So, Will You be Wearing An Oversized “T” This Summer At The Beach, Or Slapping On The 30-SPF?

Those of us that care, know that being comfortable with the body your wearing takes work. And consistent work. That can mean regular hours at the gym, early before work, or after you already have put in a 10-hour day at your workstation. But as we work out, we know that one thing that needs to be done is setting goals and measuring our progress on how well we’re doing on our road to attaining them. To do this, serious fitness orientated people, like you and me, use an activity monitoring device to provide the data we need in order to stay the course and make sure we not only reach our goals but surpass them.

One such “Smartwatch” is the Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Running Multisport Watch With the 735XT, you can now let your fitness routine be more than just a routine. With the advanced technology and cutting-edge features, you can create your activity profiles of cycling, running, swimming, skiing, paddling, strength training, and hiking. The auto multisport features allow you to switch between different sports activities with a single press and will also give you customized workouts. With free Garmin Connect, you can easily review your past efforts and share it with the online fitness community.

Since we are, or should I say, we want to be active, we do juggle multiple work responsibilities each day, and possibly also juggle multiple workout sessions as well. After all, nothing helps relieve the stress of the day better than working up a sweat, pushing your body, knowing everything you’re doing in the gym, out on the road pounding the pavements or doing multiple laps in the pool is helping you to not only get out from under that stress level but also conditioning your body so it performs and looks the way you want it to.

So, let's delve into the functionality of the Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Running Multisport Watch a little deeper so that you can get a good idea of what it can do for you so you can do for yourself!

Even though the Garmin 735's been around for a bit, it's still one of the best all-purpose activity trackers in the Garmin footlocker!

At the Forefront of the deliverables, the 3 gives you are:
It's lightweight and designed for both training and racing.
Great Batter Life for everyday use and delivers when your exercising.
Tracks regular steps and how well your sleeping
Offers a wide range of data, which you and your friends (if you wish) can be viewed via Garmin Connect
Offers Strava Integration
Comes in an assortment of colors

Activities
The 735 is a great overall activity tracker, while it's optimized mainly for running, biking and swimming it definitely lives up to its "Multisport" capabilities. Apart from triathlon sports, the 735 also has cross country skiing, hiking, rowing, strength training, (which is a must for anyone who does a lot of running so they get the cross-training benefits), even paddle boarding and just plain general cardio. Straight out of the box!
As you can see, this covers a wide range of sports!

Basic Features:
The 735 offers the standard features found on most running and sport watches. It tracks distance, pace and lap times on all supported activities. You can see this data on the watch screen while it's running. These data fields can also be changed in the settings like on most other models of Garmin. This information is also stored in the watch and on any accounts that you have previously set up via the synced function.

Heart Rate:
The watch features an optical heart rate sensor, which requires no additional strap or equipment. Thus, making it streamlined and not having to fuss with a chest strap is a big plus! Your heart rate data is visible during your exercise routines and also in various graph forms afterward on Garmin Connect.

The watches other feature is that it is truly multifunctional. When in multisport mode, the watch will enter the next sport when you push the lap button, though you can also configure it to enter transition periods when the lap button is pushed. This is a great feature when you’re running or training for triathlons in particular.

The 735 additionally offers integration with a huge range of running services and products. Strava, Garmin Connect, ANT+, are some services that are supported. Phone syncing, and phone notification display is also possible.

Accuracy:
Accuracy tends to be pretty good in most of the sensors of the Garmin 735. The GPS is precise and works well even in areas with tall buildings and trees, giving accurate routes, and overall distance traveled. This holds true while biking, running, or swimming. The heart rate sensor is a solid reporting factor of this watch. The optical heart rate sensors are generally less accurate than straps and this holds true here as well.

Connectivity:
The 735 offers standard connectivity that most athletic watches have. Primarily, it can connect to a smartphone or other device via Bluetooth and sync data across apps that way. Syncing is pretty quick, and the data does not take very long to transfer. Additionally, the 735 can be synced via its charging strap, which is another pretty standard feature of the Garmin Smart Watches.

