Cristina James is a co-owner of the company and says the products are intended to make life easier. And even if you aren’t a gym enthusiast, an essential part of those products is a heart rate monitor. “It’ll show you the heart rate, which is how we know how many hours you’d been exercising,” says James, who works out with her boyfriend, a professional bodybuilder. “You can measure if you’ve done any stretching, lifting, cardio, or other stuff.” The devices are being sold at a number of retailers in Canada, including Gymnologie and Sportskana. And the device from CardioLabs will be available at Target in Canada, and on the company’s website in the US. “A simple heart rate monitor was a great way to cut through the clutter of fitness apps on Android and iOS,” says co-founder Chris Loesch, who had his own personal experience with a blood test in 2007 from Sportskana, which didn’t have any specific functionality in mind. It took him roughly a month and $250 to get his results. But Loesch, who works for a number of fitness companies, says the “CardioWatt” is far simpler to use than all the apps and hardware on offer today, thanks to its basic interface. When it’s paired (using Bluetooth, like with all the Android wearables in the works), the device displays one line on screen telling you the amount of time that you’ve been exercising. The heart rate reads at a much higher level — around 100 beats per minute, a higher amount than it can handle. In addition, you can see all your exercise data — calories burned, time, distance, speed and heart rate.
A video posted by GQ UK (@gqhousetv) on Aug 1, 2015 at 4:30pm PDT
The “Watt” isn’t the only “breathalyzer” to arrive in Canada. In January, Toronto-based HealthTap released a watch that tracks your heart rate with a sensor that plugs into the watch. For $150 you get the heart-rate monitor, Bluetooth connection, and the convenience of just putting your wrist into the connected watch for data collection, which results in the actual readings being the same as the screen. And just last month, Toronto-based Fitbit introduced the Jawbone UP, which allows users to access data of their workout and see graphs of their intensity