Our gym just upgraded to Life Fitness treadmills and elliptical trainers with iPod docks, LCD touch screen controls, and monitors that can play TV, guide you through pre-programmed workouts, or let you watch video from your iPod (as someone who hates watching video tennis podcasts on a 2″ screen, I’m definitely looking forward to viewing on a bigger monitor). Of course, the new machines were smooth to exercise on too, but I spent my 30 minutes checking out all the audio, video, and display features!
I decided to get online and see if you could find anything as fancy for your home gym. And as it turns out, Life Fitness makes a “Platinum Club” model for home users.
You might not think of a plain old treadmill as being very fitness “gadgety”, but home exercise equipment like this certainly will please the tech nerds out there. You can get on the manufacturer’s site and design a system to your own specifications, much as you would a custom computer you’d order online.
Some of the available features include:
- entertainment console
- virtual trainer
- workout tracking with any USB device
- workout landscape perspectives (i.e. track, mountain course, etc.)
- extra-large running surface
- wireless heart rate monitor (syncs via with your polar, etc.)
- programmable workouts
More information at Life Fitness.
Got a big baseball game with your colleagues coming up this weekend? Want to get in a little extra practice but can’t get away from the office? Perhaps what you need is a desktop “executive batting practice” baseball pitching machine.
While this may not improve your game all that much (though it can help remind you to keep your eye on the ball!), it looks like a fun way to relieve some tension (as long as your balls don’t knock staplers, hole punchers, and presentation materials for the boss into the trash). You probably don’t want to try this if you’re in a cubicle though… unless you’re co-workers don’t mind the occasional whacks on the head.
“Simply turn on the mini pitching machine and you’re ready to thwack a few dingers. Comes complete with 12 soft plastic mini-baseballs (they’re a little bigger than a golf ball) and a compact-able bat that folds up like a telescope for convenient storage.”
$25 from One of a Kind Stuff
Everyone knows you need special shoes to play tennis (well, everyone who plays tennis knows that anyway), but did you know you can get special tennis socks too?
The Falke TE2 Tennis Sock has support features specifically designed for tennis players. Here’s a look at what they offer:
- Specially designed support function
- Ankle and toe cushion
- Lateral instep cushion
- Stabilizing effect
- Anatomically shaped foot bed for the left and right foot with air circulation
Maybe all those cushions and supports will keep you from getting foot and ankle injuries while playing. At the very least the air circulating foot beds might mean your feet don’t get as sweaty (a boon for your stinky tennis shoes!).
Available at Technical Sports Socks
I’m not sure you can show up to an open swim with an underwater pogo stick, but if you’ve got a backyard pool, this could make exercising in it a little more fun. At the very least, it looks more exciting than water aerobics!
“This is the only pogo stick designed for use in swimming pools that allows you to perform a variety of waterborne stunts as you bounce off walls or bottoms. A rigid ball filled with water fits into the non-slip footrest, providing responsive push-off when compressed against a pool’s floor with your body weight, enabling you to splash effortlessly in shallower water and bound powerfully through deeper water.”
I would have loved something like this as a kid. Okay, okay, I’d love to play exercise with something like this now. Alas, my backyard did not come with a pool. Maybe I could try it out at the pool at the gym during a slow period…
If you’re interested, you can get the underwater pogo stick for a surprisingly reasonable $60 through Hammacher Schlemmer:
The Only Underwater Pogo Stick
What aspiring tennis star doesn’t want a tennis ball machine of her own? Imagine being able to go out and practice any time you want, whether you’ve got someone to play with or not. Having your own ball machine would be a heck of a lot better than hitting a ball against the side of the garage.
While any tennis ball machine would do for practice (ideally a small portable one unless you own your own club), the Swing Shot Tennis Robot looks particularly promising.
Unlike with a traditional ball machine, the robot hits balls from a racket instead of just launching them from a little hole. Practice your split steps and getting ready as the ball is about to come your way.
Ball speeds can be adjusted between 20-70 km/h and can be set for specific strokes such as lob, spin, and smash.
The Swing Shot is of Japanese origins, so it may be hard to get in the Western half of the world, but maybe some day!