Durability:
The Garmin Forerunner 735 is solid! Its face is pretty resistant to abrasions and scratches and can definitely handle most average drops or bumps that can occur as life happens. Naturally, excessive force or pressure, like dropping the watch from a multistory building or something similar can cause issues., but that is to be expected, regardless of what you see on "Infomercials"
The band itself is also pretty durable, and there have not been many complaints about the band wearing out or tearing with use. And emersion in water should not have adverse effects on the watch considering it is literally designed to be used within bodies of water like a pool. You’re paying for both durability and functionality and the Garmin 735 delivers!

Ease of Use:
The 735 is pretty straightforward to use. For those who plan on using it as a basic activity watch, (but why would you since all those extra tracking and monitoring features are available?) it functions like many others for running, biking and swimming.

The watch has a mode to record the information during your activities, a lap function, and a pause and finish function, all of which are fairly simple to use. The quick start guides provided are pretty self-explanatory and do a good job of walking you through the process. For users who have experience doing things like uploading workouts and using them or syncing multiple devices to the watch, it probably won't be much of a challenge to use. For those not used to doing this, there will be a learning curve but it probably won't be hard for the average user to get the hang of using.

And like most things today, there are multiple sources of how to sights to use, especially Garmin's YouTube channel. Overall, the 735 has well designed and easy to use interfaces.

Battery Life and Charging it up!
The Garmin 735 charges via a charging clip that comes with the watch, which can be plugged into a USB or wall outlet, which is especially nice when you’re traveling without taking your laptop. The watch offers about 14 hours of GPS usage. This is a good stretch of time for everyday use but for a triathlon, it will only be enough for shorter to mid-distance races. But again, its main function is at the training level to get you in the right shape in order for you to be able to tackle those triathlons. Overall, the battery life is adequate for the average athlete.

The overall "Skinny" on this smartwatch is that it’s a pretty solid multisport watch. It has a large range of tracking features that will provide you with all the data you need to train and modify your training accordingly to what it acquires from monitoring your stats.

So, how about it, do you think the Garmin 735 can help you get, and maintain that kind of body that will turn heads this summer at the beach…. For all the right reasons? We think it will. Go get yours today at HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com  

Before someone kicks sand in your face at the beach!

Sunshine And Warmer Weather Are Finally Making There Presence Felt.  And Like most of us, this past winter season, for that matter this past year has been one that has given us more in-door, stay at home days then outdoor ones. The weather just hasn’t been cooperative. But hopefully, this year is starting off a bit better with more sunshine filled days that coax us to get outdoors and be active. Whether its getting that yard cleaned up after last years fall and winter seasons made a mess with fallen tree branches, not to mention the leftover fallen leaves that have gone un-raked because of just plain, wet weather!

But now the sun is finally shining and beckoning to us to get outside and get some much-needed exercise, which for many of us means running, power-walking or jogging along our favorite paths, country roads or mountain trails. Just getting outside provides the necessary incentive to move!

Now, because we are going to put that sunshine to good use, we wanted to use an activity tracker that’s made for being active outdoors and the one we chose is the Garmin Fenix 5 GPS Multi-Sport Watch . Just for a few attention getters, the Fenix 5 has a bright, high-resolution, full-color Garmin Chroma Display. And so you can keep track on just how well you’re doing health-wise, it has the functionality of using the new Elevate wrist-based heart rate technology that lets you monitor your heart rate without the need to wear a chest strap!

And it's not just for running, but it’s also a Multiple Sports Activity watch as well. It has "Preloaded" activity profiles for all of your sports and adventures. You can get key stats at your fingertips with the performance widget that shows your training status, training load and more.

