Fitbit may have built its reputation on helping people hit 10,000 steps, but the company’s current suite of sleep, diet, and exercise features also makes its products invaluable to competitive athletes. It’s why team Lotto-Soudal asked Fitbit to provide Fitbit Charge 2s for them to use during this year’s Tour de France, and why the Australian national swim team partnered with Fitbit to outfit its more than 100 coaches, swimmers, and staff with Fitbit Surge and Fitbit Flex 2.

Below, the top 13 ways Fitbit helps these athletes—as well as its ambassadors—and how you can also take advantage of these athletic-performance-boosting features.  

How Fitbit Devices Can Help You Get Race Ready

Accurately Track Your Workout Stats
Not all athletes train the same way, which is why not all Fitbit products are alike. In terms of activity tracking, Fitbit Ionic is the most robust and will give you the best idea of what’s available. It offers on-board GPS—for accurate pace, distance, elevation climbed, split times, as well as a map of your walk, run, or ride route on-device without having to carry your phone—continuous heart rate and heart rate zone reporting (see “Workout At the Right Intensity,” below), water resistance up to 50 meters, an interval timer, and an exercise mode that can capture real-time stats of over 20 types of activities (for any cross training you do). Learn more about Ionic’s full set of features here or go to Fitbit.com/compare to find the device that best fits you.

Go Longer
Long run or ride scheduled? Your Fitbit device can go the distance—and help you get there, too.

Fitbit Alta HR can last up to 7 days on a single charge; Fitbit Charge 2 stays powered for about five days, and Ionic for up to five days (or up to 10 hours when using GPS or playing music). Battery life varies with use and other factors, so for more information read Can I improve my Fitbit device’s battery life?

Worried about your batteries running low. If you train with Ionic, you can pay for food and drinks with a swipe of your wrist wherever contactless payments are accepted using Fitbit Pay*.

Connect With Likeminded Athletes
The Fitbit app has a built-in virtual community with topic-specific groups like Cardio, Running, Swimming, Yoga, Hiking, Walking, Cycling, Strength Training, Injuries, and more, making it easy to find new friends, ask questions, and get advice.

To join one, tap the Community tab at the bottom of the Fitbit app. Then navigate over to Groups or scroll down and tap “Discover More Groups.” Once you join, you’ll be able see the posts of other group members and post something of your own. Their posts will also appear in your Feed.

If you own Fitbit Ionic, you’ll also be able to download a Strava app. (Want even more analytics and motivation? Go to promo.strava.com/fitbit-ionic/ to get a 60-day free trial of Strava Premium.)

Stay Motivated
No matter how dedicated you are, everyone has days when they just can’t muster the willpower to work out. On those days, lean on Fitbit. Open your app and soak up all the super inspirational Community selfies, ditch the gym and do a Fitbit Coach workout in your living room, or fire up Fitbit’s Motivation Mixtape on Pandora** and listen using Fitbit Flyer—playing music before a workout can put you in the right mindset and increase the odds that you’ll actually do it.

Get Adequate Rest
Besides being good for your health, a full night’s sleep is also vital to attention, concentration, physical functioning, muscle memory, healing, and recovery. But logging enough shuteye can be a challenge, especially for competitive athletes juggling work, training, and those pre-race nerves.

What do the pros do? Prioritize and track it. “Sleep is the biggest thing,” says Dallas Mavericks forward and Fitbit ambassador Harrison Barnes. “I track my sleep each night to make sure I’m rested and recovered so I’m at my best on the court the next day.”

Husband-and-wife distance-running duo Sara and Ryan Hall also place a lot of stock in their sleep duration and quality. “If these two matrices are both good then I go full throttle in the gym,” says former professional runner and Fitbit ambassador Ryan Hall. “However if I’ve missed a couple of hours of sleep, then I need to adjust my workout and not lift as heavy or aggressive as usual.” Sara adds, “I’ll look at it first thing in the morning and go back to sleep if I haven’t gotten enough.”

