The best fitness gear to upgrade your workout routine

Posted on 16/09/2022 by Mat Smith

Maybe you like to run, or perhaps you’re many years into a regular gym habit. You’ve dabbled with fitness wearables and thought about treating yourself to a massage gun, but never got around to buying one. Perhaps your foam roller is starting to crumble, and that free tee you got with protein powder has seen better days. You might be fitter, but your fitness equipment and tech are due for an upgrade.

The Engadget team has picked some of their favorite exercise tech purchases that have made our fitness journeys less of a struggle. From the best wearable tech to our favorite smart scale, some selections command premium prices, while a few are surprisingly affordable.

Oura Ring

As we said in our review, the Oura ring is a wearable for people who hate wearables. It also offers more robust sleep tracking than many watch-like devices. Despite the size and weight remaining unchanged from the second-gen Oura ring, it’s incredible how much technology is crammed into this thing. The third generation has sensors that can track your heart rate continuously; temperature monitoring; blood oxygenation; and period prediction.

The Oura ring is very serious about tracking everything it can. Given the lack of a display, you’ll need your smartphone to check on your recovery scores and how well you slept. These scores are synthesized from biometrics, including your heart rate variability, body temperature, resting heart rate and breathing rate. With a subscription – yes, something you may have to pay beyond the $299 asking price – you’ll get weekly summaries to show how your activity levels and sleeping hours are trending. I like Oura’s ability to tell when you’ve been training a little too hard and that the app suggests taking a day off to recover.

The ring isn’t perfect. The company has let some features drag for months – especially frustrating when some users pay a monthly sub. For example, blood oxygenation (SpO2) level tracking was promised when the third-gen Oura Ring was first announced and has only just arrived on most rings – almost half a year late.

A warning: If you’re planning to track weight lifting workouts with the Oura ring, the black edition is likely to show some conspicuous scratches if you’re gripping metallic bars and plates. I also struggled with pull-ups, as I’m not quite used to wearing a ring while gripping for my life. – Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief

Buy Oura Ring - $299

Apple Watch Series 7

The most popular smartwatch series continues to lead on the feature front – if you ignore sleep tracking. The Series 7 has the biggest screen yet of any Apple Watch. It’s over 50 percent bigger than the Series 3 and 20 percent larger than the Series 6 that came before it. With more screen space and bigger buttons, it’s easier to stop and start workouts and check your heart rate and time elapsed during exercise. In addition, since watchOS 5, Apple’s wearables have been able to auto-detect specific workouts, which is great for when you forget to start logging a run or a spin session.

The Series 7 can track your VO2 Max levels, measuring your cardiorespiratory fitness level. What’s cool here is how the wearable notifies you when your levels tangibly change. So if you start a new intensive workout regime, you’ll see these figures creep up. Your iPhone will notify you when you make tangible improvements, say moving from below to above average cardio fitness levels, possibly even to its high fitness level. I’ve been hovering around 50 VO2 Max, but I’ll get to 52 eventually.

The Apple Watch also has its own connected workout platform in the form of Fitness+, offering HIIT, dance, pilates, yoga classes and more, streaming classes to your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV. Your heart rate will show on screen during many classes, indicating how you’re faring compared to other Fitness+ members and hopefully inspiring you to push a little harder.

Of course, Apple Watch Series 8 (as well as a new 'pro' Ultra model) are both launching very soon. The Watch Ultra, in particular, packs longer battery life and a brighter screen — perfect for outdoor sports. – M.S.

Buy Apple Watch Series 7 at Amazon - $389

Theragun Prime

Theragun’s unique triangle design helps its devices stand out from a legion of other massage therapy guns. Multiple ways to grip the Theragun make it easier to target trickier body parts. As one of the more premium massage devices, it offers 16mm amplitude (typically only bested by devices several hundred dollars more) and speeds of up to 2,400 percussions per minute. Some health claims (like improved performance) are backed up by limited studies, but others (including sped-up muscle recovery) are not. I love using mine to target specifically tight areas; it even feels good ahead of a workout.

The Theragun Prime is better than most of the massage gun competition. It’s more flexible, too. Compared to Therabody’s own more basic options, the Prime comes with three extra attachments in addition to the standard ball: a cone, a dampener with a flattened head, and a thumb attachment, which can help dig deeper. The battery is thankfully long-lasting, too. – M.S.