Befitting a watch meant for the outdoors, the Garmin Fenix 5 has a rugged exterior that looks like it could take some abuse. Five screws hold a beveled, black bezel in place, while five circular buttons (three on the left, two on the right) ring the 1.2-inch display. There's an inner bezel around the screen, along with an outer bezel; together, they measure nearly half an inch, though that's mitigated visually by the design. When you get right down to it, it's tough to find an activity that the Fenix 5  can’t track! What’s also an asset is its overall size and weight. Wearing the Fenix 5 it never feels weighty on your wrist, and with its good-looking design, you can wear it as an everyday watch and its right there with you when you lace up your sneaks for a run!

Display
The Fenix 5 has an always-on color display (a plus) with a transflective surface that uses sunlight to make the screen brighter. I never had a problem reading the display, even in direct sunlight.
The Fenix 5  also gives you a VO2 max score (a measure of your overall fitness level), the intensity of your training over the past week and a race predictor, which lists how fast the watch thinks you'll complete a 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon.

For each run that you do, you get a training effect, which gives you a score for both aerobic and anaerobic activity. A Training Status screen shows how productive your exercises have been and gives you a general sense if your fitness level is improving, holding steady or decreasing.

The Fenix 5's optical heart rate monitor proved accurate, but it did not respond to changes as quickly as a chest strap would. But for just a few points off, it dosesn't really make it a game changer. It’s very accurate based on being worn on the wrist.

The home screen (also known as the Snapshot screen), which has a black background, has two large circles toward the top that show how many steps you've taken and how much sleep you've had. Below that are small blocks for Active Calories, Activities, MyFitnessPal, Intensity Minutes and Floors Climbed.  Great data that you need in one place.

Swiping left or right shows you more information about various activities (steps, sleep, running, swimming, etc.). You can customize how many of these pages show up, as well as their order, by pressing an icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

Battery Life
One of the reasons I prefer wearing Garmin's watches over smartwatches is that I rarely have to worry about recharging. If you're not using GPS or the heart rate monitor, the Fenix 5 will last up to two weeks. That means if you forget to bring the charger on a trip lasting more than a day, you won't have a useless hunk of metal on your wrist. If you are using GPS, the battery is rated to last up to 24 hours, which is more than twice what the TomTom Adventurer (11 hours) offers. If you turn on UltraTrac mode (where the watch pings the satellite only once every minute, rather than every second), the Fenix 5 should last for up to 60 hours. I also like that Garmin has continued to shrink the size of its charging cables. Rather than using a bulky wireless charger like so many smartwatches do, the Fenix 5 has a small USB cable that snaps into a port on the back of the watch.

Bottom Line
The Garmin Fenix 5 has everything you need to keep you honest and provide you with enough data to make sure you’re not only reaching your goals but what you need to do in order to surpass them! This GPS watch is made for the outdoor adventurer who needs or wants to capture everything they do. It provides detailed stats on a multitude of activities, has an accurate heart rate monitor, doesn't weigh your wrist down too much and lasts a long time on a charge. All in All its a keeper and once you have it strapped on your wrist, you won't soon be taking it off.

So, go ahead, enjoy that warm sunshine we spoke about earlier and get yourself out there and get moving!

 

If you’re like me, this weather that’s finally arrived has me itching to get out and do something. Whether its lacing up a pair of running shoes and hitting the trails or a running path throughout the neighborhood or getting my bike down from its hangers and taking it out for a spin on the open road or mountain bike trails. All I know is winter seems to be finally behind us and I want to get out and enjoy the sunshine and feel nature hitting me in the face!

If it was a long winter for you and you’re seeking some new ways to exercise outside, why not do so with your significant other? It’s long been known that there are some serious benefits to getting healthy with your partner, including a better maintaining that urge to be active outside by being able to support each other's individual fitness and diet goals. Not to mention that couples that are active together have been shown to be 90% more likely to stick to a routine than if they were going it alone. So, use that enthusiasm that's got you itching to get outside and be more active by encouraging your partner along with you for that ride, jog, even rock-climbing, but do it together and you’re going to increase that feeling of wellbeing two-fold!

