Ep 118 – Fitness technology: The most exciting products of CES for your wellbeing.

Part two of our CES special from Las Vegas sees Matthew Januszek speaking to some of the most innovative and exciting exhibitors that are leading change in the fitness tech space.

The entrepreneurs in this episode explain all about the pioneering technology that's helping with measuring fat, monitoring bodily metrics, embracing sexual wellbeing, improving mindfulness, embracing mindfulness and bringing effective strength training to your home.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

Crowdfunded through Indeigogo, Bello is a device for measuring belly fat to find out what's inside our bodies using light variations. The scanner sends data to an app displaying your fat percentage and the amount of subcutaneous fat compared with visceral fat. From this data, the app will also give you recommendations on what kind of exercise to undertake and what kind of foods to eat.

The HEALBE GoBe2 smart band is the first consumer tech product to track calorie intake without any manual log in, using impedance sensors to monitor diet at a cellular level. It uses four sensors measuring calorie intake and hydration, heart rate, emotional tension and stress level, and movement or activity. Algorithms collate everything into useful information for the user and big data for the company

Ti Chang, co-founder of Crave, is an industrial designer currently working on sex toys and products for women for pleasure; it's the company's first year at CES following relaxed event legislation coming into effect. Her products not only have a practical application, but convey an element of luxury and act as conversation pieces that are vital to removing stigma, getting people talking about what had previously been seen as taboo.

You'd never think that killing jellyfish could help improve your sleep, but Guirec Le Lous, founder of Urgonight, says this is the key to concentrating the mind through tech. His headset and app encourages daytime brain training with a feedback device to help you gain better sleep at night through neuro feedback. Find your way to a meditative state that brings better sleep – everyone has a different approach and technique to training their brain.

Core is a mental wellness and a fitness-inspired approach to breath training and meditation. CEO, Sarah McDevitt, embraces bio feedback and trackable stats from a physical product and app combination that syncs audio, vibration and instruction to improve concentration and mindfulness.

Billed as "The world's most intelligent gym and personal trainer," Tonal is revolutionising the way people work out, combining electricity and magnets to bring all the benefits of serious strength training into the home. Ashley Hennings, director of PR, talks to Matthew about how AI is bringing personalised pacing and weights to workouts, taking the guesswork and intimidation out of lifting. Tonal monitors multiple metrics as its algorithm learns your specific progression journey.

Episode highlights -

• Why most smart scales use bio impedance analysis (BIA) technology and how your levels of hydration will greatly change your results, rather than using light to identify fat stores.
• How being able to track abdominal fat in particular can better combat chronic diseases and inflammation, and why this type of fat is a better indicator of health and wellbeing than fat anywhere else on the body.
• How your diet and macros change your blood, and how tech can detect this sending over 100 signals per second to register differences in blood sugar and glucose with up to 90% accuracy.
• What effect smart technology's integration with bigger partners such as Apple Health and Google Fit will have on your own analysis and understanding of your body and exercise habits.
• How to promote products in an incredibly stigmatised market without falling foul of the expected stereotypes.
• The journey that CES has been on as a consumer exhibition and why this is the first year that elements of sex tech for women have been allowed on the show floor.
• Why shame and stigma have no place in the world of pleasure. Conversely, why pleasure is not a luxury. It should be a human necessity like eating and sleeping.
• How to use meditation for recovery. We're living in a state of elevated sympathetic nervous system. Creating an environment of parasympathetic nervous system through tech can lead to improved tissue repair, digestion and other 'rest and digest' states of wellbeing.
• Why we all need to realise how connected mental and physical wellness are, and how you can improve memory, decision-making, empathy and self-awareness for big business leader benefits.
• Why meditation is a very simple concept that's still incredibly challenging.
• How mental wellness is a journey for everyone, and not just about struggles and illnesses.
• How AI and machine learning can have a long-term benefit of influencing 'real' studies, and why this will change the game of how we source information about ways that people really work out.
• Why it's not the tech itself that is forging progress with this new emerging market, but the software that has allowed entrepreneurs and disruptors to implement new algorithms and approaches to working out with the hardware such as magnetic resistance.

Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with these technology experts from CES 2020…