Even if you aren't a champion athlete, you can train like one with pocket-sized electronics that deliver a pumping music beat while keeping track of your rising pulse rate.
These gadgets, many of which pull double duty as a radio, music player or regular timepiece, can act as part-time coach and motivator shouting out numbers on the distance you have run or cycled, and indicating that your breaststroke needs work.
For decades, joggers have toted portable radios to avoid boredom. Now, between choruses of a digital recording of Paul McCartney's "Band on the Run," the MP3RUN, developed by Nike Inc. and Philips Electronics, can report via the wearer's headphones the distance run, and the pace.
The $170 device uses "Bluetooth" short-range wireless technology to help a thumb-sized road sensor, attached to a runner's shoe, store data. That day's workout, and up to 200 runs, can then be logged and loaded onto a Web site operated by Nike, to track progress.
"We put the coach in the product," said Scott Levitan, a general manager at Philips. "Everybody can use some help to motivate themselves to go one step further."
Of course, for thousands of years, fitness-minded folks have been exercising or competing without a battery-powered gadget to speed up their sprint, or juice up their jumping power.
But it would be fair to assume that just as technology enhances everyday conveniences like transportation or communications, it can also fine-tune physical fitness.
Perhaps there is no better time for such advances. Diseases linked to unhealthy diet and lack of exercise account for nearly 60 percent of the 56.5 million deaths a year around the world that are deemed preventable, according to the United Nations' World Health Organization.
Another important reason for buying the new devices is that they provide inspiration, says Matthew Swanston, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Electronics Association.
"The health benefit of these electronics is anything that gets you off the couch is good," he said. "If you think that the workout experience would be less unpleasant if you are listening to music, then by all means do what ever it takes to get out there."
Mixing MP3s with GPS and MPH
Ted Schadler, consumer electronics analyst at Forrester Research said that, as a result of these electronic tools, the level of "performance optimization" that athletics enthusiasts can reach rises sharply.
"It gives someone who measures performance a tremendous tool kit," he said "With it, for example, I can say that the next time I bike up that hill, I don't want my heart rate to go up that high, so I'll try a different gear."
Several devices, such as watchmaker Timex Corp.'s Bodylink System ($250) and Samsung Electronics' YP-60 MP3 player ($150), help athletes keep track of their heart rate, vital data for those who seek to make the most of their workout without submitting to fatigue.
The Olympic marathon wanna-be might feel free to run farther with a Garmin Ltd. Forerunner watch, which employ global positioning satellite (GPS) data to tell the athlete precisely where in the world they are and how many calories have been burned. It even makes a whistle noise when a specified distance or preset duration of activity is reached.
Swimmers looking for an edge can use a waterproof digital camera, such as Concord Camera Corp.'s inexpensive Eye-Q Splash (under $50), to dive in and take a snapshot or short video of how their bodies move in the pool.
Bicyclists can work towards their Olympic dream with Sony Corp.'s sports radio, which mounts on a bike's handle bars. The screen displays the distance covered, the speed in miles per hour, including average and maximum speed, all while playing music from a digital radio tuner.
If the heady blend of sweat and semiconductors doesn't get you closer to realizing your Olympic dream, take heart: It might make you smarter. Researchers at Ohio State University recently found that exercising to music can boost brainpower, by influencing stimulating and increasing cognitive arousal while helping to organize cognitive output.
