Dork Adore » Health

Ultra Motor Fast4ward electric bicycles

Judy Johnson — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:12:17 +0000

Yes, cycling is great exercise and yes, it’s far better than using a car, but what if you prefer to take it easy while still getting to work faster than you can on most public transport options?

Well, it turns out cycling doesn’t have to be hard work.

Ultra Motor‘s range of Fast4ward electric bicycles mean that you can still keep your carbon footprint reasonably low (once you’ve cycled off both the carbon debt of the bicycle and the electricity) without the unsightly sweat patches.

Foldable electric bicycles!

The new bikes are compact, foldable and versatile, and make a great alternative to a regular bike. With a 250w motor, you needn’t break a sweat when it comes to riding up those hills because the bike will put the power in for you.

An environmentally friendly alternative to commuting via train, car or motorbike, the bikes are easy on the planet as well as the purse strings thanks to their rechargeable batteries; just 7p of electricity will take you 40 miles.

As well as all the benefits of your usual bicycle, the Fast4ward range gives you the chance to go a little faster; the motor can take you up to 15.5 miles per hour, which is 50% above the average cycling speed. So there’s no need to be late to that Monday morning meeting…

The beauty of the range is that you can pick your pace; cycle all the way if you want to or if you’re tired after a long day of work you can switch it on and give yourself a break. You deserve it, after all.

If you’re not sure you want to take the plunge but would like to give it a go, Ultra Motor has recently teamed up with Hertz, the world’s largest car rental company to allow Londoners to hire the electric bikes for just £20 a day from the Marble Arch branch.

Try before you buy – can’t argue with that…

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Get your iPhone and get off the couch

Joely Black — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 10:32:11 +0000

There are hundreds of iPhone apps out there for measuring fitness, calories, workouts and runs: the problem is, where to start?

Joely Black takes a look at the very best iPhone and Android apps to help you exercise and get fit. All the apps are available from the iPhone app store. Check for Android and other app-loving handsets with the associated apps store.

C25k/Couch to 5k

How it works

The app gives you a schedule to get you running. Instead of expecting you to run 3 miles immediately, it gives users set dates to run, and uses intervals of running and walking for each session. The running sessions increase over time as your body gets familiar with the exercise. Follow the programme and you’ll get to run 5k in two months.

Pros

You can choose to measure by time or distance, whichever suits you. The walking/jogging approach makes it easy to build up fitness over time. There are music playlists you can manage yourself, making the experience much more bearable. You can even publish your progress on Twitter to get encouragement from followers.

Cons

Playing music and using the app on iPhone 3Gs caused some problems, which was rather distracting while running.

iFitness

How it works

Either follow one of the set programmes or build your own. Probably best used as an alternative to wandering about the gym carrying sheets of paper with routines scrawled all over them.

Pros

A bit like carrying around a fitness book, this has everything you need to get a gym workout without an actual personal trainer. It even has pre-programmed workouts for certain types of people, just in case you happen to fit a stereotype (beginner, office worker, etc). It has a massive database of exercise forms with helpful pictures.

Cons

It’s fiddly to input your own personalised workout. If you’re on your very first trip to the gym, you could probably do with something simpler.

Hundred Push-Ups

How it works

Complete a test to work out how fit you are, and then embark on a programme of daily push-ups. Log your push-ups week-by-week, working up to a target of 100 a day.

Pros

Well, it doesn’t get simpler than this. I won’t say easier, because it took me a while to work out how to do the push-ups properly. But, if you’re looking for something that won’t take much time each day, and something you can do in the house, this might be for you.

Cons

It’s boring. Really, really, boring. It’s not exactly varied exercise and just doing push-ups isn’t going to give you a lot of all-round cardio fitness like running. If you try this, you’d probably want to make it one section of a bigger programme.

My Fitness Pal

How it works

Keep a daily diary of your exercise and food intake. There’s an app for adding on the run, but you can also add exercise and food at home via your browser. The databases are comprehensive and you can add your own exercises (although this means working out calories yourself).

Pros

Research mentioned in Richard Wiseman’s 59 Seconds book suggests that knowing how many calories you’ve burned and writing down what you eat and burn up in exercise enhances results. It’s amazing how much better you behave when picking what to eat if you’re going to write it down. You can see exactly how everything balances out.

