Win Big in May From Digifit!

We are knee deep into spring, and we could not be more excited. The sun is out, just inviting us to get out and exercise! However, spring also comes with a tradition that cannot be ignored: Spring Cleaning.

Well this year Digifit wanted to make Spring Cleaning a bit more fun. This May, we are giving away tons of Digifit gear to our loyal Digifit disciples through a Facebook Giveaway!

“Like” Digifit in the Month of May and sign up for the giveaway, and you enter for a chance to win one of the following:

1 Withings WS-30 Scale
4 Fitbit Ultras
4 Digifit Connect Bike Cases
4 Digifit Connects
4 Garmin Heart Rate Monitors

13 winners in all! The Spring Cleaning Facebook Giveaway ends May 31st at Midnight, so sign up today for a chance to win!

How To Measure Resting Pulse?

Resting pulse should be measured first thing in the morning with your fingers and a stopwatch. Put your middle and index finger to either your radial artery on your wrist or your carotid artery in your neck. Once you find your pulse, count how many beats occur in 20 seconds, and multiply this number by 3. This is your resting pulse.

What Should My Resting Pulse Be?

Resting pulse varies from person to person, but according to the American Heart Association, the average resting pulse should be between 60-80 beats per minute (BPM). 68-80 BPM is by no means the only place a healthy person’s pulse can be. For athletes or people who often perform cardiovascular activity, “a normal resting heart rate may be closer to 40 beats a minute” [1], with the most noted example being that Lance Armstrong reportedly had a resting pulse of 32 BPM when he was in peak conditioning.

What Affects My Resting Pulse?

A variety of factors can affect your resting pulse reading, including the physical size of your heart, body size, activity level, fitness level, temperature, body position, emotions and medication use. [1]

Why it is Important to Monitor Your Resting Pulse

The more you workout the lower your resting pulse is, and the lower your resting pulse is the less hard your heart has to work. The best way to think about is to view your heart as a muscle, and the more you work it the stronger it gets. A stronger heart means more blood with each beat, and the same amount of work can be done with fewer beats. If your heart needs more beats to do the same amount of work, over time this can lead to cardiovascular disease and/or heart attacks.

A higher resting pulse than usual can be a sign of over-training or illness. When you are recovering from a workout, your metabolism and heart are working harder to repair your body and get it back to a homeostasis. Therefore, if in the morning you have a higher resting heart rate than usual, your body is still in a state of repair and you should adjust your workout regimen accordingly to prevent over-training or injury. [2]

How Do I Lower My Resting Pulse

The best thing to do is to work out for at least 1 hour a day, 3 days a week (and preferably more). Aerobic exercise is the very best way to maintain a healthy resting pulse. Some other ways to lower your resting pulse is to make sure you regularly get a full nights sleep, stay hydrated, quit smoking, meditation and maintain a healthy weight. [3]

References:
[1] LASKOWSKI, E.R. [WWW] Available from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-rate/AN01906 [Accessed 22/3/2012]
[2] BENSON, R & CONNOLY, D [2011] “Heart Rate Training”. p. 10, 30.
[3] TELLER, R [WWW] Available from http://www.1vigor.com/article/resting-heart-rate-health-measurement/ [Accessed 22/3/2012]

Just over a year ago, Shawn decided to do personal training with Giovanni 2x a week. In this time, Shawn has made some wonderful changes. He is now down 3 pants sizes and had to purchase a new business wardrobe and formal wear!

When Shawn started to run, he was using a Timex Ironman GPR Hear rate Monitor. Two months ago, Shawn ditched the watch and instead began tracking heart rate using Digifit on his iPhone.

So far Shawn has been thrilled with Digifit:

“I am old, fat and slow. I need to get Digifit to tell me when I’ve had too many Capt’n Morgans and diet cocktails!

I like the real time reporting during the workout so I have a double check if I am really pushing myself or not. I have this tool with me during personal training with Giovanni, while taking his HIIT/TABATA class or out for my daily runs.

The results and reporting is a nice feature, whether you are running and want mile by mile split times, heart rate, or just in the gym and want to see how many calories you burned. I don’t workout without Digifit! Digifit makes it easy to share workouts with Giovanni for analysis or tease my friends on Facebook.”

Shawn competed this past weekend in the Florida Spartan Race, placing 47 out of 290 racers in his age division! It’s the furthest Shawn has run/raced at just over 9 miles and 22 obstacles during the challenge.

Shawn just finished his first Spartan race with the help of Digifit!

1. Install your Speed and Cadence Sensor on to your Outdoor Bike

2. Open your Digifit app and go to Settings -> My Sensors, and scroll down to Speed + Cadence.

3. Now move the pedals on your Bike with the installed sensor. This will turn on the sensor

4. Turn Bluetooth Smart under Speed + Cadence to ON. It will now search for the sensors

5. It will find the sensor and assign a sensor ID.

Now all you have to do is Calibrate the Sensor, start a bike workout, and you are ready to go!