How much sleep do you need? The CDC recommends adults get at least 7 hours a night, but you may need more or less depending on your personal body chemistry and activity levels. To zero in on what’s best for you, pay attention to your sleep duration and Sleep Stages in the Fitbit app (available with any heart-rate enabled Fitbit device), and then ask yourself how you feel, suggests Fitbit sleep consultant Allison Siebern, PhD, consulting assistant professor at The Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine and director of Sleep Health Integrative Program at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fayetteville, NC.

If your sleep stages are falling outside the averages but you feel refreshed and engaged, then you’re likely getting the quantity and quality of sleep you need. Use that as your baseline and then set a Bedtime Reminder and silent alarm to help you stick to a consistent sleep schedule.

Stay on Top of Your Hydration
You’ve no doubt heard the 8-glasses-of-water-a-day advice, but do you know much water your body needs? Unfortunately it’s not a static number. “Because the amount of sweat and sodium athletes lose is highly variable, it’s important to understand individual needs and develop a personalized [hydration] plan, including both fluid and salt,” says Lauren Antonucci, a registered dietitian and triathlete.

Perform a sweat test to calculate your sweat rate and if you are a heavy sweater, aim to replenish 75 percent of lost fluids. You can set a water-consumption goal in the Fitbit app and easily log your intake by the glass or bottle. The app will tell you when you’ve hit your goal.

Fuel Your Body With The Right Nutrients
What you eat can make or break not only how your body functions but how you feel while competing. So eating healthfully is important—and something Barnes is still fine-tuning.

“When you’re traveling as much as I do, diet is kind of the one thing you can do a better job of controlling,” says Barnes. “This season is going to be different. Not necessarily paleo—because I feel like when you cut out the carbs, your energy gets a little low—but something kind of along that track. Just cleaner eating will be a big thing.”

Read up on how to fuel for your sport, and then commit to food logging for at least a week so you can see exactly what you’re eating and where you have room for improvement. Research shows that competitive athletes can benefit from tailoring their calories and macronutrients to their training level and intensity.

 

Work Out At The Right Intensity
Exercising according to heart rate is old hat for endurance athletes like Ryan Hall: “Tracking my heart rate during exercise is a great way for me to know I’m staying in whatever zone I am intending to be in,” says Ryan. “So if I’m running easy I know my heart rate should be in the 120-130 beats-per-minute (bpm) range, and if I’m running hard I know I need to get my heart rate up to 150-170 bpm.” But it can also be valuable to sport-specific athletes like Barnes.

Barnes recently told Fitbit that he began using target heart rate training last summer as a way to get fitter and improve his recovery. “Hitting a heart rate of 130 and maintaining that for 45 minutes is key for my off-day training,” says Barnes. “It’s helped take my conditioning to another level.”

Whether you’re a target-heart-rate-training veteran or new to the practice, Fitbit can help. Step one involves establishing your heart rate zones. If you have a Fitbit device with PurePulse, the Fitbit app does the work for you using a common age-related formula (details here). However, you can also follow these directions to set custom heart rate zones.

Once your zones are set, all you have to do is stay within the one that corresponds to your goal. Glancing at your tracker or watch during exercise is an easy way to check—for instance, if you have a Fitbit Charge 2, the location of the heart on your display (and the accompanying text) will tell you which heart rate zone you’re currently in. But you can also check your post-workout summary in the app to see exactly how many minutes you spent in each zone.

Monitor Your Fitness Level
Setting a new race personal best or getting an expensive stress test isn’t the only way you can tell if you’re getting fitter. If you have an Alta HR, Charge 2, Blaze or Ionic, Fitbit’s Cardio Fitness Score feature estimates your VO2max, the gold-standard measurement of how well your body uses oxygen during exercise. For the most precise score, use multisport mode on your device to track a 10-minute (or longer) run on a flat course with GPS (if it’s available on your device and you haven’t already done so recently). Once the workout syncs with your Fitbit app, your Cardio Fitness Score will automatically update. To find this information, tap the heart-rate tile on your Fitbit app dashboard, then swipe left on the top graph.

