It’s kinda awesome being a social media specialist in the fitness field, as I get these kinds of perks:

Last week, I was asked to try out the new MuscleCare extra strength pain reliever. Lucky for them, I had just pulled a bunch of intercostal muscles as a result of coughing too much, too hard (from pneumonia!) and so had good motivation to use their roll-on stick.

I’ve already got a couple of topical pain-relievers that I use (A535, PerCara Ice, etc.) but the roll-on ‘greaselessness’ of MuscleCare meant I could use it during the day and not get my clothes stained and the ‘extra strengthiness’ meant I didn’t have to hobble around, gasping for air, clutching my ribs all day. The roll-on tube was easy to carry around with me and I found it really helped – it was long-lasting, STRONG and warming.

MuscleCare is a Canadian-grown product, developed by Dr. Chris Oswald who owns and operates one of Canada’s leading chiropractic clinics in Toronto. He saw a need for premium scientifically based ergonomic, health and wellness products and developed the MuscleCare line.

MuscleCare: the strongest all natural, scientifically based, topical analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-spasmodic for over the counter sales.

Dr. Oswald's Professional Therapy MuscleCare® regular strength ice gel, extra strength ice gel, and regular strength ice spray

This newest product – the roll-on extra strength pain reliever is intended to help “increase blood flow, reduce pain and enhances the repair of damaged tissues, muscles and cartilage. Ideal for chronic conditions like fibromyalgia, diabetes, etc.”

While I hope I don’t have too many occasions to use it chronically like I have been the past week, I will definitely keep it in my gym bag for after these crazy bootcamps of mine and events like the Canadian Death Race.

If you’ve got a few muscle aches & pains, you can order the product online here or find it at your nearest Rexall, PharmaPlus, Guardian, IDA or Dell Pharmacy.

Social media platforms promotes the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

(Social Media. Wikipedia, The free encyclopaedia. November 12, 2009).

Even though the “prosumer“ concept has been around for 40 years (Toffler, 1970), my experiences as an active, involved content innovator as opposed to the traditional passive recipient of a product or service are new-found.  I first became aware that I was flexing these powerful muscles as I blog, leave comments, and tweet, after reading Grown Up Digital, written by someone who Al Gore has called, one of the world’s leading cyber gurus, own own Canadian, Don Tapscott. GUD is a relevant and inspiring ‘Field Guide’, of the Net Generation, outlining the survey findings of 11,000 NetGenners (11 – 30 years old), whereby connecting the dots and colouring in the big  picture as to how young people are using social media platforms to influence and shape their world.

To get a sense of the prosumer power, watch the YouTube clip of “In Conversation with Allan Gregg” (for those who want quick sound bites, watch 15:33 – 18:00). In a nutshell, Tapscott asserts, “if you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future.”

Since this first read back in April, 2009, I have become increasingly aware of the innovative ways in which NetGenners contribute to the development, improvement and dissemination of products & services. For a very recent and radical example, pick up a copy of  Yes We Did: An inside look at how social media built the Obama Brand (Harfoush, 2009).

Even more rewarding, I am now cognizant of being both participant & recipient of new media techniques that amplify the ways in which we are able to use our voices to advocate change in institutional pedagogy, politics and practices.

What empowering realizations!

Imagine the electricity consumption at 24-hr fitness centres!

I now turn my prosumer-gaze on the fitness world – which is both my workplace and playground. While sport has the privileged reputation of being healthy and green, the fitness industry is a far cry from environmentally conscious. For lack of an academic urge at 2:00 am* this morning, I will cite the Biggest Loser reality television series recent  ”Green Week” workouts on unplugged fitness equipment to illuminate the copious electricity consumption of millions of treadmills across the world.

The buzz-word of today is eco-innovation and with that in mind, I encourage everyone to watch this green fitness centre concept video from Casey Shaaf of EcoDev Engineering, LLC, created for the 2009 Kettering Innovation Challenge and to appreciate the implications of this technology. Astoundingly simple, elegant and brilliant solution to recycling energy. Viewing it, I had to wonder, how is it that only 185* people have watched this video since September? Why am I the first to rate it?

I am hereby making it a personal goal to have this video reach 1,000 by the end of the year. 3 weeks left…

You in for the challenge?

* This blog post was originally published on Lighfooted.ca on November 27, 2009 at 2:00 am. Current YouTube count is 259.

Relating the Innovation Management Process to Organizational Theory in Sport & Leisure via poor Ricky Berens‘ polyurethane swimsuit malfunction at the July 27, 2009 World Swimming Championship

Failure to manage the Innovation Process

(PC/The Hollywood Gossip )

I’m interested in following-up the incident with a few questions:

• How did the Italian design company, Jaked, handle the incident? That is, how are they monitoring the results of their innovation?
• How are they handling the Olympic ban of the super-slick swimsuits?
• What is their reaction to the allegations of providing an unfair advantage akin to ‘technological doping’?
• How are they communicating this reaction to their athletes and the public at large?

I’ll start my investigations here, at the Design News July 2009 article, “Ban on Polyurethane Swimsuits Makes No Sense” and report back.

Instead of analysing its effectiveness as an exercise tool, I am more interesting to find out how it behaves as a motivational tool. To think – as of June 30, 2009, 21.82 million copies of Wii Fit have been sold worldwide^[1].

The big question on my mind is [how] has it impacted the fitness behaviour of these millions of people?

This overarching question leads to several sub-questions, each asking to be investigated.

