The pocket-sized personal trainer
It remembers everything, pushing you to new levels
Like me you may be a couple of weeks in to the ‘new year, new you’ regime you promised yourself. The over-indulgence of Christmas is well behind me but the exercise reformation I promised myself seems to be the troublesome part of this transformation. As a result, I’ve turned to technology for a helping hand.
A couple of years ago the fitness tracker was heralded as the saviour of the casual exerciser. Wrist-worn like a watch, they counted steps and gave you an estimate of the calories you’d burned walking the pier. That was really all most of them did and while they helped initially as a sort of spur, they tended to be neglected after a few months, destined to languish in the sock drawer.
Lumafit is an Irish company which is looking to change that and reinvigorate a sector as well as the exercise plans of consumers globally. Lumafit uses technology that figures out what you’re doing by analysing your movement in 3D and then measuring and benchmarking your activity in a similar way to that of a personal trainer.
The device itself looks like a Bluetooth headset with a little clip that attaches to your earlobe to measure heart activity. It fits neatly over the ear and the earlobe clip is unobtrusive – although I did find it a little difficult to wear my glasses over it. Setting up the device is straightforward and quick. The box contains the tracker, a storage pouch and a charging cable and once charged up the device is ready to pair, via Bluetooth, to your Apple or Android phone, where you can get started on your workout. The Lumafit app is beautifully designed with big bold text and numbers and easy-to-follow instructions. The first thing to do is take the seven-minute fitness assessment which tells you the state of your cardio fitness and how you performed for someone of your age. With the app you can do various workouts, aimed at all levels of fitness. The app has workouts for all manner of activities including cardio, gym work, cycling and running. The most challenging are the gym cardio sessions, which allow you to start with a gentle 15-minute jog with a burn of 170 calories right up to the monster powerhouse that lasts 80 minutes and if I ever finish it, will burn 770 of those no-pain-no-gain calories.
You can do the workouts against the clock and the app’s dashboard remembers everything, it shows your progress and pushes you to move up levels.
I’ve tried almost a dozen fitness trackers over the last few years and Lumafit is the first one that really seems to encourage me into doing more and doing better. The broad range of activities it analyses and coaches the user on are what sets it apart from entry-level fitness trackers. I’m not sure if I’ll still be using it by the summer but by then I suspect the Lumafit will have done its job. And it does it very, very well.