Uses biofeedback to deliver customized coaching

Sports and fitness app makers Pear Sports are now offering a free app that interfaces with a $150 kit sold at Apple retail stores to help users achieve fitness or weight-loss goals using personalized coaching from top personal coaches based on the biofeedback the kit sends the app. The product includes a Bluetooth heart monitor, a pair of Pear earbuds for listening to music and the coaching, and the app for iPhone or iPod Touch. The app provides real-time feedback and encouragement using data gained from the heart rate monitor.

The product is centered around running, but offers custom workouts for weight loss or fitness, and can utilize the GPS built into the iPhone to track journeys. It can also log treadmill runs when GPS is not available or needed. The app learns your fitness level from test workouts and develops a system of periodic feedback on progress and motivation from world-class coaches such as Matt Fitzgerald, Ben Greenfield and Jerry Hadfield. The wearable heart rate monitor uses a five-zone system to fine-tune how fast or slow the user needs to go in order to maximize their benefit.

The app also provides useful tips on improving form and pumping stats and motivating sayings through the headphones, which are also used to play music from the user's iPod collection. The app also shows on-screen stats such as distance, time, calories burned and other information. The included headphones are sweat and dirt resistant, and include a microphone compatible with the iPhone for managing calls as well as adjusting the volume.

The Pear Mobile app is available in the iOS App Store at no charge, but requires the kit to fully function. By simplifying logistics and eliminating the need for a personal trainer, the kit hopes to help users achieve fitness goals through a combination of schedule coordination, simple record-keeping and recorded but custom-activated tips, encouragement and feedback.

by MacNN Staff