If you like exercise bikes that give you realistic feeling virtual reality type tours then you might want to check out the new Expresso S2u which features the very latest in virtual reality fitness technology. 

Riders on the S2U can coose to ride in different off-road and fantasy  environmenst that they can view onscreen. For instance, there is one program called Proving Grounds that allows you to cycle through a fantasy world based in gaming. Combining video and exercising like this has even coined a new term – exergaming!  Many people get so into it the fantasy element of riding on a fitness bike like this that an hour exercising seems to go by effortlessly. 

This Expresso S2u is expected to be on the market November 1, 2007.

It appears that the exercise gadget the Gamercizer made to PC Magazine’s Top Ten List of Fitness Gadgets for 2007.  This gizmo is actually a joy stick for operating your Nintendo and other games that is powered by your treadmill, cross trainer, cycle or stair climber. The minute you stop exercising your video game fun blips off of the screen. 

Of course the Gamercizer only really suits people who are good multi-tasking as it involves exercising and playing video games at the same time.  If you have a couch potato for a child this could help motivate him or her get off of the couch and start exercising.

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc has unveiled a new fitness phone prototype that has a sensor to keep track of your physical activity each day and let’s you know how many calories you’ve burned.

The phone, unveiled this week at the CEATEC electronics show outside Tokyo, has an inbuilt motion sensor that detects body movement and calculates how many calories you burn.

The sensor can tell whether you’re walking, running, climbing stairs, or resting, and counts the calories accordingly to tally daily totals, Tobita said.

“It’s with you wherever you go, like a portable personal trainer,” he said.

NTT DoCoMo doesn’t sell their phones outside of the Japanese market, but expect the technology to arrive elsewhere in the coming months.

Stability balls are known by number of names: Swiss balls, Pilates balls, yoga balls, exercise balls, and balance balls. The durable vinyl spheres first started showing up in Europe in the 1950’s - used by patients seeking muscular and neurological rehabilitation.

Stability balls, which are durable vinyl spheres, are now a serious part of fitness and exercise programs in gyms and fitness clubs nationwide. They are used in Pilates classes, in aerobics classes, in weight training, and by personal trainers for a host of exercises - from stretching to relaxation to strenuous all-around workouts.

The stability ball didn’t move beyond the realm of physical rehabilitation and enter the fitness scene until the late 1980s, and then only on a limited basis. Mike Morris, president of the Resist-A-Ball, Inc. was one of the first to use stability balls as a fitness tool in the United States. He rolled out his Resist-A-Ball at fitness trade show in 1993.

Experts say that the balls are an excellent, low-impact way to improve existing workouts. The balls are found health clubs and are small and sturdy enough to be used at home.

Stability balls ranging from 21 to 24 inches in diameter are suitable for most people, although people more than 5-feet-7 inches tall might choose a larger diameter ball.

When a person does a basic sit-up on the ball, his or her back is pushing into the ball and forcing the exerciser to work harder. It’s a big improvement over a floor sit-up, when a person’s back naturally tends to rise up off the floor.

(Quoted material from The Monitor.)

Two Stanford University biologists have developed a method for cooling the human body by maximizing heat transfer through the palms of the hands.

“We literally cool the body from the inside out, rather than from the outside in, which is the conventional method,” explains Senior Research Scientist Dennis Grahn, who developed the cooling device with H. Craig Heller, the Lorry I. Lokey/Business Wire Professor in Human Biology and Environmental Biology.

The device works by creating a local subatmospheric pressure environment, Grahn says. “We stick the hand in a rigid chamber with an airtight seal around the wrist, and then we draw a bit of the air out of the chamber,” he explains. “This causes blood to be pulled into the hand. Then we cool the overlying skin surface of the palm of the hand [by circulating cool water through a closed system on which the palm of the hand rests], which cools the blood in the hand’s vascular heat-exchange structures. Arteries deliver blood directly from the heart to these vascular structures, and veins then carry the blood from these structures back to the heart.”

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