The Incredible Shrinking Woman Set Free

(an anti-rant a.k.a a product endorsement)

I'm a fan of The Boss...GymBOSS, that is...GymBOSS miniMAX specifically...

Last July*, I ranted on this blog about my two-month battle to calibrate the pedometer function on the iPod I had gotten for my sixtieth birthday. Short synopsis of that post: iPod - great music player, rotten exercise accessory. This year I asked for a GymBOSS miniMAX for my birthday. My experience with this nifty little item has been so rewarding I just can't keep it to myself...

I've spent some time the past year re-evaluating my exercise regime. Work and writing seem to be taking up more of my week, making sufficient time for exercise increasingly difficult. The somewhat time consuming higher mileage walking that has been my exercise of choice for years was starting to wear on me as well. My body had decided that certain parts really don't want to go the distance anymore. Said body did not, however, seem to object to shorter, more frequent and more intense activity. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and its trendy cousin, the Tabata workout, are all the rage right now as the way to go to maintain a high level of fitness with shorter workouts. Now, I don't pretend to do HIIT or Tabata in their pure form, but I believe there are many personalized variations possible, based on the idea that short spurts of intense activity, alternated with lower levels of activity, can make a time-wise, yet effective, daily workout.

I thought my ancient sport watch would do to time intervals as I walked or did step aerobics, but I was constantly looking at my watch and either over-shooting or under-shooting my time targets. Then my daughter told me about the GymBOSS she used on her runs to do interval training or in the house to do other interval workouts. I asked for one for my birthday. I opted for the slightly fancier model, the GymBOSS miniMAX, a pedometer-sized multi-interval timer. I could program multiple interval programs and adjust the beep to beep loud, soft, vibrate or any combination of the three for one to nine seconds. No more looking at my watch.

The morning I received my GymBOSS, I opened it up to find an instruction sheet similar to any found with a sport watch in the past twenty years – a tissue-thin page in five languages written in a miniscule font. Uh-uh... I braced myself for another months-long post-birthday present programing frustration. The GymBOSS looked like a pedometer, had low-tech buttons like a sports watch, and a multi-function scrollable screen, the kind that's ubiquitous in sports watch technology. I set to work. Within an hour, I had set the clock, figured out the stop watch, set some simple intervals and programmed and saved three – 3!!! - complex multiple interval workouts. Proud of myself, with the GymBOSS in my pocket, I headed out to the streets...

I had programmed a five minute warmup at the end of which I had set a sufficiently loud two second beep. I then ran for 30 seconds until the beep signaled the beginning of a lower intensity one minute brisk walk. These two intervals repeated ten times, ending with a five minute cool down. The little black and pink box worked perfectly! (I, less so...)

I've since used the GymBOSS a number of times, walk/running the other interval workouts I had set, as well as using it for short step interval workouts indoors. I like the way my mind is set free to wander and observe, not having to look at my watch or try to figure out how many intervals I have left – the beep tells me when to change pace, a quick look at the always visible screen lets me know how far along in the workout I am.

My experience with programming my iPod last year left me shrinking in recorded height in an attempt to get accurate mileage readings. My experience with programming my GymBOSS has only left me shrinking in weight as I increase the intensity of my workouts. Definitely a better shrinkage. I can even listen to the music on my iPod while I workout, setting the beep on my new favorite piece of old-school technology loud and long enough to be heard over the music. I can even hear the beep over the sound of Steve Jobs turning in his grave...

Life is short... running makes it seem longer." - Baron Hansen

*The Incredible Shrinking Woman Held Hostage, July 12, 2013