Buy Theragun Prime at Amazon - $299

Eufy Smart Scale P1

It’s time to throw away that chunky analog scale with the wobbly dial. Instead, for a more aesthetically pleasing design and deeper insight into your body weight and composition, it’s time to go digital. Several smart scale options are available, but I’ve used the sensibly priced Eufy Smart Scale P1. This smart scale connects with your smartphone to sync your data, and you just need to remember to open the app. Otherwise, it won’t track your progress.

It can monitor your weight in imperial or metric measurements and even make a rough guess at your body fat and water percentages. However, it’s worth noting that domestic smart scales are often not hugely accurate at gauging these measurements.

There are even more advanced smart scales too. Still, they are usually over double the price of the Smart Scale P1, often adding unnecessary features like multiple user profiles, Alexa voice activation, athletic modes for pro athletes and more. At some point, it’s diminishing returns, but the ability to digitally track (as well as set up weigh-in reminders) helped me form better habits to monitor my weight. – M.S.

Buy Smart Scale P1 at Amazon - $45

Beats Fit Pro earbuds

Many true wireless earbuds, let alone conventional headphones, weren’t made for working out. Some have non-removable parts that can get gunked up, while others lack water and dust resistance or have wires liable to tangle up or tug at you during workouts. For many of these reasons, I swear by true wireless earbuds and the Beats Fit Pro deliver on everything I want from workout buds. That includes active noise cancellation (less weight slamming and awful gym music), an understated profile, and a comfortable fit with a convenient fin design to lock it into your ear without making your ears ache.

Thankfully, they don’t stick out your ears like many earbud options. The company recently launched a series of even more subtle skin-colored buds in collaboration with Kim Kardashian. With Apple’s H1 chip, the Beats Fit Pro can offer hands-free Siri functionality and enhanced Find My item tracking. – M.S.

Buy Beats Fit Pro at Amazon - $200

On-demand fitness subscription

One of the best things I've done for my fitness routine as of late is introducing some variety. Since I work out in the morning right after waking up, it's pretty easy for me to fall into a routine of doing the same thing over and over again. However, I've found it much easier to switch things up by relying on an on-demand fitness subscription.

I've tried a handful of the many services out there now, but the ones I've stuck with are Peloton and Alo Moves. I don't own a single piece of Peloton hardware; I instead spend $13 each month for app access only, and that's where I take most of my strength-training classes. I like that they're constantly putting out new offerings every day, but the backlog of on-demand classes is bursting at the seams, too. The sessions are challenging and engaging, and there are plenty of options if you don't have any equipment at all.

Alo Moves is more focused on yoga, pilates and barre, and it’s a bit more expensive at $20 per month. I'm more interested in toning than bulking up, so I try to incorporate some of these classes into my strength training routine. I particularly like that Alo Moves has a "series" of sessions that fall under the same umbrella that you can take over the course of many days. When I really don't want to think about what I'm doing on a given morning for a workout, it's easy just to turn to the next class in the barre series I was already working on. – Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor

Subscribe to Peloton app - $13/montth Subscribe to Alo Moves - $20/month

Bowflex Selectech adjustable dumbbells

For a lot of us, space is at a premium. We might have enough space to roll out a yoga mat, but not much more beyond that. Consolidating (and shrinking) your home workout gear is a nice way to keep your exercise habits going without tripping over weights or resistance band. Bowflex is a well-established fitness company that’s made adjustable dumbbells for several years now. The weight range will depend on the model, but the Bowflex SelectTech 552i can be dialed (literally) down to 2kg (4.4 pounds) and up to 24kg (53 pounds) each, making them suitable for all kinds of full-body and dedicated muscle group moves. A dial on each side of the weight adjusts how many plates the bar latches onto, with the remaining weight staying behind in the included storage tray.

There are several adjustable dumbbells out there, but I prefer this classic ‘dumbbell’ look compared to some of the more squarish-looking rivals. One minor issue is that you’ll have to tinker with both sides to adjust the weight. Also, if you’re looking for an on-demand workout service, Bowflex includes a free one-year subscription to its JRNY streaming service. – M.S.

