My Favorite Workout Gadgets - by Sequoia Leopold

Workout Gadgets - 

I get really excited when I get a new workout outfit or a new pair of running shoes, but one thing that I cant go without are my fitness gadgets and measures.  These particular items keep me honest and make it so that you absolutely can't cheat on your workout.

For a long time I would walk on the treadmill at an incline or the stair master while holding myself up.   First of all I now consider those machines as a total waste of time...I will do a treadmill workout only if I absolutely have to, but in general they are useless.

To keep my workouts on point there are 3 things I use...a trainer!!!!...a heart rate monitor....and my new Fuel Band.

Trainer is essential for me, I have already posted about my obsession with Crossfit recently!  I think this is important because it forces you to do the things you hate and would never do on your own.  Like I always stop after 10 squats;)

Heart Rate Monitor-$90

My favorite is the Polar HR Monitor.  It has a band that goes around your chest and then the watch that you wear on your wrist.  If you put in your information accurately it registers your Calories really accurately and measures your % fat burned, your high HR, your log HR, and your avg.  It shows you graphs and charts of your workouts and you can download it to your computer if you want to see your progress.  It stores all your info in the watch so you can go back and get week totals and compare.
  *** Note: Make sure you don't get the HR monitor that does NOT come with a chest strap, if it reads your HR from your wrist it wont be very accurate and you will constantly be needing to wet the back of it and restart it:(

Fuel Band - $150

The Nike Fuel Band is my new favorite obsession.  You wear it all the time and it registers your steps and time it takes to make those steps and then converts it into Nike "Fuel".  It also shows you calories burned, but so far from what I can tell the calories are not very accurate.
But what the best part is ...you give yourself a "Fuel Goal" and then if you haven't reached it by the end of the day it makes it really encouraging to go for another walk or do some jumping jacks before bed or something like that.
It also downloads to your computer and phone automatically and you can compete with other people on Nike +.
***Note: It isn't an accurate reading of workouts that don't involve a lot of steps like strength training and so on.

Both of these are super helpful to boost your workouts and keep you honest.

That's all for now.