iPod + Fitness

I was talking with a member once about ways to combat boredom in the weight room. My advice to him was to listen to podcasts during his workout. Sure, music is a nice mood-booster, but I personally need something more substantial to keep my brain busy while lifting. My favorite podcasts to listen to: This American Life, Radio Lab, Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, and This Week in Tech. All of these and thousands more are free, so if you haven’t figured out the whole podcast thing yet, crawl out of that rock you’ve been living under and get busy.

To call podcasts a “fitness” application of the iPod is a bit of stretch. There are, however, more direct ways to use an iPod to help you workout. PumpOne (formerly called PumpPod) is a company which sells videos of workouts that can be played on any video-enabled iPod. To take it a step further, Apple and Nike partnered together to create the Nike+ running program which, with the addition of a sensor to a specially equipped Nike sneaker, is able to monitor and record your running progress.

Now, in what appears to be the next logical move, Apple appears to be expanding on the Nike + iPod idea to create a “digital fitness companion.” From what I can gather, the plan is to make the iPod (with additional hardware to provide feedback) into a mini personal trainer.

Creepy? Just a bit. Cool? Absolutely.

Cold season over, allergy season starting

If you’re not into that cracked-out feeling that Claritin gives you, Reader’s Digest has a list of alternate ways to protect yourself. Some of the advice that got my attention is…

1) Choose chicken over beef
3) Turn on the AC
9) Bleach your shower curtain
11) Wash your bedding in hot water weekly

Schedule change changed back

Measles… they’re baaack.

Despite the scientific evidence, however, many still cling to this unfounded fear. (We have Jenny McCarthy and Oprah to thank for this.) An increasing number of parents are deciding to play it “safe” by not giving their children the triple vaccine designed to protect against measles, mumps, and rubella. As a result, measles is making a comeback.

Score one for pseudoscience!