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Pulse watches and electronic jogging shirts changing training methods By Florian Oertel
Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published:
Wednesday August 30, 2006
By Florian Oertel, Cologne, Germany Technological innovations are slowly changing simple recreational sports like jogging. In the past, going for a jog just meant simply pulling on a pair of sneakers. Today, amateur sports enthusiasts can draw on a range of gadgets to help them get fitter, faster.
Pulse watches and high-tech training shoes are now a firm part of a jogger's armoury. Experts agree these products are useful, but that they also have their limits.
Is fitness getting more technical? "Definitely," says Professor Ingo Froboese of the German High School for Sport in Cologne. "And it's mainly amateur sports people who are taking to modern technology."
Ursula Moses, spokeswoman for the Munich Marathon and the Munich Triathlon, agrees. She has met thousands of sports people and has observed a tendency towards more gadgetry.
"A growing number of runners - especially the beginners - use pulse watches and heart-rate monitors to perfect their training," she says.
Manufacturers offer a large range of products and more are developed almost every year.
The Finnish company Suunto has made a pulse watch that can measure seven different body parameters. The watch is called the "t3" and will cost about 150 euros when it goes on the market in September.
A rival company, Polar, has developed a watch that saves its wearer the bother of having to put on what was until now an obligatory breast strap.
The result is a jogging shirt developed in cooperation with Adidas with an integrated electrode. A transmitter sends the data to a small computer that is worn, as usual, on the wrist.
But this new kind of heart-rate monitor does not come cheap: the computer and transmitter cost about 480 euros plus an additional 40 to 50 euros for the shirt.
Experts say technical innovations like that can help but they are not for everyone.
"Pulse watches are useful for beginners," says Ursula Moses. "A beginner often runs too quickly."
The consequences are the runner becomes exhausted faster, cannot complete the distance and the fun element of jogging is lost. The training shoes are soon left in the cupboard at home.
Experienced sports people should be able to judge their own body functions and not need external help, according to Professor Froboese.
He is also sceptical of the benefits of training shoes that are packed with technology a noticeable trend in sport over the past 15 years.
"The body does not need, for example, a battery of instruments that tell them if they are running on soft or hard ground," says the professor.
© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur
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