exercise

Your smartphone could soon become a combination personal trainer and DJ.

Thanks to headphones that can measure your heart rate and acceleration, and a smartphone app that can identify which songs on your phone will help you reach your target heart rate, you won't have to guess which playlist best suits your next jog.… Read more

For many urban dwellers who live close to work, commuting by bike is like eating vegetables. You know you should, but sometimes you just want the burger and fries.

Industrial designer Adam Taylor, who is working toward a master's degree in future design in England, has devised a system that he thinks will help motivate commuters to pedal to the office. The two key features are the system's self-powered smart card and the bike itself, which is a beauty.

On the blog Bicycle Design, Taylor says he envisions the bike, which he calls "Tim," and the system, which he calls "Go Fara," to be bought in bulk by major corporations that institute a "green employee of the week" rewards program. Using the smart card, the employer has access to mileage and time stats to reward the highest achievers.… Read more

When it comes to certain diseases -- think heart disease, diabetes, and various cancers -- some basic lifestyle changes are the best preventive medicine.

And while most of us know to eat a balanced diet, exercise, and abstain from smoking, it can be far more motivating to make healthy changes if we also know we're prone to certain diseases.

Enter Zuum, a free new iPad app that estimates your risk of common diseases and personalizes tips to prevent them and improve your overall health.… Read more

I don't run without music. I just get too bored. But a few beats into songs by, say, The Knife, and my feet are pounding the pavement hard. I'm also perpetually safety-conscious, though, which means I tend to avoid Portland's beautiful but busy waterfront loop in favor of quiet streets with low traffic.

So I have long hoped for the perfect sports headphones that are durable, comfortable, and let the ambient noise in. Enter AIRbudz, the alternative earbud attachments that Utah-based entrepreneur (and jogger) Tammy Erdel is raising funds for on Kickstarter.

AIRbudz deal with external sound blockage by incorporating air channels into their 3D-printed buds that quite simply let ambient sound stream in. The ambient noise is obviously still competing with whatever sounds are pumping through the headphones, but that sound doesn't appear to be in any way altered or compromised.… Read more

The combination of mentally stimulating activities such as computer use and moderate physical exercise appears to decrease one's odds of suffering from age-related memory loss, according to a new Mayo Clinic study.

The researchers say their findings among a self-reporting cohort of 926 people ages 70 to 93 are just preliminary, but that the numbers are significant enough to warrant further investigation.

Previous studies have shown links between exercising one's mind and exercising one's body to improved memory, but this one, published in the May 2012 issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, suggests that a combination of … Read more

I'm writing today's post on a laptop running Zorin OS, a Linux variant that looks and operates a lot like Windows 7. That has nothing to do with today's deals--just thought I'd mention it. It's pretty cool.

In the market for a Roku box? Antivirus software? How about a dirt-cheap home theater receiver? I've got you covered, and then some. That's right: it's a multideal Monday!

1. Today only, Woot offshoot Moofi has the Roku XD-HR streaming media player for $59.99, plus $5 for shipping. This is the flagship model of … Read more

It seemed like the perfect setup--give kids video games that would motivate them to get off the couch and start moving. Not only would they have fun, they would also get healthier.

However, these high hopes may have been wishful thinking. According to a new study by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, kids given "active" video games showed no more overall physical exertion than kids who used only their thumbs to play.

"There was no evidence that children receiving the active video games were more active in general, or at anytime, than children receiving the … Read more

My 85-year-old grandmother wouldn't do well on a bike on the open road. Her vision, hearing, and cognition have all declined enough to make such an expedition something of a death sentence. But those indoor stationary bikes are just so...boring.

Which is why researchers launched the Cybercycle Study in 2008 in an effort to explore what kinds of benefits older adults might reap from riding stationary bikes with interactive video game features.

What they found is that the cybercyclists demonstrated greater cognitive benefits than those who rode traditional stationary bikes without the virtual enhancement, according to their article … Read more

Anyone who has allowed a little porkiness to creep around their waist knows that removing it can be troublesome.

One tries to eat less. One votes for a new gym regime.

But getting up at 7 in the morning to jiggle with the bright-eyed and bushy-bottomed can verge toward the impossible.

So along comes GymPact, an iPhone app that will tear money from your pocket, should you fail to go to the gym when you promised.

At first glance, this seems to resemble, well, theft. Who are these GymPact people to take your money just because the duvet was slightly … Read more