Had enough turkey to last you a lifetime? Can’t face another helping of cheese and port? Then step this way. The post-Christmas ritual of shedding pounds is as old as the big day itself (maybe), but rather than opening your wallet and handing over your cash to a gym, invest in this winning fitness tech that you’ll want to keep on using beyond the first couple of weeks of January.
Withings Wi-Fi scales, £119, www.withings.com
These web connected scales are about as far from those rickety old machines found down at the local leisure centre as you can get. Hooking up to a free PC application or iPhone, iPad and Android add-on, it delivers your weight, body mass index and even calculates your lean and fat mass. Weigh yourself daily and you can then track your progress online. Make this your first fitness investment of 2012.
Jawbone Up, £299.99, www.jawbone.com
At just shy of 300 quid, the Jawbone Up isn’t cheap. But it’s truly unlike any other fitness gadget. Stick it on, hook it up to the free compatible iPhone app and you can track runs, seeing pace and distance on screen. But it’s way more than a fancy Nike+ wristband. The sleep mode lets you check out how deep and lightly you’ve slept, while a food mode prompts you to keep a diary of what you’re eating and how it makes you feel. The iPhone app’s challenges also add a competitive element. Bonkers, but brilliant.
Nike+ iPhone app, £1.49, itunes.apple.com
Nike’s iPhone app is a must-have for Apple mobile owners. Using GPS to triangulate your position, it then maps your run, tracking your pace and distance. You can get checks on your pace at regular intervals, while Facebook and Twitter access mean you can share your runs and even get cheers from your pals while you’re out pounding the pavements.
Wii Fit Plus, £72.99, www.nintendo.com
It might not be the latest in fitness tech, but Wii Fit Plus remains an absolute winner for those looking to get in shape without spending a fortune and who don’t want to haul ass outside. The balance board calibrates your size and shape, with the bundled games offering high-intensity exercises and yoga-based balancing. It might be old, but it’s still just as fun as it was at launch.
Weightbot iPhone app, £1.49, itunes.apple.com
If you don’t fancy stumping up for Withings’ Wi-Fi scales, the Weightbot app is a brilliant alternative. Just check your weight every day, enter your details into the app and you can see your BMI, set weight-loss goals and look at graphs of your progress. If you do have Withings scales, you can set Weightbot up to automatically retrieve data from them.
Nike+ SportWatch, £179.99, store.nike.com
This Nike/TomTom mash up builds on the ace Nike+ iPhone app, but doesn’t require you to have Apple’s blower strapped to your arm while out running. The bundled Nike+ shoe sensor means tracking is spot on, with distance, pace and calories lost all counted and stored. You can use the direct USB to upload details to the Nike+ website, share your routes, download those of other users and even take on challenges and get coaching tips. Check out our full review here.
Xbox Kinect, £90 (camera only), www.xbox.com/kinect
The more futuristic take on Wii Fit and one not limited by a chunky plastic exercise board. Kinect has stacks of fitness games, from the basic, yet brilliant Kinect Sports to EA Sports Active and UFC Personal Trainer. The latter’s hardcore routines will help you shed pounds in record time. Just make sure you don’t round-house kick your TV while you’re at it.
Adidas miCoach for Android, Free, market.android.com
Adidas’s gratis rival to Nike’s iPhone app is chock full of similar features, including celebrity athletes telling you how well you’re doing and the chance to upload and track your runs on your Mac or PC. It hooks directly into your Android phone’s music player, so you can play your favourite banging workout tunes direct from the app too.
Walkjogrun.net
If workout apps seem a touch hardcore, this brilliant website lets you plot local routes depending on how far you want to run, before sharing them with other users. You can save the route to a huge database, which you can then search to see if any other runners in your area have come up with different workouts. A simple, yet effective exercise site.
Speedo Aquabeat, £114, www.amazon.co.uk
Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise going, working your entire body and not leaving you drenched in your own sweat afterwards. But fitness sessions in the pool can become rather monotonous, so snag this Speedo waterproof MP3 player and listen to your favourite tracks while you try desperately to improve on your doggy paddle cum breast stroke.
