Since I’m off rowing for a while, I’m anxious to be sure that I’m not falling behind too badly in my fitness. Without that weekly erg score to keep me focused, it’s been hard to keep track of my efforts. Until now, that is. The lovely people at Step Success have generously provided me with my very own Actiped – a 21st century pedometer – to help me track my fitness.
In the past I haven’t been too impressed with pedometers. I had one, for instance, that clicked every time I swivelled in my office chair. However satisfying it was to see my score soar, I knew that it wasn’t real and soon lost interest.
So far, the Actiped seems to be of a different order. Much more than just a pedometer, it forms part of an online fitness tracking programme. It comes with a memory stick to connect with your computer; you update your score by shaking the Actiped near the memory stick; it then magically syncs your data (OK, OK, so I’m not a scientist). Having analysed a full fitness and health questionnaire, including weight (shameful after Christmas), height, diet, alcohol consumption (ditto) and fitness regime, and with sophisticated inner workings that notice for how long your foot strikes the ground (which informs it about your speed), it aims to give an accurate reading of how far you’ve travelled and how many calories you’ve burned.
Particularly pleasing for a competitive type like me, it has pitted me against a group of equally sporty types (including award-winning body builder, Nicola Joyce), with a leaderboard showing how we’re doing.
Happily, my first full day on the regime has involved a run (the first after the festive season – ouch!), so my score’s looking reasonably respectable. I’m looking forward to finding out what it has to say about a planned shopping expedition and my everyday life.
I’ll report back at the end of the month and will let you know how I get on. In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your experiences. Have you tried a pedometer? Have you come across a system like Step Success? Are there other new generation fitness devices that I ought to know about?