Buy Bowflex SelectTech 552i at Amazon - $219

Tiny pocket-sized resistance machine with modular attachments replaces a full-body gym

Posted on 04/09/2022 by Vincent Nguyen

Using resistance to its advantage, the Unitree PUMP can practically mimic any sort of exercise equipment you need. Its modular and universal design allows you to work on any part of your body, and the pocket-sized resistance machine is small enough to travel with too, letting you build muscle without carrying your entire gym with you.

The PUMP comes from Unitree, a robotics company known more popularly for their quadruped ‘robot dog’. A byproduct of the technology developed for the dog was a patented motor capable of generating resistance. It didn’t take long before the folks at Unitree saw a novel application for this motor. Capable of generating resistance as high as 44lb (20kg), the PUMP is a deceptively tiny palm-sized gym that can be used in a multitude of ways to work on any part of your body, coving as many as 90% of all muscle groups. It’s also capable of outputting a stable resistance so you don’t end up injuring yourself or straining your muscles. Who would’ve thought building the muscles of a robot dog would end up helping build, well, human muscles!?

Designer: Unitree

Click Here to Buy Now: $159 ~~$259~~ ($100 off). Hurry, only 25/100 left!

All of PUMP’s capabilities lie in this one handheld device that contains a motor and a microcontroller board that helps adjust the PUMP’s resistance as well as track your workouts. The PUMP can be strapped to objects like door frames, railings, or even the floor, and can be used to mimic the feeling of working with weights. You can use it for general full-body workouts, HIIT routines, or even focus on your core or other parts of the body.

The PUMP works pretty much as a standalone device and hardly needs any additional accessories (apart from straps and such), but the minute you include its modules, you can basically have it replace an entire gym. Moreover, all that mechanical energy stored within the PUMP from all your exercising can then be used to charge your phone! In PUMP’s Generation Mode, the mechanical action of working out gets directly translated into electrical energy, which can then be used to charge your devices!

Concentric Mode – You can customize resistance from 11 – 44lbs (5-20kg) and a ratio from 0-50%.

Eccentric Mode – Gives you more burn when you’re releasing the weight, giving your muscles more time under pressure.

Constant Mode – Adjust the resistance range from 4.4 – 44lbs (2-20kg). The resistance will be the same whether you’re pulling the rope out, or releasing it back in.

Chain Mode – Choose resistance from 4.4 – 44lbs (2-20kg), but it allows you to schedule resistance and let PUMP adjust resistance automatically while you train.

The Unitree PUMP pairs along with its companion smartphone app that lets you choose from more than 100 free tutorials on how to use the PUMP to target various parts of your body. Along with recommending exercises, the app lets you set the resistance, helps track your reps, and even counts your calories, giving you an overall breakdown of your workout.

Additionally, the app gamifies the process of exercising with a built-in fitness game that enhances your weight training experience like nothing else on the market! The app even helps you unlock the PUMP’s true potential by suggesting new ways to use it – with simple gear and a little elbow-grease, you can turn you PUMP into a rowing machine, paddle machine, smith machine, or a leg extension curl machine. Combine two PUMPs and with a pair of floor-mounted suction cups, you can even simulate training on barbells!

The idea of a space-saving gym isn’t just appealing to the traveler (although the PUMP was built to be travel-friendly), but also appeals to people with small apartments who don’t have space for a peloton, or the money for vast amounts of gym equipment. Each PUMP ships with a power cable (given that it runs on a motor), storage pouch, and accessories like a door anchor, extension rope, annular fitting belt, ankle strap, pull-rope handle, and a safety buckle. The entire device weighs a paltry 700 grams (as much as a bottle of water), but is capable of outputting resistance nearly 30 times its overall weight. The price of this palm-sized gym starts at a super early bird price of $159.

Click Here to Buy Now: $159 ~~$259~~ ($100 off). Hurry, only 25/100 left!

The post Tiny pocket-sized resistance machine with modular attachments replaces a full-body gym first appeared on Yanko Design.

Withings has a new smart scale and ‘Health+’ fitness subscription platform

Posted on 01/09/2022 by Daniel Cooper

Withings is today announcing yet another in its range of class-leading smart scales, Body Comp. The device is pitched as a “complete body assessment scale” which can look at the sort of facets of our bodies normally reserved for clinical settings. That includes weight, muscle mass, fat mass, water percentage, bone mass, BMI and visceral fat counts. You’ll also get information on your standing heart rate and your vascular health (based on Pulse Wave Velocity), as well as analyzing your nerve health. And, of course, it’s the first Withings product that will be sold to be compatible with Health+, the company’s other new announcement.

