time doing a structured class together.

“You can be very specific about incline, duration, number of reps,” said Warner, 43, “and that helps runners with their pacing outdoors. I don’t see treadmills as a substitute for running, but it’s a great training tool.”

The treadmill is the most popular cardio machine at the gym, used by 40 percent of the over 60 million Americans who utilized a health club in 2013, according to the 2014 Health Club Consumer Report of IHRSA, the trade association of the health club and fitness industry.

Nevertheless, it is viewed as drudgery, believes Connecticut-based exercise physiologist and running coach Tom Holland.

“Running on a treadmill is a pretty horrible experience for most people and they generally don’t maximize their time,” said Holland, author of “The Marathon Method.”

He points out that while there is great value to interval training, steady running has its virtues, too.

“Most running coaches say for every hard workout, you need one or two easier ones,” Holland said.

Although Warner's studio is dedicated to running, she noted that big gyms, such as Equinox, also offer treadmill classes. Crunch, another national chain, has also been integrating treadmill intervals into yoga and boot camp classes.

She offers group foundational and advanced classes. Both rely on repetitions of high-speed or intensity work followed by periods of rest or low activity, bookended by five-minute warm-ups and cool downs.

The classes also incorporate about 10 minutes of strength and power training, such as lunges, plyometrics (jumping), and stability training, which are all good for runners. — Reuters