What is a Foot Pod?

Using Foot Pods for Training

A foot pod is a smart* and wearable device that senses the movement of your foot.The foot pod is a class of “activity or fitness trackers” that sends data from an accelerometer to a receiver. The foot pod replaces the pedometer because it provides more powerful data and has the ability to sense and then transmit data to a watch, mobile phone, or dedicated device:

• Total number of steps
• Steps-per-minute or cadence
• Distance
• Time between steps
• Pace
  

  Garmin Foot Pod

Foot Pod on Shoe

From this data, estimates can be calculated and displayed to the participant such as calories burned, swing time, effort, pace, zones, differentiate between stairs and flats, exercise points, and changes in altitude for example. Individual data can be displayed on the Hearts Zones System “Big Board” when groups of participants want to do activity tracking together. See the example of the data displayed by one person on their individual tile as well  as for the group display on the Heart Zones Big Board.

About the size of coin, all foot pods attach to your shoelaces or can fit into a shoe pocket that attaches to your shoe. The foot pod needs to be awakened with a small shake to activate it. A small and easily replaceable watch battery powers the foot pod for about a year of use. There are several manufacturers of foot pods which advertise about 98 percent accuracy for speed and distance.

Schools are replacing pedometers with foot pods. The first school district in the United States to do so is Minnesota’s Stillwater Area Public Schools. You can read more about their talented Physical Education teachers and how PE teachers are using foot pods and other wearable technologies to motivate students to move more: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_27392289/homeroom-new-technology-every-move-counts-phy-ed

Heart Zones Big Board Display

If you are in market for one of the most accurate ways to count your steps by simply attaching a foot pod to your shoe, you can snag one from the Heart Zones online store and start moving more with the power of information from your new foot pod.

Sally Edwards, the Head Heart, Heart Zones USA

Tile for Participant with 10 Data Points

*A smart device like an activity monitor by definition is a device that can connect to the internet directly or indirectly or has an embedded computer chip.