Researchers at Stanford University have finished a study on the benefits of pedometer walking. When you watch the video, can you identify the pedometer they show?

Done watching?  That’s right, it’s the Omron HJ 720-itc Walking Style, my favorite pedometer.

Here’s a video from Bob Greene on pedometer walking. It’s short and too the point. I figured though that the fact that he is endorsing pedometers is a good thing.

This video gives some good basic information on wearing a pedometer for walking. The coolest part is when they open up a pedometer. If you’ve ever wondered what’s inside a pedometer, but didn’t want to risk breaking yours, be sure to check out this video.

New Mexico State University produced this video on pedometers. It has a campy 1950s style to it reminiscent of an old educational film. Despite this, it still has a lot of great information on how to use a pedometer and walking.

This is a video from the Southern Nevada Health District. It goes over the use of pedometers to help you increase the amount you walk.

Here’s a video on the pedometer walking that a group of police officers in Wales do every day.  When I saw that one of the officers walks 12 miles a day, I felt put to shame.  If your stride length was 2.5 feet, you’d be walking about 25,000 steps a day.  Now that’s a goal to shoot for!

Here’s a quick video that shows you a method to calculate the distance of your pedometer steps. This is useful if you have a pedometer that only counts steps and doesn’t count distance. It’s also helpful if you have a pedometer that calculates distance, because if you don’t accurately input your stride length at the beginning, you won’t get an accurate measurement.

Last post, I mentioned a new idea for pedometers, tracking how close to your daily 10,000 steps (or whatever your step goal is) you are.  There is a Sportline pedometer that does this.  I’ve only seen it at one of my local big box retail stores and I can’t seem to find any info about it online.

Sportline calls the system “Goal Track”.  What you do is enter your step goal for the day and then it continuously calculates what percentage of your goal you’ve walked.  For example, if your goal was 10,000 steps,  2,500 steps would be 25%, 5,000 steps would be 50%, etc.

The funny thing is, I’ve gathered all of this information from the package itself.  The Sportline website makes no mention of it and web searches have turned up nothing either.  Another thing that’s funny, is that only one of the big retailers carries pedometers with this feature.  The other retailer has the same old Sportline pedometers I’ve seen for years.

Still, I think it’s a great idea.  Omron should take notice and incorporate this feature into it’s pedometers.  This raises the question, would I switch?  I can quickly answer that by saying no.  I didn’t even buy the Sportline pedometers to test, because they use pendulum switches.  I’m more than happy with my Omron HJ720 itc and it’s accelerometer and USB connection.

I meant to go by the store to look at those Sportline pedometers that tell you what percentage of your goal you’ved reached.  I didn’t though…  After work, it slipped my mind.  I’m going to write myself a note though to go tomorrow.

I wonder if they are still using the pendulums in their pedometers.  I still remember the click of the pendulum each time I took a step.  That was how I knew it was working   When I first got an HJ-112 and then an HJ-720itc pedometer, I would take them out of my pocket to see if they were working, because they are completely silent.

As regular readers know, I am an Omron pedometer kind of person.  I really think they are on the cutting edge of pedometer design and as you know, my daily pedometer is an Omron.

I just heard about a cool feature that a Sportline pedometer has that is giving me some pause though.  Apparently, there is a new Sportline that tells you the percentage of steps towards your goal.  For example, say your goal is 10,000 steps, and you’ve walked 5,000, then you’d be at 50% of your goal.

I think this is great.  We all know that we have a goal in our mind that we want to reach, but if my goal os 7,500 steps and I’ve walked 4,712 steps, what percentage is that?  Do I need to “step” it up, or am I pretty sure I’m going to make my goal?  (Pardon the pun.)  If however, my pedometer is telling me I’ve walked 41% of my goal, I can correlate that with the time of day and decided whether I need to increase my activity level or not.  If I’m at 41% at 10:00 in the morning, then no big deal, but if I’m at 41% at 7:00 pm, then I’m in danger of not meeting my goal.

I’ll try to see if I can find one of these pedometers and keep you posted.