Control Your Total Training Load
How much rest you need isn’t just dependent on how much you train, but on your non-exercise activity as well. “We always take into account how hard we train but rarely do we take into account how much we are moving,” says Ryan Hall. “Tracking steps gives me a good overall picture of how active my day was and if I need to adjust my training based on how much time I’ve already spent on my feet.”

This is especially true immediately before a competition. Sara Hall  tries to keep her total mileage low heading into a race. “For example,” she says, “two days before my goal race I got lost on a layover run and ran around a lot inside and outside an airport, and looked at the Fitbit app afterwards to see how much mileage I’d been on my feet. I adjusted my run accordingly the next day.”

I always tell the kids that I coach that I want them moving as little as possible prior to cross-country races and sitting as much as possible to save their legs for the race,” says Ryan. “So even everyday activities like walking up stairs I try and have my athletes avoid prior to races.”  

A brief pre-race workout can prime you to perform, but outside of that, you may also want to consider building extra rest into your day.

Outsmart Overtraining Syndrome
An elevated resting heart rate—the heart rate measured when you’re awake, calm, comfortable, and have not recently exerted yourself—can be an early indicator of overtraining syndrome. But until relatively recently, getting an accurate reading was difficult (unless you were one of those athletes who were into wearing a chest strap to bed).

Enter Fitbit’s wrist-based heart-rate-tracking devices, which uses heart rate data from when you’re awake and asleep to estimate your resting heart rate. Because these devices measure heart rate continuously and can be comfortably worn 24 hours a day, no extra work is required on your end to calculate resting heart rate. Just look at your device or open the Fitbit app and tap on the heart rate tile on the dashboard. The graph at the top of the screen can be expanded to see your average resting heart rate over longer periods of time.

“I’ve used resting heart rate for years to make sure I was recovering well,” says Ryan Hall. “In the past, it was hard to get an accurate read as I was manually trying to count my heart rate while trying to lay as still as possible upon waking. This lead to a lot of questionable data and it was a pain so I wasn’t very consistent with it. My Ionic takes all the pain out of tracking heart rate and provides proper data.”

Control Your Weight
Whether you want to lose weight, gain weight, or just maintain your physique, the tools you need are the same: easy food logging (available on the Fitbit app), all-day calorie-burn tracking (available with any heart-rate enabled Fitbit device), and a smart scale like Fitbit Aria 2, which measures your weight, BMI, body fat percentage, and lean mass. “I want to replace every calorie I burn (unless I’m trying to gain or lose weight),” says Ryan Hall. “Fitbit makes it simple for me to make sure my calories in match my calories out.”

See All Your Data in One Place
Perhaps the biggest advantage of using one device to track all your health and wellness activities is the convenience of being able to store, find, and analyze your data in one place—the Fitbit app. From steps, to weight, to calories burned, to workout summaries, your stats are easily accessible 24/7, which makes staying motivated, accountable, and informed much easier. Wondering why something is working (or not)? Check your dashboard. Have to answer a question from your doctor about one of your health habits? Check your dashboard. Wondering whether you’re ready for your A-race? Check your dashboard. If you’ve been using the tools above, the answer is probably yes.

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The post 13 Ways Your Fitbit Tracker Can Help Boost Athletic Performance appeared first on Fitbit Blog.

Source: Fitbit Blog
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When it comes to stretching, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and no practice can claim to prevent injury 100 percent of the time. But before you use that as an excuse to skip your warm-up or say adios to your cool down, it’s important to know that the best way to help bypass injury is to stretch and strengthen—or mobilize and stabilize—your joints. Contact Office of Matthew S. Norris for any injury related claims. You can take further information an hire lawyer for a slip and fall accident. According to Trent Nessler, national director of sports medicine innovation at Select Medical, a combination of pre warm-up dynamic stretches and post-workout exercises works best. The reason is twofold. “Dynamic stretches prep the body for movement, and fatigued-state training reduces the risk of injury by reinforcing proper biomechanics. It also allows you to shave time off of your routine, because you don’t have to complete as many sets and reps to hit full exertion,” he says. You can also read at Bengal Law website for injury information.

