A pedometer is something many walkers and runners don’t always think of buying when they buy equipment for exercise. For many, the mindset of a walker or runner is simply to throw on some clothes and some shoes, grab a walkman and head out the door. A pedometer, though, can be a great addition to running equipment as it can give your exercise routine focus and also monitors your progress. By using a pedometer every day when you go walking or running, you can see if you’re exercising faster or slower than normal, what your pace is, and how far you’ve been able to walk or run. There are many pedometers on the market, but all pedometers are not created equal. If you decide to buy a pedometer, check out these five. They’re all pretty inexpensive, yet do a great job.
1.The Sportline Fitness Pedometer 360 – This pedometer is small yet works great. It retails for less than $30, but has features of a pedometer twice as expensive. The Sportline Fitness Pedometer 360 has a good double-line display, so you can see distance, calories, steps, speed and time. You can also store your past times, as it has a seven day memory storage section, which is fabulous if you’re trying to monitor progress. It also looks nice tied onto your belt as the display screen itself flips up to read the display screen, but then can be flipped back over when you’re not reading it. A nice little pedometer, especially for the inexpensive price.
2. The Omron Pedometer – Model HJ 112 – This pedometer is small and compact yet works very well. With the Omron Pedometer, you can monitor your distance, pace, calories burned and time. It also has a seven day memory. One thing I love about this pedometer is you don’t have to wear it on a belt. You can clip it to your bra, put it in a bag, or even carry it in your pocket. As long as it remains perpendicular to the ground it works consistently well. It also has a battery that, with average use, will last around six months. Priced at around $20, it’s an exceptional pedometer for the price.
3. New Lifestyles NL-2000 Pedometer – The New Lifestyles NL-200 Pedometer has been rated by several consumer magazines as one of the most accurate pedometers around. It checks your distance, time, and calories consumed and does it all very quietly (no annoying ticks, dings or buzzes). It’s especially accurate with calorie calculation as it uses a different formula than other pedometers. It’s also tiny, (actually weighing less than half an ounce) so, half the time, you don’t even notice you’re wearing it. Priced on the manufacturer’s website at less than $80, it comes with a security strap, calendar and an annual membership to an exercise website, everystepcounts.com.
4. The Silva MP3 Pedometer – This Silva Pedometer really is the cream of the cream in pedometers. It does everything a great pedometer does (time, distance, calories burned etc). but it’s also an MP3 player that holds more than 5 hours of music, all easily downloadable from your laptop. it comes with headphones (SD card is not included, you have to buy this separately), and a small carrying case. At around $100, it’s more expensive than some of the others but, as a complete music freak, I would definitely spend the extra money just for the sounds that you can listen to with this.
5. Timex Step Counter Pedometer – Timex has a reputation of accuracy and precision and this Timex pedometer is no exception. It counts speed and calories burned and also counts steps up to 99,000, which is almost ten times the counting capacity of a lot of other pedometers. It also has an efficient belt clip attached to the pedometer, which gives you distinct peace of mind as you’re not ever likely to lose it. At less than $50, it’s a good price, especially for a Timex product.
There are hundreds of pedometers you can choose from. Starting as low as $10 and going up to a few hundred dollars, most of them have good features. When buying a pedometer, check out the price, the features, reliability and, don’t forget, do a search online for other customers’ reviews. If you do all this, you should be able to buy a pedometer with little hassle and knowing you’re not wasting your time or money.
