/sarcasm

Brilliant!

Bravo to the people who made running outdoors possible.  I never thought I’d see it accomplished in my lifetime.  Ah the miracle of invention.

/end sarcasm

Here’s something I’m really excited about.  Not so much this initial product.  But I think it says something about the future of fitness.  If the FitBit is successful I can only imagine what will come in the near future.

Allow me to geek out a little …

I know it could be a far off dream but how cool would it be to look down at your iphone to simply check things like blood pressure, cholesterol, body fat, blood sugar, heart rate and other measurements that to this day you need a specialist or technician to tell you.

Here is the official press release.

Fitbit Inc. Launches at TechCrunch50 Providing Preview of Health and Wellness Device and Website

Ultra-Compact, Stylish Fitbit Tracker and Website Offer Effortless Way to Manage and Maintain Healthier Lifestyle

SAN FRANCISCO – Sept. 9, 2008 – Today, Fitbit Inc., a new company devoted to making America healthier, introduced the Fitbit Tracker and Website at the TechCrunch50 conference. Fitbit inspires people to exercise more, eat better and live a healthier lifestyle. The company’s newly introduced health and wellness monitoring tools make it easy for anyone to achieve a healthier lifestyle by automatically collecting data about a person’s daily activities and by presenting this data in a motivating and entertaining way.

The Fitbit Tracker is an ultra-compact wireless wearable device that automatically tracks and wirelessly uploads data about a person’s activities, such as exercise intensity levels, calories burned, sleep quality, steps and distance. It is as small as a pack of matches and clips securely onto any article of clothing or slips easily into a pocket. The Tracker uses motion sensing technology to precisely capture all moment-to-moment physical activity throughout the day and night. It also measures sleep quality to provide a holistic view of a 24-hour period. At the click of a button, calories, steps and distance are illuminated and displayed on the Tracker. In addition to these numerical measurements, the Tracker also displays a user’s progress toward their goals in the form of an avatar that changes as a user advances toward or falls behind their goals.

Data collected by the Fitbit Tracker is wirelessly uploaded to a Website where the wearer can see their information and track their progress toward personal goals. The Website’s motivational interface encourages users to share progress and lets people create groups made up of friends, family or co-workers to jointly work towards a common goal. On the Website, users can also log nutrition, weight and other health information in order to gain a complete picture of their health.

“We are excited to launch our company at TechCrunch50. Our goal is to make people aware of their overall fitness and well-being - and to use technology to accomplish this in a motivating and entertaining way that appeals to people beyond just hard-core athletes,” said James Park, CEO of Fitbit Inc. “At a time when studies show more than 60 percent of Americans are overweight, the Fitbit Tracker and Fitbit community Website are designed to break down barriers to physical fitness by offering a new and easy way to stay aware and motivated about your daily physical activity level and eating habits.”

The Fitbit Tracker and the Fitbit Website will be available by early 2009. The Fitbit Tracker will retail for less than $100; signing up on the Fitbit Website is free. Pre-order information is available today on www.fitbit.com.

Fitbit was selected as one of 50 up-and-coming companies to present at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco out of more than 1,000 applications.

About Fitbit Inc.

Fitbit is devoted to helping people achieve everyday health and wellness. Fitbit provides a complete wellness solution focused on behavior change via awareness and motivation. For more information and to pre-order the Fitbit Tracker, please visit www.fitbit.com.

About TechCrunch50

Founded in 2007 by leading technology blog TechCrunch and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, the TechCrunch50 conference provides a platform for early-stage, and frequently unfunded, companies to launch for the first time to the technology industry’s most influential venture capitalists, corporations, angel investors, fellow entrepreneurs and the international media.  Companies are selected to participate exclusively on merit.  TechCrunch50 is supported by corporate sponsors Google, Microsoft, MySpace, Salesforce, MSN Money, Symantec, Thomson Reuters and Yahoo!, as well as venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, Mayfield Fund, Clearstone Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, Founders Fund, Perkins Coie and Fenwick & West.

Recently Sue Stanley-Green, a professor in athletic training  has stated …

“We are looking to incorporate Wii Fit into the athletic training room as far as rehabilitation, for example, on post-operative knees and ankles”.

Thats a cool athletic trainer.

In all seriousness.  I have worked with a lot of post-rehab clients in the past and getting them to do any type of balance related movements is like pulling teeth.

I’m sure a lot of stuffy old school athletic trainers will scoff at this type of method claiming that rehab needs to follow specific guidelines in order to remain effective.  But in the end, you can have the most effective rehab program in existence but it wont do jack if people aren’t doing the work because they are bored out of their minds.

I’m curious as to what other people think.

Here is a neat little gadget I found while browsing the old interwebs.

When it comes to posture a great weight training program can help a lot but if you don’t make small improvements in your daily activities then its almost a dire effort.

The Visomate

What exactly does this little device do?

It annoys the crap out of you with a flashing light until you sit back in your chair like you’re supposed to.

I’m pretty sure its also a way of conditioning you to be compliant when the robots finally take over.