Tag: gear

IT’S CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS.

Just kidding, come back, I have things to show you! Pretty things! Please?

You’re still here, hurrah. Good, because below are a few things you might want to put on your list for Santa, or buy for yourself.

 College Custom Sports Clothing

Embrace your inner (or not so inner) narcissist with customised clothing. College Custom are a Brighton-based company that designs and creates custom made hoodies and sports-wear for schools, colleges, and universities; as well as sports teams and societies. Luckily, they’ll customise sportswear for bloggers too, as you can see from my fab bag. Nice, innit?

As well as looking great, as you can see, it’s made by Nike but what you can’t see because of the crappy lighting conditions what with it being November and that, is its functionality.

This is a large bag – ignore what it says on the College Custom website about it being 14cm long – it’s approximately 18″ x 9″ x 10″, which means you can fit a ton of stuff in it to take to the gym.

As well as the spacious main compartment, it’s got a zipped front pocket and in that zipped front pocket are two more zipped pockets, and a clippy thing for, um, clipping things onto. There’s also a zipped shoe pocket on the side into which you can put shoes and/or sweaty gym kit to stop your shopping getting minging if you nip into the supermarket on your way home.

I can’t fault College Custom’s service. After I chose my bag, they sent my logo off to their design team and then sent me back a pdf with a mock up of my bag with the logo in yellow, red, and white. I liked the yellow one but couldn’t quite decide between that and the white one. I showed the mock-up to Shaun and he said the yellow one was best.

But, because I’m indecisive I asked if I could be a pain in the arse and see another mock-up showing the bag in pink and purple, and they were happy to oblige. Then I still couldn’t decide and apologised once again for being a pain in the arse and asked if I could see it in orange and a new mock-up was sent to me without even a hint that I was being a pain in the arse (which I totally was).

And as you can see from the photo, I went for yellow. Yes, the first colour I looked at. Yes, the colour I liked first. Yes, the colour Shaun liked. Yes, the colour in which I got the bag that I’m very happy with. I’m sorry yellow for doubting you. Yes, I am a div.

If you’d like a bag – or other sports apparel – like mine (you don’t have to get JogBlog printed on it but if you want to give me free advertising, I’m not going to complain), visit the College Custom website to obtain a quote.

Epson Pulsense Heart Rate Monitor

There’s so many heart rate monitors around, aren’t there? And they all do the same sort of thing don’t they? They all measure heart rate, anyway.

The Epson Pulsense Heart Rate Monitor is, yes, yet another heart rate monitor but unlike other heart rate monitors I’ve owned in the past, I’ve actually been using this one.

The reason I’ve been using the Pulsense and not others I have is because it’s so easy to use. For a start it doesn’t have a chest strap or an armband; it has a sensor on the underside and you simply wear it as a watch.

 

As well as measuring your heart rate, the Pulsense also acts as a normal watch and it’s small and comfortable enough to wear all day, which is just as well as it counts your steps too. It looks so nice, one of the instructors at the gym stopped me and asked me about it.

You might be able to pair it bluetoothly with your phone. I couldn’t, as I’ve only got an iPhone 4 and no recent apps seem to support the iPhone 4 because it’s obviously so antiquated and should be consigned to history along with the Nokia 3210.

You can look at all the pretty graphs and stuff online though.

And you thought Epson only made printers, eh?

For more information on the Epson Pulsense Heart Rate Monitor, visit the Epson website.

Miiego AL3 Freedom Wireless Headphones

One thing my stoneage iPhone 4 can connect to is the Miiego AL3 Freedom Wireless Headphones. I don’t know how many times my headphone wires have been ripped from my ears when I’ve been on the rowing machine but it’s more than once. It’s probably more like fifty, and each time it’s a) bloody annoying; and b) embarrassing, because when it happens it makes me jump and everyone turns and stares at me (they don’t really).

So, wireless headphones are ‘yay’ for when I’m on the rowing machine. They’re also ‘yay’ for any other time you don’t want wires in the way when you’re listening to music. I wouldn’t advise wearing them on the train though, as there’s quite a bit of noise leakage and people who wear leaking headphones on the train need booting off the train at the next station, if not before.

The Miiego AL3 Freedom Wireless Headphones are easy to pair with your phone and easy to control using the buttons on the headphones themselves. They also come with a cute little carry case.

For more information on the Miiego wireless headphones, visit the Miiego website.

Chaffree Underwear

Chaffree Underwear is something you’ll probably want to buy for yourself, should you need it. That is, unless you don’t mind letting people know you’re a sweaty chub-rub sufferer.

Personally, I don’t suffer from chub-rub but I’m not going to pretend I don’t sweat when I go to the gym. If you’re not sweating at the gym, you’re either a) not putting enough effort in; or b) you’ve had all your sweat glands removed and if you fall under category b) you probably have some kind of medical condition that means you shouldn’t be in the gym in the first place.

Chaffree Underwear is seamless underwear that relieves chafing and sweating. These are Bridget Jones-esque big pants but, let’s face it, no one goes to the gym in sexy underwear, do they? Or do they? Wouldn’t that be taking a ‘hot’ date a bit far?

Chaffree underwear is available in women’s knickerboxers, women’s briefs (as pictured) and men’s boxers. For more information, visit the Chaffree website.

Cellulite Crusher Leggings

Now here’s a weird thing. Leggings with 1200-1600 little wooden beads sewn into them to massage your thighs, improve your circulation and eliminate cellulite, while you’re working out.

You can wear them while cycling, running, walking, yoga, pilates or just doing the housework and while any physical activity happens, the pressure of the beads increases as your muscles contract against them.

They’re heavier than usual leggings but you don’t notice the heaviness once they’re on and they’re comfy and fit well. I did briefly (okay, for quite a long time) wonder if I looked stupid and if people would stare at me but I decided to be brave and wore them to the gym. No one stared at them or even gave them a second glance, so yay. They were slightly uncomfortable at first as I used the rowing machine but I soon stopped noticing them and I didn’t notice them at all in the spin class. In fact, I forgot I was wearing 1200 little wooden beads until I took the Cellulite Crushers off and saw my legs covered in little round indentations.

The washing instructions say to handwash only, but I’m not handwashing anything – let alone sweating gym kit – so I put them in the washing machine and they seem to have survived.

For more information, visit the Cellulite Crusher website.

I’ll be giving away a pair of Cellulite Crushers soon (and also a pair of (unworn, don’t panic) Chaffree knickers), so keep a look out for more news on that.

Thanks go to all the above companies for sending me their products to review. All opinions my own and honest, blah blah blah.