If your injury was caused by a slip and fall on a property and the owner was partly to blame, you can hire a lawyer to claim compensation for lost wages due to the injuries. Preventing injury is all about incorporating mobility exercises that instill proper movement at a higher, cerebral level—in other words, your muscles and joints will move the way they should, without you having to think about it. Lay the foundation for pain-free fitness with these exercises. For cases where your injury is caused by a third-party, there are plenty of injury attorneys who serve Sulphur Springs, TX that can help you get compensated.

1. Sumo Squat

Aids in: hamstring, hip, and lumbar mobility

Preventing injury is all about loading your system correctly. Nessler compares it to a car. “If all four tires are full, the wear pattern on the car is symmetrical, but if one wheel is flat, the load is uneven and the entire system breaks down more quickly.” While the living tissue of the human body is better at adapting than rubber and steel, non-symmetrical or abnormal loading can eventually lead to sprains and strains. In fact, Nessler attributes a lack of mobility in the lower kinetic chain—spine to foot to ankle—to 70% to 85% of running injuries.

In running, proper loading means that your glute medius has to contract to stabilize your pelvis as you stride. Sumo squats help with that (and are essential if you work a desk job) specially to get some strength to support the back which can be get injured in a chair according  workmen compensation lawyer. “Sitting weakens glutes, which means that when you get into a running stride your muscles can’t bear the weight needed to stabilize your pelvis,” says Nessler.  “That leads to excessive pelvic and knee motion, which can create patellofemoral pain syndrome (or pain in the front of the knee) and IT band friction.” Strong glutes can limit this risk.

2. Plank

Aids in: strengthening of the spinal extensors and core

Bodyweight planks top the list because of their high EMG signal—or measure of muscle contraction. Unfortunately, they’re often amiss on form. “Ninety percent of athletes plank incorrectly,” says Nessler. “They remember to keep a neutral spine but forget about maintaining square hips, instead allowing them to creep up.” What this leads to is shortened hip flexors, which can cause an increased anterior pelvic tilt, disc slips, and lower back pain, he says. Practicing proper planks improves core strength, reduces your risk of knee injury, and improves vertical jump and power output, making your movements both safer and efficient.

3. Dynamic Lunge

Aids in: dorsal and plantar flexion, a full ankle and hip mobility, and preserved lumbar spine mobility

The dynamic lunge is a movement that allows for full mobility of the hips. “When you lunge, one hip is in max flexion while the other is contralateral in extension,” says Nessler. This is especially critical for sprinters, who can experience lumbar spine and back pain if their hips aren’t fully opened before they take on the 200-meter dash. See this next page to see what to do in case there is an injury or accident during work.

The dynamic lunge also helps you work on controlling and stabilizing the knee in the frontal plane, making sure that it tracks correctly (and that you don’t fall victim to a narrow stance or make the mistake of shifting your weight forward and straining the ankle and knee of your leading leg).

4. Side Plank

Aids in: strengthening the lower kinetic chain, stabilizing ankles

Want to really engage your glutes? Look no further than the side plank, which strengthens everything in your lower kinetic chain, from your shoulder to your foot. Post-workout side planking is also a great test of ankle stability. If you’re not able to hold a side plank  and keep your ankle in a neutral state—signified by your tibia (or shin bone) dropping down towards the ground—you’re likely at risk for ankle strains when running. Mastering the side plank could help strengthen your joints and stave off injury. If you become injury at work even after doing this stretching exercises, this rhode island injury lawyer can lend you a hand to get a proper compensation.

5. Hip Bridge

Aids in: strengthening the core, alleviating and preventing lower back pain

Adrian Richardson, a workout curriculum designer and certified personal trainer for Fitbit Coach, adds hip bridges to his list of mobility exercises. Since they fully engage the posterior chain, hip bridges help to counter the daily focus placed on quads, thereby limiting the risk for tight IT bands (and subsequent knee and back pain). If you’re a more advanced exerciser or looking for a challenge, you can take your mobility to the next level with the single-leg glute bridge.