Cons

It won’t teach you anything, or give you a programme to follow. It’s strictly for recording what you’ve already done.

Daily Ab Workout

How it works

Two five minute workouts you’re meant to do daily, totally abs-focused.

Pros

Nice and easy, with lots of simple abs exercises that you could easily extend beyond the limiting five minutes. If you want something that takes very little time but is a first step toward fitness. It’s not going to take much time out of your day, either.

Cons

There isn’t much else to it, and with only two workouts, it’s going to get old quickly, especially as you get stronger. Like the 100 Push-Ups programme, it won’t give you all-round fitness benefits

Android App Store

Apple App Store

Zune Windows 7 App Store

BlackBerry App Store

[Image: DavidGardinerGarcia]

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How to become a supreme being

Katie — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:30:29 +0000

Are you a supreme being? If you had Mary Poppins’s measuring tape, what would it say about you?

Much as I’d like to think I was practically perfect in every way, I suspect mine would probably just read “could do better”.

And yet I persist in attempts at personality makeovers. I’m always on the hunt for mindhacks that might make me a better me — which is why I’m quite taken by Habitforge.

Habitforge is based on the principle that forming new habits takes 21 days. You sign up for free, pick something you want to start doing or thinking or whatever, and off you go.

Every day you’ll get an email asking if you’ve stuck to your new habit. Answer yes and you’re on the road to a better you, answer no and you have to start your 21 days from the beginning.

I tried it a while back with the hope of being a bit less inclined to find the storm cloud in every situation. It certainly hasn’t made me all sunshine and smiles, but it helped set me on a less dismal path. I just need to do a few more personality tweaks and I’ll be even more marvellous.

Have a go and let me know how you get on. Habitforge.

Source: How to form good habits [Jorg&Olif the Slow Life Company]

Image: Bee and Rose (thanks!)

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James Dyson Award winner: ultraviolet water bottle

Emma Cossey — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:30:48 +0000

The winner of the UK James Dyson Award has been announced: A water bottle that uses ultraviolet (UV) light to sterilise drinking water anywhere in the world.

Time Saver

The idea came from Timothy Whitehead, an Industrial Design and Technology graduate from Loughborough University. He had the idea while travelling in Zambia, where he saw a widespread reliance on chlorine and iodine tablets to sterilise drinking water. This process can take up to 30 minutes to work and leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

Timothy’s water bottle ‘Pure’, can reduce the process down to only two minutes, and the water won’t have an unpleasant aftertaste either.

Wind-up ultra-violet

The process works by using an inner and outer chamber of a bottle. The outer chamber is filled with dirty water (for example, from a lake or puddle). The inner chamber then plunges through the outer chamber, filtering water particles as small as four microns. Once the water is clear of sediment, it is sterilised for 90 seconds using a wind-up ultra-violet bulb.

The fully working prototype has already been scientifically proven to sterilise 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. This could make a huge difference in developing countries.

Worldwide competition

Timothy’s winning invention will go against many other inventions internationally, including:

Nemo (Austria). A life boat that can be transported by plane for high speed rescue and can land on water safely with the crew inside.
Interior Compositing Device (Switzerland). A bin that decomposes organic waste quickly without having to worry about the smell.
Amatoya (Australia) A light and fast car that can drive through rugged terrain and penetrate a fire.
Wanderest seat (New Zealand). A seat designed to be strapped to public spaces such as a lamp post.
Automated Parasite Detection System (Canada). A device that can diagnose easily whether a patient has malaria or not. Current methods require a lab and are time consuming.
Sleepeasy (Belgium). A solution to insomnia by generating a slow breathing pattern in an unconscious way. The user embraces the pillow and feels an up and down going movement. The user will follow the breathing of the pillow and therefore be more relaxed.
The Flip Ski Boot (Ireland). A ski boot that is soft soled rather than rigid, giving the user freedom on the mountain.

The entrants will be judged by Dyson engineers, and then James Dyson himself. The winner will £10,000 and £10,000 for the current or former student’s university department. There’s also a good chance the inventer will get the opportunity to work for Dyson, like last year’s winner.

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The Shakeweight: Dork Review

Emma Cossey — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:00:22 +0000

A couple of months ago, a video did the rounds of a brand new piece of workout equipment that promised to eradicate bingo wings and have people queuing up for a ticket to the gun show.

