fitness

Size matters in car collision test

Bigger really is better when it comes to driver safety in a head on collision. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, minicars and microcars take a lot more damage than their midsized counterparts do in 40 mph car-to-car collision tests.

The IIHS this week published its findings, and posted a Web video on YouTube.

Although smaller cars are a lot safer than they were just a few years ago, they crumble and buckle in head-on collisions. The smaller, lighter weight cars are also propelled backward during a crash, causing further damage to the car.

According to the test … Read more

Nonstationary stationary bike for getting your swerve on

I only run when chased, so biking has always been my preferred method for a cardio workout. However, I've never been much for stationary bikes or spinning. The RealRyder ABF8 spin bike, however, might change my mind. (Though I doubt I'll have the $1,995 to buy one anytime soon.)

Instead of a rigid ride, the bike has an articulating frame letting you lean, steer, and sway from side to side as if you were on a typical road bike.

The company claims the instability allows for a more complete workout, engaging core and upper-body muscles since you … Read more

InchWorm shoes that grow on you

Here's a stretch of an idea--shoes that grow with the child.

U.K.-based Fat Shoes Day--while not exactly a politically correct shop name--may just have a shoo-in with its InchWorm trainers. Taking a cue from expandable luggage bags and my favorite Tupperware collapsible FlatOut containers, these kiddie shoes utilize a technology called (in a nod to Apple) iFit.

The middle segment works like an accordion that can be extended with a button release. The result: a pair of shoes that will grow with the little tyke, in two half-size increments up to three sizes. How cool is … Read more

The 404 310: Where BOL wishes it was The 404

There's been a lot of tension between Buzz Out Loud and The 404 for the last couple of months, but today, it's all on! We're sick and tired of the "Bore Out Loud" stealing our women (*ahem* Natali Del Conte) and our joke show titles. We've never been as crass as to have "urine" in one of our show titles. We got pretty bad, though, with having "tickling the Bonch." But we really did tickle CNET editor Bonnie Cha that day.

It's official! We. Are. The. Four. Oh. Four: High-tech, low-brow. That's right. That's the winner to our tagline contest. Also, here are the winners to our Justin Yu photo caption contest (in order) for a copy of Wheelman for the Xbox 360:

What, the Hubble Telescope is down?! Don't worry, just tell me what you wanna look at. The 404's Justin Yu was taken into custody shortly after molesting a lumberjack, a 90-year-old woman, and robbing a Radioshack in Chinatown last evening. Luckily, there was no evidence of d*cktopping at any of these crime scenes. All the single printers, all the single printers!

In today's episode, we've got proof that gamers who play action-oriented video games have better vision than non-gamers. A man dies after trying to get healthier with the Wii Fit. Chinese people are spying on your pr0n collection and the NSA. Let's hope the Conflicker doesn't end the Interweb before they find too much dirt. The Pirate Bay joins Facebook. And finally, Encarta dies a slow, painful death after being stabbed by Wikipedia.

EPISODE 310 Download today's podcast |  Subscribe in iTunes |  Subscribe in RSS… Read more

Future fitness: Infrared light and dancing games

At this year's International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association's convention and trade show here in San Francisco, computer-based fitness games and health data for the Web stood out as big trends. Inactivity from sitting in front of computers can lead to obesity, but the health industry seems increasingly to be using computers to combat sedentary lifestyles and attract customers to gyms.

At the IHRSA trade show this week, I saw computerized scales that talk to your watch, fitness data that automatically uploads to the Web, and arcade-style dancing games aimed at fighting flab. As gyms and fitness gadgets … Read more

Fire the personal trainer: Use these sites instead

Spring is almost here, and soon we'll be showing the world much more than just our heads and hands. That means it's time to get up off the couch and start doing whatever we can to get our bods ready for summer. Need advice on that? These sites can help.

Gyminee If you're looking for a way to track your workouts and get some dietary advice, Gyminee is a great place to start.

In a matter of seconds, you'll be able to join Gyminee and start creating a workout regimen that will help you lose weight, tone your muscles, or gain strength. And you won't need to do it alone. With the help of Gyminee, you can find exercises and create a regimen from pre-configured workout routines based on your goals. Gyminee does a fine job of helping you do whatever you want.

Gyminee's tracking tools are very good. Once you sign up, you can put your weight, resting heart rate, and measurements into the system to see where you stand today. As long as you keep inputting that information on a regular basis, it will show you a detailed graph providing your progress over the term of your workout. That's easily my favorite feature because it's a great motivation tool that helps me see just how far I've come since I started exercising.

While Gyminee does a fine job with workouts and tracking, I was disappointed with its dietary advice. It does provide a detailed analysis of required calorie, fat, and protein intake to get you to your goal weight, but it doesn't do much more. It doesn't tell you what to eat and how to do it. It doesn't tell you when you should be eating. It basically tells you that you need to have a certain number of calories every day and leaves it at that. For a full-featured health improvement site, that's weak.

Gyminee boasts extra features like a forum so you can discuss health considerations, and you can make friends with others and track their progress. If you want, you can also set challenges and see how close you are to achieving those goals. Gyminee offers good features and it's worth using even though it doesn't have enough dietary information.… Read more

Follow a calorie budget

Lose It is a free, simple-to-use weight-loss app that can help you set long-term goals and track calories consumed and burned. The Lose It interface is very intuitive, making it quick and easy to log both food and exercise--which is a must for any good diet and exercise tracker. The first time you use Lose It, you enter your gender, age, weight, height, and desired weight and weight-loss rate, and the app sets a goal date and gives you a daily calorie budget. The app then helps you track your progress with graphs, logs, and daily feedback (such as useful &… Read more

Wii Fit for Valentine's Day: It's ok. Really.

I got the Wii Fit for Valentine's Day. And yes, I know that the Wii Fit is verboten as a Valentine's Day gift, and is in the same category as like, sugar-free candy or the 30 Day Shred DVD (which, by the way, is a fat-burning miracle). But here's the thing: my husband isn't trying to tell me I'm fat. He just knows I want a Wii fit. Therefore, I am happy that I got a Wii Fit. It's fun. Can we please, ladies with geek leanings, please try to get the message out … Read more

SmHeart Link turns iPhone into health tracker

Looks like that iPhone or iPod Touch you bring to the gym can do more for your fitness than just make your workout more pleasurable.

iTMP Technology, an iPhone hardware and software developer, announced Friday its launch of SmHeart Link, a new device developed to bring health and fitness tracking capabilities to iPhone and iPod Touch users.

Basically, SmHeart Link is a wireless bridge that collects data from distributed health and fitness sensors such as those found in workout machines and sends it to the iPhone via Wi-Fi. Users then can make use of the data via an iPhone application … Read more