Health+ is Withings’ new subscription platform, since recurring revenue is now the one way that most hardware businesses make money these days. It promises to “unlock additional features in the Health Mate app,” offering insights on how to strive for a better body. These include six week habit-forming modules, all of which is contextualized with the data offered by your Withings devices. They will also be offered meal plans and suggested workouts to help them achieve their goals faster. (Health+ will set you back $79.95 after the first year of use, and is only compatible so far with this and any future Withings' products.)

Now, this is actually a different product to Body Scan, the scale that Withings announced back in January which came with its own electrode handle. That, much like other high-end body composition scales, asks you to hold the handle at waist height in order to better read your vital statistics. Armed with the data, it’ll tell you the fat and water ratios in your arms, legs and torso, as well as monitoring your nerve activity. That product hasn’t actually hit stores yet, but it’s already clear that Body Comp will offer the bulk of the same features with a little less fine grain data.

There is now a significant number of devices that have Withings and Body in the name and you’d be forgiven for struggling to keep them all straight in your head. The existing flagship is the Body Cardio, which has all of the current bells and whistles, including weight, BMI, body composition, heart rate and vascular age. Below that, the Body+ offers weight, BMI and body comp, while the vanilla Body just offers weight and BMI.

Withings has a new smart scale and ‘Health+’ fitness subscription platform

Posted on 01/09/2022 by Daniel Cooper

This sustainable multi-stretching tool can be used by pro athletes to physical therapy patients

Posted on 22/08/2022 by Srishti Mitra

Gyms have opened up, and our workout routines have finally achieved a certain semblance of normalcy at this point! However, if you’re still a bit of a lazy bum (like me), and actually landing up at the gym can feel like a task on most days, then Castleflexx could be the product to help you take a break from your sedentary lifestyle. Essentially, Castleflexx is “a multi-purpose stretching and strength tool designed to help athletes, fitness enthusiasts, or anyone with chronic pain improve both their flexibility, core strength, and mobility.”

Designer: Dan Castle x Leadoff Studio

Fed up with his own lower back pain, and in an attempt to improve it, Dan Castle created a prototype of Castleflexx with a biomechanical engineer and then approached Leadoff Studio. They set a goal to build a product from sustainable materials that could cater to the needs of a wide range of users – from professional athletes to elderly patients. They crafted Casteflexx from three materials – recyclable aluminum, sustainably harvested cork, and RPET fabric made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. The smart product is designed to last a lifetime and is microbial as well.

An ergonomic aluminum bae features natural cork handles on both ends, while a piece of non-stretch fabric connects to the bar, and can be expanded to create a “foot hammock”, on which users can position their heels. Users can either lay on their back, or sit on a chair, grip the handles, and flex their toes backward, leading to a flexed plantar fascia. There’s also a mid-bar cut-out to add a 2-pound magnetic weight whenever needed for increased resistance, and specialized mobility workouts.

Besides its sustainable construction, what Castleflexx essentially does is, it focuses on the posterior chain of the lower limb by stretching the soft tissues of your toes, foot, calf, and hamstring. It helps your fascial and nerve tissue release, in turn, improving issues related to lower back pain, herniated discs, and plantar fasciitis. Casteflexx’s goal is to make ‘Prehab’ an easy and accessible process, and to ensure people can prevent injuries from even happening!

Castleflexx is designed to be a portable and travel-friendly product that you can carry anywhere with you! Besides being easy to carry, and user-friendly – it was also designed to have a universal appeal or functionality. In fact, The Atlanta Braves used CastleFlexx in their 2021 World Series championship season to increase speed and mobility! It’s fit for professional athletes to stretch with, but can also be used by physical therapy patients, or even individuals suffering from arthritis. It’s truly a lightweight and effortlessly accessible device that can be used by a wide range of people!

The post This sustainable multi-stretching tool can be used by pro athletes to physical therapy patients first appeared on Yanko Design.