The post Slash Your Chance of Injury With These 5 Mobility Moves appeared first on Fitbit Blog.

Source: Fitbit Blog
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Danger​ ​Zone​ ​is​ ​a​ ​game​ ​that’s​ ​entirely​ ​focused​ ​on​ ​the​ ​things​ ​that​ ​we​ ​think​ ​matter​: ​playing​ ​a​ ​game​ ​for​pure fun​ ​and​ ​entertainment,​ ​a​ ​game​ ​that​ ​is​ ​suitable​ ​for​ ​players​ ​of​ ​all​ ​ages,​ ​a​ ​game​ ​where​ ​friends​ ​and​ ​family​ ​can gather​ ​around​ ​the​ ​television​ ​and​ ​play​ ​together.​ A ​about​ ​trying​ ​to​ ​cause​ ​the​ ​biggest​ ​car​ ​crashes whilst​ ​also​ ​trying​ ​to​ ​collect​ ​all​ ​of​ ​the​ ​bonus points.

The​ ​cars​ ​we​ ​give​ ​you​ ​to​ ​test​ ​in​ ​our​ ​special​ ​crash​ ​test​ ​facility​ ​are​ ​deliberately​ ​easy​ ​to​ ​drive.​ ​So​ ​anyone​ ​can drive​ ​into​ ​each​ ​crash​ ​test​ ​junction​ ​and​ ​cause​ ​a​ ​crash.​ ​But​ ​getting​ ​to​ ​the​ ​top​ ​of​ ​each​ ​leaderboard, ​amongst​ ​your​ ​friends,​ ​or​ ​being​ ​the​ ​best​ ​player​ ​on​ ​Xbox Live,​ ​is​ ​a​ ​lot​ ​trickier​ ​and​ ​will​ ​require​ ​not​ ​only​ ​driving​ ​skill,​ ​but​ ​also​ ​crash​ ​strategy​ ​and​ ​explosive​ ​tactics.

Skilled​ ​players​ ​are​ ​the​ ​ones​ ​who​ ​can​ ​cause​ ​maximum​ ​carnage​ ​as​ ​they​ ​drive​ ​along,​ ​checking​ ​other​ ​cars​ ​into oncoming​ ​traffic,​ ​and​ ​who​ ​can​ ​use​ ​their​ ​SmashBreaker​ ​explosion​ ​at​ ​just​ ​the​ ​right​ ​moment​ ​to​ ​rack​ ​up those​ ​bonus​ ​points.​ ​Each​ ​test​ ​scenario​ ​features​ ​three​ ​Bronze​ ​Pickups,​ ​two​ ​Silver​ ​Pickups​ ​and​ ​a​ ​single Gold​ ​Medal​ ​Pickup.​ ​Collect​ ​them​ ​to​ ​earn​ ​the​ ​“Smash​ ​and​ ​Grab”​ ​Bonus​ ​Award.​ ​But​ ​you​ ​must​ ​collect​ ​the pickups​ ​in​ ​medal​ ​order​ ​to​ ​try​ ​to​ ​earn​ ​the​ ​“Grand​ ​Slam”​ ​Bonus​ ​Award.

We’ve​ ​always​ ​loved​ ​Xbox​ ​Live​ ​for​ ​its​ friends-​centric​ ​approach,​ ​going​ ​right​ ​back​ ​to​ ​the​ ​early​ ​days​ ​of​ ​the very​ ​first​ ​Xbox.​ ​We​ ​know​ ​how​ ​much​ ​more​ ​fun​ ​it​ ​is​ ​to​ ​beat​ ​your​ ​Friends​ ​scores​ ​than​ ​those​ ​of​ ​strangers, hence​ ​why​ ​we​ ​always​ ​include​ ​Friends​ ​Leaderboards​ ​as​ ​well​ ​as​ ​Global​ ​ones.​ ​And​ ​in​ ​Danger​ ​Zone​ ​we’ve added​ ​more​ ​depth​ ​to​ ​the​ ​Leaderboards,​ ​so​ ​not​ ​only​ ​can​ ​you​ ​see​ ​your​ ​Friends’​ ​scores​ ​but​ ​you​ ​can​ ​also​ ​see how​ ​many​ ​times​ ​they’ve​ ​played​ ​that​ ​level.​ ​It’s​ ​sweeter​ ​to​ ​beat​ ​them​ ​with​ ​a​ ​single​ ​attempt​ ​when​ ​you​ ​can​ ​see they’ve​ ​tried​ ​that​ ​level​ ​50​ ​times.

