Working out at home is far different than working out at the gym – so why is home gym equipment so similar to the gear you’d find at the gym? The designers at Lunar Europe adopted the challenge of creating a home workout experience that felt more tailored to the home environment.

The result is Tera: an interactive concept that combines home decorating with home fitness. The circular wool rug looks ordinary enough when it isn’t in use, but when you turn on the specially-developed app it becomes a high-tech exercise mat.

After you select a training discipline (like yoga, pilates, or Zumba), the LEDs on Tera’s surface help guide your movements. The pressure sensitive surface can detect with a high level of accuracy how you are moving your body, and the app gives you feedback on your workout.

The app records and analyzes your workouts, and when you’re done you can share the information with a personal trainer via social media. Tera is a concept and not a real product at the moment, but the innovative fitness tool has already won several design awards.

The post Hi-Tech Yoga: Wool Rug Becomes Interactive Exercise Mat first appeared on Gajitz.

A solution to so many problems in a single design, this clever stationary bicycle does your laundry while you do your workout, a winning idea all around.

For starters, there is the necessity of getting the laundry done, which means you must keep to a regular exercise schedule.

And then there is the energy-free aspect, saving you money on electricity, helping the environment and making it easy to relocate this bike anywhere you want (include a porch or backyard).

Finally, the whole setup is space-saving by its very nature – both exercise bikes and washing machines often take up a lot of space for something infrequently used and serving only one function. For now it is just a concept, but one can only hope that designer Li Huan will seek funding to make this ingenious vision a working reality.

The post Power Wash: Exercise Bike-Driven Clothes Washing Machine first appeared on Gajitz.

We’ve all had days when we feel like punching our computers, but until now no one has done anything to make that compulsion useful. Fashion and design studio Bless created the N°41 Workout Computer as part of their larger Retroperspective Home project.

The computer consists of a monitor and a range of punching bags that function as the keyboard. Typing becomes a full-body sport as you kick, punch, and step to form every word.

The designers considered it an outdated concept that we have separate periods of the day for work and play. They wanted to experiment with the idea that work and fitness can be combined.

By combining the functions of work and play, the Workout Computer can keep the brain stimulated and the body strong. If we had to hunt and peck for every letter and then throw a punch to enter it, the emails we send would be a whole lot more succinct.

The post Workout Keyboard: Exercises the Body, Writes Punchy Lines first appeared on Gajitz.

Getting a cat to exercise (or anything else you want them to do) is like, well, herding cats. But indoor cats that aren’t stimulated enough can get bored and become destructive, which can lead to some pretty unpleasant times when you come home from work.

One Fast Cat is an exercise wheel for kitties that helps keep them active and physically fit; it’s basically a giant hamster wheel for felines. Once you teach your cat to use it – which, according to the company behind it, takes no time at all – Whiskers can keep herself entertained all day by indulging her primal urge to run and play.

The device snaps together quickly with no tools needed, and it sits on a lightweight stand that can be moved easily to other places in your home. The inside of the wheel is made from a closed cell EVA foam that prevents claws from getting stuck and allows them to run naturally – claws out – to keep their even footing.

The wheel is made of recycled plastics and comes in four bright colors. When it needs to be cleaned all you need is a hose or a damp cloth to rinse it off. The product sought to raise $10,000 on Kickstarter to start production and ended up raising more than $340,000, so cat people are definitely taking notice. Pre-orders are available at $249, which is extremely affordable when you compare it to the cost of replacing the sofa your bored cat decided to rip up while you were gone.

The post Catercise: Giant Hamster Wheel Keeps Kitties in Top Shape first appeared on Gajitz.

Fitness apps are great motivators – for some people. For others, seeing the number of miles they’ve run during the week is no motivation to actually get up and run some more. Run An Empire from PAN Studio is a new idea that its creators insist is not a fitness app. Rather, it is an “alternate reality” game that uses the actual layout of your neighborhood to motivate you nerd-style: with the promise of winning a game.

Run An Empire is a strategy game wherein you “claim” your territory by walking or running – and then defend it from others who would dare to invade. The map on your smartphone screen is actually a map of your real neighborhood. The app shoes your territory on a map; the more times you run or walk that route, the more you fortify your defenses against invaders.

When other players venture into your territory, they may claim some of it, but you can win it back by being more active. Your phone’s accelerometer measures your pace and keeps track of your route. Each time you get out and “defend” your territory from others, the stronger your defenses become and the harder other players have to work in order to grab any of it.

The creators of Run An Empire have struck upon a very novel idea. Not only because this alternate reality game is so unusual and interesting, but because, as they say, an active 80 year old can win against a lazy 20-something. And cheating won’t get you ahead of your friends and neighbors – the app can detect when you’re in a car or riding a bike. The app’s Kickstarter project surpassed its funding goal far in advance of its deadline, proving that people really can be motivated by territoriality.

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