Clever and thoughtful home gym lets you exercise in the living room without compromising décor

Posted on 19/08/2022 by Gaurav Sood

Through the pandemic, when public gyms were least populated, a parallel industry of home gyms has come to the fore. Home gyms are particularly designed to provide you with exercise equipment and put you in front of a motion tracking camera that relays real-time information about posture, reps and other details to a trainer on the other side of a connected screen. The real-time coaching (in the comfort and safety of the house) has propelled the industry to a high where memberships of virtual trainers are skyrocketing at the cost of physical instructors in the gym down the street.

The idea of a home gym was revolutionized by the Tempo Studio gym set which comes complete with a display and motion-tracking camera that actively scans and monitors your exercise in 3D. The entire set, with all the equipment hiding within its storage cabinet, occupies three square feet of your house’s real estate. This guy appeared a little plasticky and displeasing despite its sleek all-in-one design. To give us a better, compact and more interesting way to get fit well within the confines of the home, without compromising the décor, the makers behind the Studio set have now come up with the Tempo Move.

Designer: Level Design

Click Here to Buy Now!

The compact home gym is more than just an exercise assistant. This fitness accessory is designed to stand next to your furniture in the living room and eliminate your runs to the store room for gymming. Tempo Move is a sublime blend of materials, colors and finishes, which makes it a discrete piece of furniture to turn your living space into a home gym. The workout equipment goes behind the fabric cabinet while the top feature an iPhone dock compatible with iPhone XR and upward. With the unique combination of furniture and gym, Tempo Move connects to any large screen TV to let you see your exercise routine and have the trainers coach you in real-time.

From the pictures here, you would have made out; Move is unlike anything anyone would associate with a gym. The metal body of the console is clad in warm fabric for an elegant look. Unless you open the cabinet, anyone would mistake it for an elegant cabinet you’d bought from Wayfair. The more techie would mistake it for an iPhone dock, only to realize its reality when it would refuse to blast the tones from the docked iPhone. For you, using HDMI you can connect the Move to your TV set and workout with ease along with the models on the large screen.

The neat-looking Tempo Move console houses within its cabinetry 16 weight plates, 4 weight collars, 2 dumbbells, and a heart rate monitor. The weight plates and dumbbells all stay put in their sectional grooves. You can, therefore, pull out or roll back the equipment in a smooth motion without injuring the console. Did you want a gym that would let you exercise conveniently in the living room? Tempo Move is here!

The post Clever and thoughtful home gym lets you exercise in the living room without compromising décor first appeared on Yanko Design.

Nike Training Club adds adaptive workouts to make exercise more accessible

Posted on 29/07/2022 by Jon Fingas

Nike wants to make fitness apps accessible to more people with disabilities. The athletics gear maker has introduced adaptive workouts to the Nike Training Club app (available for Android and iOS) that you can perform whether or not you have a disability. The seven classes in this set target a wide range of movement and equipment, ranging from upper-body strength training with dumbbells to yoga.

A Nike athlete with limb loss, Amy Bream, leads all the classes. You'll also find guidance from an adaptive training-focused physical therapist. Training Club already offers an exercise program for expecting and recent mothers.

The company isn't alone in making these apps more accessible. Apple added Fitness+ workouts for pregnant people and seniors last year and has Apple Watch wheelchair workout tracking, for instance. Still, Nike's move is an important step that could bring exercise apps to a wider audience.

Nike Training Club adds adaptive workouts to make exercise more accessible

Posted on 29/07/2022 by Jon Fingas

This soundbar-shaped device is actually an artificial intelligent personal trainer

Posted on 29/06/2022 by Sarang Sheth

Sure, your smartwatch can tell you what your heart rate is, but can it ‘spot’ you and coach you through workouts? Altis is a linear soundbar-esque device that rests under your television and acts as a virtual trainer that properly guides you through your workouts. A set of two cameras on each end of the Altis give it a stereoscopic view of you as you exercise, allowing it to gauge your speed, posture, and technique. Then, it coaches you in real-time, telling you when you’re doing something wrong, and rewarding/encouraging you when you exercise the right way!

Designer: Jeff Halevy

Click Here to Buy Now: $999 ~~$2499~~ (60% off). Hurry, exclusive deal for YD readers only.