Besides, it's a known fact that some outside activities also build strength and stamina, the more you do them and to the greater length that you push your bodies to increase the duration that you're participating together to meet your pre-set goals. 

Endurance: Endurance activities increase your breathing and heart rate. They keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improve your overall fitness. Building endurance makes it easier to carry out many of your everyday activities.

Brisk walking or jogging: Getting those running shoes on is always a good feeling. After all, going for a good run is a great way to get your heart pumping and getting the kinks out after being cooped up in your home during the winter months. But as always, you need to work up to last years pace and distance and knowing just how well your doing is important in order to set realistic goals for yourself.

A good way to do this is by monitoring your progress with a good, accurate smartwatch. One equipped with a GPS and heart rate monitor to let you know just how far you’re going and how well your body is reacting to the stress you're putting on it. One good all-around monitor is the Garmin Forerunner 35 GPS Watch  It’s a great all-around activity monitor that’s simple and easy to use. It has a built-in GPS function that tracks your distance and allows you to plot your course for repeat runs, or walks. This activity monitor also doubles as a heart rate monitor as well and it’s doing this right on your wrist, no more chest straps are needed. Using Garmin's Elevate wrist heart rate technology. It can keep track of your heart rate when you’re really moving and even at rest, so you know the kind of stress you're putting on yourself. And it has an "All-day” activity tracking capability that counts your steps, calories and intensity minutes and reminds you when to move. And if you desire, it automatically uploads your data to Garmin Connect, where you can see how you’re doing against your friends if you choose to allow them to view your progress.

Yard work (mowing, raking, digging) is another form of outdoor activity that can get your blood pumping while getting your place in order. After all, your yard probably needs a lot of attention if you’ve been stuck inside all winter. Now is the perfect time to get those fall leaves off of the grass, and pick up the fallen branches and sticks and give the yard a rake before you try starting that lawnmower of yours. And if it’s a pull crank, you may just be looking for a little help in yanking on that cord to get it started after its been hibernating like you this past winter season!

No matter what you're looking at doing this spring to get outside and be more active, you also need to remember to provide the fuel your body’s engine is going to need to make all of these things happen. One good form of energy to have on hand is GU Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Gel.  This smooth, great-tasting gel snack that not only tastes good but also gives you a kick of energy! The perfect fuel for those looking for a snack that can also be a benefit to not only their workouts but provides a boost for those that are working their muscles outside doing routine clean up chores that require hours of work to get the jobs done.

So, you can bet you’re not going to be alone this spring as the sun begins to climb higher in the sky every day, and sets a little bit later each day. Taking advantage of the springtime warmth to get back to being outdoors and active is going to be on everyone’s agenda. The key is to keep your activities in moderation as you build up your body’s stamina and in time you're going to be back up to speed to where you were when the leaves started to drop last fall.  

 

Since today is the first day of Spring for 2019, time is ticking to see if you’re really going to get that body of yours into shape for swim season this year. Yes, it's only the middle to end of March, but with the warmer weather soon to make its appearance, it's not going to be too long until you’re going to be seen wearing those clothes of Summer. So, how do you think you’re going to look wearing that tank-top and shorts?

With the Spring sun ascending higher and higher each day, each week, you don’t have much time to shed a few pounds and tone up those saggy arms and leg muscles. Remember, the summer season is only a mere 12 weeks away. It's now crunch time, literally!

It’s all too easy during the winter to get into a routine of lounging around on the couch when you get home from work while you catch up on the latest episode of your favorite shows. But now is the time to kick those habits to the curb. And get yourself active, I mean, really active!

Take advantage of the warmer weather and longer days to get outside and hit the pavements or recently thawed mountain trails around your home. Get that blood pumping again. Try and do something every day even if it’s just a walk. But walk briskly and swing those arms as you put a couple of miles behind you.