I watched the promotional video. About five times. What can be so interesting about a glorified dumbell, I hear you cry?

Check out the video to see why it’s worth several (highly amusing) watches.

In the meantime, the people behind the Shakeweight sent one over for me to try.

The Shakeweight is basically a large dumbbell with ‘vibration features’ which means the ends vibrates as you ‘shake’ it. It comes with a DVD that shows you how to tone your arms in six minutes a day.

It’s easy enough to use. Simply hold it in two hands and shake it towards and away from you. There are various other exercises you can do too, all of which works different parts of your arms.

The big question: Does it work?

I’d love to say it’s a complete gimmick. But you can feel the burn as you use it, so I’ve no doubt that it would help you tone it up. The vibrating motion has much the same effect as power plating, putting extra pressure on your muscles.

But spending six minutes a day solidly shaking a dumbbell is boring. Exercise regimes need to have variety in order to be motivating and interesting, and that’s something this program lacks.

Advantages

Battery-free
Simple to use
Compact

Disadvantages

Lack of variety in exercises

You feel like a prat using it

Conclusion

If you don’t mind looking a little foolish and prefer a regular exercise routine rather than a varied one, this might be worth a try as the results are good. For the fickle and vain (e.g. me) it doesn’t have quite the same appeal as power plating.

Buy it from the ShakeWeight site for £29.99 or from Amazon for £9.81

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Review: Sketchers Shape-ups

Emma Cossey — Fri, 28 May 2010 11:00:44 +0000

Being a bit of a gym-dodger when it comes to exercise, the concept of a pair of trainers that tones up the legs and bum without taking a step near a treadmill appealed immediately.

So, when Fitness Footwear offered me the chance to try out their latest range of Shape Up trainers, I happily took on the challenge.

A few days later and I was strapping on a pair of chunky looking fitness footwear with girly pink piping for my morning dog walk.

Several weeks on, does it stand up to its claims of being a bum-toning, leg-strengthening, posture-improving wondershoe?

Here’s my thoughts…

Sketchers explain that their trainers help you do all of the above thanks to its “unique soft kinetic wedge insert and dynamic rolling bottom to stimulate walking on soft sand”.

So, that explains why none of the cast of Baywatch had cellulite.

The trainers are surprisingly comfortable, partly because that wedge provide the arch of your foot with a soft support, and partly because they’re just very well made trainers. Walking around in them takes a couple of minutes to adjust to. though, as you rock forwards and back due to the rolling bottom.

Once I got walking, I felt my calves working harder and my core muscles strengthening. I can’t even remember the last time my core muscles made their presence known, so it was a welcome sensation to feel my body automatically adopt a better posture.

Looks-wise, you’re not going to grab any style awards. But they look fairly normal under a pair of trousers or jeans, so you can pop them on for your commute to work or when you’re doing the school run.

In summary:

Wins points for:

Working wonders for your calves. I’ve definitely seen an improvement in my legs since using them on a daily basis.
Improving your posture. It does make you more aware of a straight posture, although I’m not sure whether this effect lasts after you take the trainers off.
Convenience. If you don’t have time to hit the gym, this can help you get your legs ready for the beach.

Loses points for:

The look. They’re not exactly ugly, but they’re a little clumpy. But then, when do fitness trainers ever look good?

The price. Currently around £89.95. Ouch.

Storage. They’re chunky, so there’s no way you can chuck these in your handbag after commuting to work.

Conclusion

These trainers do exactly what they say on the box. However, they’re not a replacement for the gym unless you plan on incorporating a large amount of walking into your daily schedule. They basically optimise the results of your current walking regime, which is no bad thing. If you’ve got a spare £80 hanging around, I’d say they’re worth a purchase.

The trainers were sent to me by Fitness Footwear, and you can buy them here.

Also available on Amazon, eBay or Schuh.

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WaterRower: The first visually pleasing rowing machine?

Emma Cossey — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:00:22 +0000

The terms ‘stylish’ and ‘natural’ are not terms most people associate with an exercise machine. Functional, yes. Safe, God I hope so. But the reality is that you’re buying it so that you can look good, not so that it looks good in your spare room.

