features
Lightweights: Lightweights
Shocking tactic for fitness wristband
A new wearable is bidding to not just track activity, but use pain and shame to ensure users have no choice but to reach their goals.
Due for release in 2015, Pavlok is a fitness tracking wristband which also serves as a behavioural conditioner. Aside from the usual tracking of activity and sleep, this wearable has the ability to give away your money, shame you on social media, or even deliver a 340-volt static shot if you slip back into bad habits.
It also offers rewards – as yet unspecified – and encourages you via social media posts if you stay on the straight and narrow.
Triallists have mainly been using the device to help programme their body to wake up earlier and do more exercise, although there is potential for such conditioning to be applied to diet control and smoking cessation as well.
Find out more: http://lei.sr?a=s8I8F
Running app used to draw pictures
Claire Wyckoff, a copywriter from San Francisco, US, has come up with a unique way to motivate herself to exercise outdoors – she uses the Nike+ running app to create pictures.
Wyckoff will plan out her route according to the picture it will make on the map. She’s most famous for her pictures of penises, but other images she’s created include a Space Invader, a dog, a pole dancer, a bird cage and Slimer from the film Ghostbusters. The pictures can be found on social media. Details: http://runningdrawing.tumblr.com
A fitness workout for the face
A face workout available in Selfridges department stores in London and Birmingham promises to eliminate wrinkles without the need for botox.
The signature 30-minute FaceGym session costs £35 and has a number of steps. These comprise dry skin brushing, a blend of French massage techniques which knead muscles in the face to release tension and reduce puffiness, and a hydrating and lifting face mask. An advanced £100 session includes a deep cleanse, laser and derma roller treatment.
The FaceGym concept was founded by Inge Theron, the Financial Times’ Spa Junkie. Theron worked with spa consultant Lisa Knowles – of The Spa Set – to develop the protocol. For more details, visit: www.facegym.com
Tiger streak run at London Zoo
On 14 August, brave men and women gathered at ZSL London Zoo for a night-time naked streak in order to raise money for ZSL’s conservation work with tigers.
The participants, who were given tiger masks and encouraged to disguise their body in a tiger paint design, took part in a five- to 10-minute run around a 350m route in the central court of the zoo.
Individuals paid £20 to enter the event and pledged to raise £150, while groups of five paid £90 to register and had a minimum fundraising target of £700. Friends and family could also pay to watch the spectacle for £15 each.
A total of 200 people took part, with zoo experiences offered to those who raised the most money. Details: www.zsl.org