Wii Fit - helping to achieve your Fitness Goals

• Does owning a Wii Fit exercise board enhance motivation and propensity to exercise daily?
• Which audience would most benefit from including Wii Fit into their exercise prescription plan?
• (How) does using Wii Fit increase an individual’s commitment to their fitness goals?

With these questions in mind, I started playing around with my Wii Fit board this evening, getting friends involved and generally enjoying the whole process. Here is the first, little glimpse into the fun that is Wii Fit.

Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children. Graves, L. et al. (2007)

I came across Lee Graves’ summary online in a Comparison of energy expenditure study and I had to stop and wonder: does Wii Fit provide any more exercise benefits than Wii Sport? Would there be any fitness gains to incorporating Wii Fit in an exercise program?

Since it’s world début in December, 2007, Wii Fit has become the third best selling video game in history¹. As a fitness consultant, I can see prescribing Wii Fit as an at-home component to an exercise plan if there are proven, viable benefits to using it.

Fortunately for me, I am in an environment that encourages examining these types of inquiries to the furthest extent possible. As part of my Masters of Human Kinetics degree at the University of British Columbia, I will probe into the physical fitness application of new generation computer games to determine to what extent – and to whom – I will prescribe Wii Fit sessions.

If you have any experience with the Wii Fit and would like to weigh-in with your opinions, I’d love to hear your anecdotal evidence. Please post below!

A quirky, new iPhone App just released from i-labo, inc. Japan (September 10, 2009) does the impossible: it makes boring ol’ sit-ups entertaining.

i-fukkin, which translates to “abdominal muscles” is funny in more than just a ‘lost in translation’ sort of way. It’s built upon a simple premise: perform crunches while holding the iPhone horizontal so you can see the screen, and a Japanese ‘cheer girl’ (complete with pig-tails and pom-poms) counts aloud the number of sit-ups you do, offering words of encouragement when you slow down.

Everyone does theres Best!

Hey! Don’t be lazy!

Too much isn’t good for you.

Definitely worth the 99 cents, as I pumped out 5 sets of the “20 times” and two 1-min tests  tonight, waiting to see all what Alanya the ‘cheer girl’ would say and trying to beat my 1 min record. Besides, laughing tightens your abs even more. Switch the language setting to Japanese and count along with Alanya.

I forsee this little app being brought out at a party or two in the near future, but I’m doubtful it’ll become a regular feature of my training program. I prefer to do crunches, rather than sit-ups, which reduces the risk of straining my back. Since the counting mechanism in the i-fukkin app doesn’t register the small movement of a crunch, only the horizontal-to-vertical motion that a sit-up produces, at this time, I would say it’s more of a novelty than a viable training tool. Also, holding the iPhone out in front of you while you sit-up is not exactly proper form and could put an unnecessary strain on your neck if used repetitively to excess.

For the proper way to perform a crunch, watch the little clip below:

FoodScanner Demo from Andy Smith on Vimeo.

Before the promo video for the FoodScanner iPhone App even ended, I had my iPhone in my hand, ready to install this ingenious little app – but where was it? First, it appears I have to download the DailyBurn app – not the FoodScanner. Alright done. Create a profile. Check. Now what? App crash.

Scan, baby, scan

Hmm… my patience is wearing thin. But I want to scan food! I want instant, scanable proof of my daily noshes.

(Come to think of it, I first felt this ‘need to scan’ earlier this week while in Cost-co and fell in love with the NeatReceipt concept. Which I didn’t buy, btw – but I digress…)

Then it dawns – I first need to complete a profile* online at the Daily Burn. So I do, which takes a surprisingly short time to fill in my stats and create a diet goal. Easy to manoeuvre, gender-neutral theme, fun graphics. I’m drawn in with the jockey layout – the locker room, the gym, challenges, motivation, the calendars with their cute little legend.

DailyBurn calendar legend

Before this look-around, I hadn’t considered using a website to help monitor my fitness progress, even though I’ve seen quite a few in my day; I’m just a pen-and-paper, carry it around with me kinda gal when it comes to private stuff. But I was nearly sold when I remember it has a free iPhone app I can carry around with me! And it links into twitter. Tempting…

So, I’m inspired – I head to the bathroom, grab a flash card, my ‘tells me all’ scale, my tape measurer and fill out my anthropometric stats – I haven’t filled out a new flashcard since June 23, 2009.  My scale beeps out the first 6 measurements:

• Weight:
• % Body Fat:
• % Water:
• Bone Density:
• Daily Calorie Requirement:
• Metabolic Age:

My tape measure tells me the rest ~

• Bust:
• Waist:
• Hips:
• Glutes:
• R thigh:
• R biceps:

I’m happy to see there’s only a 0.6lb weight gain (lunch) and I’ve actually increased my biceps by 1 inch – must be the gym sessions at school. Body fat% is a percent higher, and my thighs & butt have another half inch on them each – must be the increased in all the sitting and highlighting journal after journal, article after article I’ve been doing since my Grad program started in Sept .

So, it’s nearly an hour later that I once again return to my iPhone to download the much-awaited FoodScanner App. $0.99 – a sale. Nice. Download now.

Not yet available in Canada.

Why  didn’t you tell me that before, DailyBurn, oh, why? You’ve foiled me for now, but I’ll be back in a couple of weeks when you’ve got the CDN version up and running. I’ll be back then…

Link shared with Lightfoot by Wade Kelly @wadekelly