Altis was debuted at CES 2022, championing the new Workout From Home approach to exercises. Designed as a virtual trainer powered by AI, Altis works just as well as a human trainer, optimizing your regime and correcting your technique as you progress. However, unlike a trainer, Altis is always ready when you are, occupies a small sliver of countertop space right underneath your TV, and gives you a gym-style workout experience right in your living room with the tools you have. Simultaneously, your TV screen lets you observe yourself the way Altis observes you, allowing you to follow exercises while also seeing yourself doing them and comparing yourself to the on-screen trainer.

Where the AI really kicks in is in its ability to optimize workouts based on your level of progress. Unlike the Peloton which presents a cookie-cutter approach to working out, Altis crafts a routine around your goals and abilities. Altis hyper-personalizes your workouts to get you your results faster. Moreover, if it sees you struggling with a certain set of exercises, it automatically switches them up to ensure gains without the risk of injury. This hyper-personalization starts in onboarding where you complete a physical assessment and enter your goals. From then on, Altis will be ready with a custom workout each day that modifies based on your performance to help you reach your goals.

On the design and engineering front, Altis is powered by Nvidia hardware optimized for AI applications. Its ability to track you relies on two strategically placed cameras that also come with their own physical privacy shutter that you can close when you’re not working out. Inside, Altis is powered by an Intel Core i5+ CPU and an Nvidia RTX 3050+ GPU. The device starts with 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB built in storage. It interfaces with your TV or screen using an HDMI connection, syncing your progress over the internet.

Using Altis is about as easy as communicating with a human trainer. Dubbed the Movement OS, the device tracks your hand as an input controller, allowing you to raise your hand or point at objects on the screen. You first start by choosing the amount of time you want to devote to your exercise for the day, and Altis takes over the rest. It works with movement-based exercises as well as weight training, while observing posture, tracking your movement speed, calculating reps, and giving you time to cool down in between.

Altis offers some significant advantages over the traditional gym membership. It gives you undivided attention, focuses on your form, and optimizes your workout every single day. Simultaneously, it does this all in the comfort of your home at a schedule that suits your needs – something a human trainer won’t quite be able to devotedly do. Altis works with pretty much any TV you’ve got, and can be placed in any room as long as you’ve got space to work out in it. The hardware costs $1199, and patrons get a free one-year subscription to the Altis service, after which it costs $39 a month, which sounds like a steal considering you’re getting your own AI personal trainer!

Click Here to Buy Now: $999 ~~$2499~~ (60% off). Hurry, exclusive deal for YD readers only.

The post This soundbar-shaped device is actually an artificial intelligent personal trainer first appeared on Yanko Design.

This seesaw lamp visualizes your achievements by illuminating with your goals

Posted on 17/06/2022 by Gaurav Sood

If you had been waiting for a delightful way to motivate yourself to keep up with your goals or routines in the hybrid work environment, the Motivo lamp is here. It’s a seesaw of illumination that will only light up when you’ve completed your planned goal. Now that’s how anyone who lacks perseverance can stay motivated to drink 5 liters of water throughout the day if the smartwatch notification doesn’t help.

Until I got a smartwatch, I doubted that the trackers and gadgets actually helped you keep more active and achieve predetermined goals. Now as the clouds of doubt fade, things have really changed for good. I can keep tabs on my vitals during my speed walks or set a goal for the day and then drink plenty of water, knowing if I don’t, my better half would have her way over me (for it’s her who’s got me into the smartwatch habit after all).

Designer: HyunJin Kim and Hanyoung Lee

Back to Motivo, it is a very non-intrusive product, that scraps the need of having a gadget tethered to the body all the time. Sitting on the table, alongside your laptop, this seesaw of illumination syncs with the smartphone and lets you pre-plan and then achieve your set goals. The Motivo visualizes individual achievement with its seesaw-like aesthetics. The light is turned on when a goal is achieved and the LED-mounted side of the seesaw rise upward illuminating brighter as the user approaches the planned routine or goal.

The Motivo thus intuitively indicates about the user’s achievement rate as the individual rallies toward his/her achievement. One can turn on the light using a button at the bottom of the Motivo, when the predefined goal is achieved. Interesting as it may sound, I’m sure it will make life tougher for the least motivated like me; but if we can really tap around for fun, who knows we may also light up in enthusiasm one day!