Sports Gadgets: Keep Track of Your Performance with a Pedometer
We all want to go out and exercise more, but maybe we should give yourselves credit for the exercise we get when we don’t expect it. Walking around the kitchen preparing dinner, walking from the copier back to your office, all of this adds up–sure it might not be as impressive as going out to run a marathon, but baby steps. We can all improve our lifestyle health, and keeping track of how long you walk in a day and increasing this by taking the stairs, walking to the bus stop and taking the bus instead of driving to work, or parking farther away from the grocery store so you get some extra distance are all great ways to start.
Some tips before you buy a pedometer:
1. Start small; you probably only need the basic pedometer with the single function, keeping track of your steps in a day and converting it to miles. But if you’re tempted, there are plenty of pedometers with many fancy features, like calorie counters, heart rate monitors and speed estimators. Get motoring!
2. Pedometers can be a little finicky, but that’s not usually the product’s fault. Usually it has to do with whether you programmed a too large (or too small) stride length or are not wearing the pedometer properly. Make sure all of these things are set to standard so you don’t end up with out of control readings.
Sportline Step and Distance Pedometer from Target.com: $4.99
Really basic, standard pedometer. No bells and whistles.
Sportline 345 Pedometer: $14.16
Comes with an exercise book and program for your pedometer!
GNC Caloric Pedometer from GNC.com: $14.99
You guessed it–this pedometer counts calories, too!
Shop for more affordable pedometers at Smarter.com.