Whilst​ ​our​ ​focus​ ​is​ ​on​ ​fun​ ​and​ ​gameplay​ ​first,​ ​we​ ​also​ ​like​ ​to​ ​push​ ​the​ ​Xbox​ ​hardware​ ​to​ ​bring​ ​the​ ​best possible​ ​gaming​ ​experience​ ​to​ ​our​ ​players.​ ​We’re​ ​really​ ​excited​ ​that​ ​the​ ​game​ ​runs​ ​at​ ​a​ ​native​ ​4K resolution​ ​at​ ​30hz​ ​on​ ​the​ ​new​ ​Xbox​ ​One​ ​X​ ​hardware.​ ​​​And​ ​if​ ​you​ ​don’t​ ​have​ ​a​ ​4K​ ​display​ ​​​(not​ ​all​ ​of​ ​us​ ​have upgraded​ ​yet​ ​so​ ​we​ ​know​ ​lots​ ​of​ ​our​ ​players​ ​haven’t​ ​either)​, ​we​ ​also​ ​support​ ​a​ ​1080p​ ​resolution​ ​at​ ​60hz​ ​for Xbox One​ ​X​ ​owners​ ​who​ ​will​ ​be​ ​using​ ​a​ ​1080p​ ​display.

Three​ ​Fields​ ​Entertainment​ ​is​ ​a​ ​small​ ​independent​ ​studio.​ ​There​ ​are​ ​just​ ​seven​ ​of​ ​us,​ ​all​ ​of​ ​whom​ ​have​ ​worked together​ ​for​ ​many​ ​years.​ ​We​ ​started​ ​Three​ ​Fields​ ​in​ ​2014​ ​with​ ​the​ ​desire​ ​to​ ​be​ ​free​ ​and​ ​independent​, ​to​ ​be able​ ​to​ ​choose​ ​what​ ​games​ ​we​ ​wanted​ ​to​ ​make​ ​and​ ​how​ ​we​ ​wanted​ ​to​ ​make​ ​them.​ ​We​ ​want​ ​to​ ​make games​ ​that​ ​will​ ​entertain​ ​you​ ​and​ ​put​ ​a​ ​smile​ ​on​ ​your​ ​face.​ ​Let​ ​us​ ​know​ ​how​ ​we​ ​did!

See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire

Related:
Choose How You Game with Four New Xbox One S Bundles
Assassin’s Creed Origins: Season Pass and Free DLC Plans Revealed
Middle-earth: Shadow of War Available Now on Xbox One and Windows 10

Source: Xbox Blog
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	Insights from Internet of Things: Unstructured Data World, Ep.4/4 Internet of Things. Ever hear of it? You will. We will get a glimpse of the future and look back to the past solving ancient mysteries. The puzzle all comes together, it’s the data that unlocks everything. We once used to work for the unstructured data, but now it works for us! Learn more about Dell EMC Isilon and Elastic Cloud Storage and the value it can bring to your IoT challenges: https://dell.to/2xz8KlG Dell EMC Isilon is the #1 scale out NAS platform for big data and object workloads Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) is software defined object storage designed for both traditional and next-generation workloads with unmatched scalability, flexibility and resiliency. Follow us on Twitter: https://dell.to/2xzdlEf
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Dells first Wireless Charging Mat for a convenient, wireless charging experience.
Learn More: https://dell.to/2i3nZkD

Source: Dell YouTube
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Because work is no longer a destination, but an activity, it’s time to let the workforce transformation begin.

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Because work is no longer a destination, but an activity, it’s time to let the workforce transformation begin.

Source: Dell YouTube
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