How Much Exercise Do I need?
Any movement you get in during your day is better than nothing, but health professionals recommend the following:

150 Minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week. This works out to around 30 minutes a day if you only want to exercise during a work week, or 20 minutes a day if you include weekends.

When you look at it this way, fitting in 20–30 minutes a day is a lot more manageable. For example, you could even break this up into chunks: do a quick 15-minute workout in the morning and an evening brisk walk when you get home.

Two strength training workouts a week. There is no time limit specified for toning exercises, so you could even include a few squats, lunges and push-ups with your quick cardio session on two of those days. Strength exercises help you build muscle mass, which boosts your metabolic rate and helps you burn more calories – even when you’re resting. It’s also a great way to improve your bone health.

Even quick workouts offer great health benefits. Find out what you enjoy doing and build a routine around it. Does an early evening walk around the neighborhood with the family make you want to lace up your shoes and hit the streets? Does going to the gym motivate you? Or, do you prefer to exercise at home with a Jillian Michaels DVD or a fun YouTube video? Would you rather get your heart rate up with a good cardio session, or are toning exercises more up your alley?

It’s important to find exercises that you enjoy doing; this way you’ll be more likely to stick to them and make them a daily habit.

Keep in mind that the key to getting that body of yours into the kind of shape that you won’t be embarrassed about this summer is to set a goal. Really quite a few goals so that after you’ve mastered the first, you move onto the second, then the third….. People are naturally competitive, but you need to set an expectant goal that can be achieved. This is what will motivate you to help you keep going till you reach and surpass that goal. In order to measure just how you're doing on reaching that goal, we recommend using an activity tracker. There are many out there, selecting the right one sometimes depends on the type of exercise you're going to be working on. For our purposes, we like the Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch, With its built in GPS and Strapless Heart Rate, the Garmin Forerunner 235 is a must have for any runner, or exercise buff looking to get valuable feedback during their run, or exercise regimen. It's GPS functionality, created by Garmin, along with Wrist-based Heart Rate Tracks distance, pace, time, heart rate and more
The connected features automatic uploads to Garmin Connect, live tracking and the continuous "Activity tracking²" counts daily steps, distance, calories, and sleep.

Sometimes, even if you’re training like an Olympian, your nutrition and caloric intake can hold you back. If you’re struggling to see results, taking a look at what you’re putting into your body can be a good place to start. Everything needs balance, including your diet. The right combinations of carbs, protein and fat, yes, we said fat, but good fat is necessary as you begin to be more active and push your body so that those calories you ingested provide the breakdown into fuel that propels you to a healthier way of life.

As they say, you can’t out-train a bad diet. Usually, a few simple tweaks are all that is needed to start seeing results. It’s no good working out every day, but you’re eating badly – or skipping meals. When you exercise regularly, you automatically crave healthier food options.

Your metabolism also increases, which means that you’ll be peckish, more often than what you’re used to. Make sure you have some nutritious snacks with you to nibble on during the day. Fruit, low-fat yogurt, nuts, seeds, raw veggies, and hummus are all tasty and good for you. Start your day with a good breakfast, like a bowl of oats with low-fat milk and a banana. Don’t skip meals and stay hydrated with plenty of water throughout the day.

If you follow these tips and work at making a commitment to incorporating a set time schedule you can use these 12 weeks to lose those extra pounds, tone those flabby, well not too flabby arms, thighs and calves and give you the thing you're looking forward to getting. A healthier, leaner you in time for bathing suit season! So, what are YOU waiting for? Get up and MOVE!

A lot of us think we’re in pretty good shape, especially if we like to keep ourselves active, watch the carbs we eat and exercise on a regular basis. But, if you’re in the right age group, which is between the ages of 18- to 35 and 35 is pushing it! You may want to see just how good of shape you really are in by taking the Army’s new physical fitness test. You can see how well you measure up against those young men and women that would like to be all that they can be by joining the army.

