As you can tell by simply stepping outside or opening up a window, summer has begun cradling us in its humid wings. This means it is almost time for us to head off to the local beach or pool to show off that amazing body we created by watching Netflix and eating slices of pizza all winter. Wait, those two things aren’t conducive to having a hot bod? Uh oh. Luckily it’s still only early June, which means plenty of time to get ye to the gym to get the fitness ball rolling. With such a timecrunch, wearing the right workout clothes is an absolute must. Luckily, we have just the tech-heavy fitness shirt for you.
Introducing Hexoskin, a Bluetooth shirt that keeps track of everything you do so you don’t have to. There are lots of vitality trackers on the market, and more forthcoming, but the Hexoskin has the advantage of being a simple shirt and not something clunky like an armband. It’s designed by Carré Technologies, who have a staff comprised of the best and brightest in the fields of biometrics, microelectronics, statistics and algorithms. The Hexoskin reads, or wears, like a point by point list of each of those specialized fields.
To that end, the Hexoskin offers much than your average vitals tracker. Not only does it track your heart rate, which is to be expected. It even tracks your variable heart rate and how long it takes that heart rate to get back to normal. It’s pretty much your one-stop shop for knowing everything there is to know about the day-to-day functionality of that ticker of yours. Also, there is nothing stopping you from wearing this even during rest so you can get a bead on how your heart is functioning while at rest or while at work. This makes it a perfect piece of wearable technology not only for athletes but for patients suffering from heart palpitations and murmurs, and even doctors who have patients suffering from similar ailments. It’s almost like having your very own EKG machine in shirt form.
In addition to all of those benefits for heart tracking, the Hexoskin keeps an eye on a whole lot more. Your quality of breath is an important aspect of not only your fitness regiment, but your overall physical and mental well being as well(that’s why meditation is so popular.) This amazing shirt keeps track of both your breathing rate and the oft-overlooked breathing volume.
“Hexoskin is the only product that can give you data about your breathing volume during sports performance without wearing a mask.” says Jean-François Roy, Co-founder and CTO of Hexoskin.
Again, this is something that is great for those looking to get in better shape or those who just want to keep an eye on your breath for medical reasons. Also, keeping track of the quality of your breath is a great indicator of how blown away you are by a beautiful guy or gal on the street. It is summer after all.
What about stuff that is just for fitness? Well the Hexoskin is also a simple pedometer, keeping track of how many steps you take during a walk or during a run. It also keeps an eye on your cadence in case you are worried you aren’t making the most out of each and every step. The system also tracks the intensity of your workouts and how many calories you have burned, using an impressive 3-axis acceleration system that has never been seen in clothing before.
Finally, it even keeps an eye on your overall VO2 max. Figuring out your VO2 max, which is the maximum amount of oxygen your body takes in during exercise, is something you usually need to undergo an expensive battery of tests for. The Hexoskin does it just by wearing a humble t-shirt. You can kiss those bemused and bespectacled team of scientists goodbye once you try on this thing. Which is good because they are probably needed to keep tabs on the Incredible Hulk or something.
How does this wondrous thing even work? The magic here is thanks to the shirt itself, which comes packed in with an array of sensors that are sewed right into the shirt so there is no worry that you’ll jog a little harder than usual one day and have them slip out. The magic is also thanks to the shirt being paired with a performance optimization tool. This miniature computer tucks in to one of the shirt’s pockets and helps the garment do much of its heavy lifting. This tool can record and store over 390 hours of data, which gives you plenty of time to use Bluetooth to upload it to your iOS device.
Speaking of iOS devices, wearing the Hexoskin allows access to not just one, but a whole host of affiliated apps. These run the gamut from simple stopwatches to entire suites of fitness charting tools that let you know with a glance the entire history of your fitness regiment. The flexibility of this shirt, both literally and figuratively being as how its a shirt, and the associated apps is astounding. You can even download one that keeps track of many athletes at once, in case you are a coach or just obsessed with Friday Night Lights.
You’d think with all of this tech on-board, the Hexoskin would be as fragile as a hollandaise sauce. That, however, is not true.
“The device is located on the waist, not on the rib cage, which makes it safer for contact sports.” says Jean-François Roy.
The shirt also is water resistant and machine washable. So even if your body creates an inordinate amount of sweat during workouts, you’ll be fine with this thing on. As a matter of fact, it promises to keep you cool, given that the shirt keeps a keen eye on airflow and moisture levels.
The shirt, along with the performance optimization tool, comes in both male and female models. You can get the whole kit, which features everything you need to make the most out of your workout, for $745. The shirts by themselves cost $175. Click here and get to shopping. There is no time like the present for getting fit and healthy. Well, there’s always putting it off to the future but we’ve all done enough of that already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCK-vLB_9UY