WaterRower are hoping to change this with their new Natural range of rowing machines.

The WaterRower is hand crafted from solid cherrywood, and is powered by water. See that tank at the left end of the WaterRower? It’s filled with water and a pair of mini oars, so you’ll be *literally* rowing through water.

Once you’ve finished rowing, you can prop it up vertically, which takes up about the same amount of room as a dining room chair.

Prices for the WaterRower range start at around £749 from John Lewis. Start saving now, and you could have one in your home for all those fitness new year’s resolutions.

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Breastlight: A spotlight on breast health

Emma Cossey — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:00:24 +0000

Checking your breasts on a regular basis should be as much a part of your routine as booking in a wax or giving yourself a manicure.

The thing is, a lot of women (me included) are unsure of what to look for. Things can change a lot over the course of a month and it’s hard know what changes are normal.

Which is where the Breastlight comes in. Designed to aid breast checking rather than replace it completely, the hand held device aims to give women a real insight into their breasts. Literally.

The gadget allows you to check the inside of your breast for any new shadows or dark spots, using the powerful light that shines through the tissue.

Completely safe to use, the Breastlight should allow you to see changes in your breasts as well as feel them. Not all changes are necessarily bad, but it can allow you to spot changes quicker so you can make an appointment to get it checked out.

It’s been tested by ITV’s Dr Hilary Jones and Chris Steele amongst others, although they are both keen point out that this is an addition to your regular checks rather than a replacement.

Just over 12,000 women die every year from breast cancer, so any product to help detect the disease earlier and increase their chances of survival would be beneficial.

You can buy it from Boots for £84.99.

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Diet friendly appliances

Emma Cossey — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:00:21 +0000

I seem to have spent the last few months making half hearted promises to myself that I will lose that stone that’s crept on, and I will start eating more fruit and vegetables and less chocolate and wine.

Maybe what I need is a few appliances that will seduce me into improving my diet without realising. A bit like buying a brand new wardrobe for hitting the gym.

First stop then is a smoothie maker. I had one of these at uni and I did find myself getting up earlier in the mornings to create various different combinations, plus if you buy in frozen fruit it tends to be pretty cheap. This Kenwood smoothie maker (right) caught my eye as it has three different functions, a tap at the front to dispense the smoothie mess free and a function to crush ice. Perfect for cocktails you say?

It’s yours for £19.99 from Argos.

Next, I’m tempted by this Russell Hobbs mini chopper from Argos for £12.89. Chuck in the vegetables and it will chop them up into neat little cubes. A nice and simple way to prepare a batch of vegetables to dry roast for dinner, or for soups, casseroles or sauces. Healthier than a big bowl of chips too!

Steaming is one of the healthiest way to cook your food, ensuring all the goodness stays in as you cook it thoroughly. Plus the chances of me burning dinner are pretty small. This Cookworks steamer is from Argos for £28.39 and has had great reviews for its three levels of steaming, boil dry safety feature and 60 minute timer.

You can’t really look at healthy cooking products without considering a George Foreman grill. The world famous ‘lean, mean grilling machine’ cooks meat in a way that drains the fat and grease into the trip tray. Both my sister’s boyfriend and my boyfriend own one of these, and rave about how they work…but never seem to use them. Something to do with them being a bit of an effort to clean.

Great concept, but surely popping a steak under the grill will have a similar effect?

Do you have any healthy recommendations?

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Dork Adore » Health

Ultra Motor Fast4ward electric bicycles

Foldable electric bicycles!

More stories like this

Get your iPhone and get off the couch

C25k/Couch to 5k

How it works

Pros

Cons

iFitness

How it works

Pros

Cons

Hundred Push-Ups

How it works

Pros

Cons

My Fitness Pal

How it works

Pros

Cons

Daily Ab Workout

How it works

Pros

Cons

More stories like this

How to become a supreme being

More stories like this

James Dyson Award winner: ultraviolet water bottle

Time Saver

Wind-up ultra-violet

Worldwide competition

More stories like this

The Shakeweight: Dork Review

More stories like this

Review: Sketchers Shape-ups

More stories like this

WaterRower: The first visually pleasing rowing machine?

More stories like this

Breastlight: A spotlight on breast health

More stories like this

Diet friendly appliances

More stories like this