Tap Bluetooth Smart ON under Speed + Cadence to pair

I started my journey by teaming up with a co-worker to follow a popular diet program our employer sponsored. This took me down about twenty pounds where I determined it was time to really get serious. Another good friend challenged me to compete with him in a small sprint distance triathlon in four months. This was the catalyst that brought me to Digifit.

I had purchased a Wahoo Blue HR heart rate monitor to get more from my workouts but was unimpressed with their app and after much research found Digifit. Using the customization available with Digifit I’ve been able to tailor my workouts and reach a new level of fitness.

Since the beginning of my journey I’ve lost 50 pounds and completed not only the sprint triathlon but also my first half and full marathon! I fit in clothes I haven’t seen in over a decade and feel fantastic. I can now go out on a ride, run or even snowshoe straight up a mountain and not get winded or be holding the group back. I’ve reached a level I thought was years behind me, never to be attained again. The Digifit app also has allowed me to not only record and track my progress but to share it as well and challenge others through partner tracking sites like Strava® and RunKeeper®.

My heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone that helps bring this awesome product to users like me and the transformative power it can have on our lives.

To complete a fitness assessment and determine your zones, please also be sure that you have the fitness assessments and enable sensors upgrade for heart rate tracking.  For information on the benefits of tracking with heart rate, please read about the benefits of cardio tracking

Begin by launching the fitness assessment with your HR monitor paired. To launch the assessment for your intended workout type, in the app go to Workouts -> Fitness Assessments -> Launch Beginner or Advanced or CP30 Cardio.

Follow the voice-guided directions during the assessment

Upon completing the assessment you will see this:

Tap Done, which will take you to your assessment results.

Choose “Set All” to apply these results to your default settings and zones. “Set All” will apply metrics to all workout setting. For example, if you completed the CP30 in running, the “Set All” will apply these results to all other workout types.

To see that your HR zones have been set to default, you can go to the app Settings -> My Activity Preferences -> type -> HR Zones:

Full Version

Coming in May: Digifit MVP Online

My.Digifit.com is one copiously cool site. You can view your workouts, health metrics and more all in one place. However, we are perfectionists and that is why we have been working hard to bring you a more valuable online experience with Digifit MVP Online.
MVP subscriptions offers users the ability to create groups, set goals, get great discounts from the Digifit store, achievement and summary emails, and much more!

$49.95 buys you a year-long MVP subscription. Under five bucks a month for access to a bevy of breathtaking and comprehensive content, all available with a click of a button. Sounds like quite the steal!

Digifit MVP Online is Coming!

Digifit iCardio is now compatible with the Zephyr HXM Heart Rate Monitor on Android version 2.5. So now strap up with your Zephyr and follow these easy pairing steps to get off and tracking in no time!

1. First wet the electrodes on the strap of your Zephyr HXM to increase conductivity and put it on
2. Go to your Android Settings
3. Tap Wireless & Network
4. Tap Bluetooth Settings
5. Make Sure Bluetooth is ON. When ON, tap Scan Devices
6. Your Heart Rate Belt should appear as HXM______ below “Bluetooth devices”. Tap to pair and enter in PIN 1234 to pair

Type in PIN 1234

7. Your Zephyr will now be paired. To delete a pairing, tap and and hold “HXM______”, and choose to unpair
8. Open your Digifit app and go to Settings -> My Sensors, and tap Heart so the check is orange

Your heart rate monitor is Paired!

Your heart rate monitor is now paired with Digifit and you are ready to workout! If for some reason you have paired your heart belt but are not able to acquire your heart belt during a workout, try turning off your Bluetooth in your settings, wait 10 seconds, then turn back on.

iOS
Digifit is compatible with the Zephyr HXM for iPhone 4S/5, as well as the iPad Mini, iPad 3 and 4 and iPod Touch 5. Because these monitors use Bluetooth to connect to your iPhone 4S, you do not need a Digifit Connect to track heart rate. Follow these steps to pair:

1. Place the heart rate monitor around your chest. Be sure to lightly wet the electrodes. This allows the sensors to have an easier time reading your pulse.
2. Open your Digifit app and tap Settings
3.  Then tap My Sensors
4. You will see a list of available sensors that Digifit is compatible with. You will see an option for Bluetooth Smart. Swipe the slider to the “ON” position.
5. A screen should appear saying “Connecting to sensor via Bluetooth Low Energy”.
6. Once it has connected with the heart rate monitor you are ready to workout with your Bluetooth Heart rate monitor!
   