The main reason the army is changing up their fitness tests is to make it a more overall test of a recruit ability to perform so that they are ready for combat. The current one that had been modified in the 80’s does not measure how well a soldier will perform under fire. The service has spent more than a decade looking for a better way to not only measure combat readiness but also to train soldiers to that standard while reducing injuries.

Now, the army has a core fitness program that they feel addresses this obstacle to helping instill stamina, strength/ and agility training into a fitness program. They’ve created a 6-module exercise readiness test that consists of 6 fitness sets. They have called it the “Army Fitness Readiness Test”.

The way this was created is that When you reverse-engineer combat specific tasks, you end up needing to train five different domains of physical fitness, Lt. Col. David Feltwell, the principal doctrine developer for the Army ‘s physical readiness program. Those domains include muscular and cardiovascular endurance — which is measured by muscular strength, explosive strength and agility.

There were a lot of difference choices to represent all of those types of fitness.

“We then selected somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 field-expedient tests — everything from pullups and sit-ups to bench press and dead lift, to vertical jump to sumo squats — and we administered those to a large sample at Fort Riley [in Kansas] in 2014,” East said.

They narrowed those options down to six:

1. A two-mile run.

2. A 250-meter sprint/drag/carry. Soldier begins in the prone position, stands up and sprints 25 meters to the far line, returns to the start line, pulls sled backwards to the far line, returns backwards with sled to the start line, grasps two 30-pound kettlebells and runs 25 meters to the far line, returns with the kettlebells to the start line, drops kettlebells at start line, turns and sprints 25 meters to the far line, and returns to the start/finish line.

3. A maximum weight deadlift.

4. The leg tuck. Soldier grasps a climbing bar with alternating neutral grip in the dead hang position; flexes with elbows, hips, and waist to bring knees up, touching both elbows with knees; and returns to the dead hang position. Repeat.

5. Standing power throw. Soldier tosses a 10-pound medicine ball backward.

6. T-pushup. The soldier begins in the down position, pushes the body into up position, lowers body to the ground, extends arms out to the sides into the T position, and then returns to the starting position

“The sprint/drag/carry is actually pretty rough,” said Sgt. Thomas Masi, of B Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. “I didn’t think it was going to be that bad.”

A 2017 Best Ranger Competition winner agreed that it was the most challenging event.
“I think the sprint, drag and carry — just because it’s an all-out event and incorporates a bunch of different muscle groups so it stresses you more than just an individual muscle group,

“When that test was developed, they were still under the guidance of zero equipment,” said East, the research physiologist at CIMT. “What we know is that we can’t assess muscular strength with no equipment. You have to pick something up and put it down.”

If in looking at this test you recognize the fact that it is pretty similar to a “HIIT” exercise program. (High-Intensity Interval Training) which has gained in popularity with fitness buffs over the past several years.

So, you don’t have to enlist to go through this grueling test. You can join a gym or fitness training group and see just how well you measure up against what the new army recruits are doing to get in the best possible shape to defend our country.

Keeping track of your results as you put yourself through the paces of a HIIT workout is important to make sure your performing at your maximum, and also that your rest periods are also being taking at the right time and right duration. In order to track these results properly using an Activity monitor with a heart rate function along with V02Max functionality can be beneficial to your end results. One such device is the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smart Activity Tracker  With help from Elevate™ Wrist-based heart rate technology², Vivoactive 3 lets you monitor key aspects of your fitness and stress to show how your body responds under various circumstances. For example, it’s able to estimate your VO2 max and fitness age, 2 indicators of physical fitness that can often improve over time with regular exercise. It also tracks your heart rate variability (HRV), which is used to calculate and track your stress level. Vivoactive 3 can make you aware when physical or emotional sources cause your stress level to rise so you can find a way to relieve the pressure.

So with using a fitness tracker like the Vívosmart, you can monitor your progress as you put yourself through your own PT training. Then you can prove it to yourself that you are really performing at your peak and being “All That You Can Be”!