   Purchase a Zephyr
   Enter in these coupon codes on the Zephyr site for $5 off:
   DIGIHXM1 – $5.00 off your order if you buy 1 HxM BT (Limit 1 coupon per order)
   DIGIHXM2 – $5.00 off your order if you buy 1 HxM Smart (Limit 1 coupon per order)
   ]]> http://blog.digifit.com/2013/04/pairing-zephyr-hxm-digifit-icardio-android/feed/ 0 http://blog.digifit.com/2013/03/heart-rate-spikes-dropouts/ http://blog.digifit.com/2013/03/heart-rate-spikes-dropouts/#comments Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:13:14 +0000 Marrissa Harrison http://blog.digifit.com/?p=12315 We have had a rash of concerned Digifit clients call regarding spikes and dropouts on their Polar H7. We were sure it was not an issue on the side of the Digifit app or the Heart Rate Monitor, but rather an issue with the conductivity between the body and the belt. The way the belt works is that it receives electrical signals from the heart that are then shown as Beats Per Minute. However, without some kind of moisture (such as saliva, water, or a conductive gel) to act as a conductor between the heart and the belt, the signal will not be strong or consistent. We are sure this is what causes erratic data, so we threw our lab coats on and decided to run an experiment.

   The Hypothesis: The Digifit app does not manipulate the data it receives from a heart rate monitor at all, meaning that any spikes and dropouts are solely caused by issues with the conductivity between the Polar H7 or other heart rate monitor and the user’s body.

   The Experiment: We decided to go out for a run using two devices, the Digifit app as well as a Polar watch. We connected both with the Polar H7. The interesting thing about this experiment is that the phone and the watch use two different platforms. The iPhone uses Bluetooth Smart to connect with the H7, while the watch uses a 5 kHz signal to pair. This enables us to be comfortable concluding that if both devices spike, it is because of the belt and not because of an issue with the app, or a specific platform (such as Bluetooth Smart). So basically we went out for a run with both devices, and whenever we saw a spike in the Digifit app, we compared those results with the Polar watch.

   

   Immediate spike caused by conductivity issues

   The Results:The run started with a bang, spiking right off the bat and soaring to unforeseen heights all the way out of zone 5! The watch mirrored the results. When the heart chart on Digifit showed our BPM going above zone 5, the watch showed exactly the same results, with no discernable difference.

   Conclusion Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the spikes are a result of conductivity issues and no fault of the app itself. Any time you get a spike or dropout, it is the result of your body not having enough moisture to get a firm connection with the belt. That is why these kind of spikes usually happen in the beginning, before you really start to sweat. We strongly suggest wetting the strap with either water, saliva, or a conductive gel. Digifit has a great blog post on Troubleshooting Your Polar H7, and noted fitness blogger DC Rainmaker also has a great post on How to Fix Heart Rate Strap Dropouts/Spikes.

   If you still are experiencing issues, please contact Digifit customer support by calling 805-504-0066 x 702 or send us an email.

   ]]> http://blog.digifit.com/2013/03/heart-rate-spikes-dropouts/feed/ 5 http://blog.digifit.com/2013/03/51-shape-life/ http://blog.digifit.com/2013/03/51-shape-life/#comments Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:33:39 +0000 Brandon Keller http://blog.digifit.com/?p=12606 Hi I’m Greg and I’m 53 yrs old. I have 3 adult children and 5 Grand Kids with #6 due in September 2012! I am a Materials Manager, which lends itself to a very sedentary work environment, not only that but there have been many lunch and dinner opportunities as well. I bit too many…

   In my early 30’s I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and was put on medications to control it. In my early 40’s I was told I was Insulin Intolerant and would need to start on medications for that condition as well! I tried modifying my diet somewhat and added cardio in the form of treadmill work, but still my numbers were not that good. I was headed down the wrong path and something needed to change. My Dad was Type I diabetic and suffered the consequences due to his poor management. I could see what lie in my future if I did not take steps to correct my behaviors.

   In November of 2009 at 49 I started weightlifting again after 30 years. I was weak, out of shape and my body could not live up to my ego! During this time I started tracking my workouts, I was doing both weigh training and cardio to will my body back to health. But frankly, writing everything down in a journal was cumbersome to me. I wanted to see my progress, but it was very difficult to be consistent in notating everything I did.

   I had switched phones to an iPhone and looked for an app that would help me. I had apps on my Droid based phone to track the exercises, but I wanted more! I found what I was looking for in Digifit iCardio and immediately upgraded to the “Pro” version. Using this app with the Garmin heart rate belt proved to me that my weight training sessions were indeed awesome cardio sessions! I was dropping fat and adding lean muscle! I knew I was indeed on the right path with the right tools!

   10 weeks after I started my intense weight training, my dosages for my type-2 diabetic were cut in half! It seems by putting in the work, eating right, and using an awesome tool like Digifit, anyone can turn it around! The Digifit screens allow me to monitor my heart rate so I know I am getting the most out of my time.

   I can say at 53 years old, I am in better shape than I have ever been! I competed in two Bodybuilding competitions, the Masters 40+ and Masters 50+, placed in the top 5 and brought home some hardware!

   There is no activity I do that I don’t strap on the HR belt and record a workout! No matter if it’s simply out for a walk, a bike ride, cardio session or a full on heavy duty weight lifting session, I am always prepared with Digifit!

   

   Digifit has helped me transform my body!

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