Pedometers

What’s the best way to exercise? Walking! So how do you go about calculating how far you’ve walked? A pedometer of course! A pedometer is a device which counts the number of steps a person makes. Knowing the stride length, the distance walked should then be the stride length multiply by the number of steps taken. Since distance covered may vary greatly from pedometers to pedometers, getting to know some of the best pedometers will indeed make your exercise more worthwhile.

 

Pedometer Buying Guide

1) Accuracy

The most important consideration when buying a pedometer is its accuracy. Since you’re going to walk about 5K - 10K steps per day for health benefits, it makes perfect sense that its accuracy should be +/-5% of the actual distance covered or else all your effort would have been wasted. The best pedometers use either electronics, piezo-electric accelerometers, coiled spring & hairspring mechanism and/or pendulum technology to accurately determine the distance covered based on the number of steps taken.

** Do take note that how and where you use the pedometer will greatly determine its accuracy as well.

2) Simple or Multi-Function?

If your only goal of using a pedometer is to accurately count the number of steps that you have taken or distance covered, then a simple and inexpensive pedometer will do it. For some, besides the basic function of the pedometers, they would like to have additional features such as calorie estimates, pulse rate meters, stopwatch, pace estimators etc for overall fitness.

3) Comfort

Since you’re going to wear the pedometer all day long (or during workout), then by all means get one that offers extreme comfort when using one.

 

Pedometer Reviews & Ratings

We found the best pedometer reviews from American College of Sports Medicine, Consumer Reports and Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise only. Health experts there tested some of the best pedometer models from high-quality and trusted makers such as Accusplit, Brunton, Digi-Walker, Freestyle, Garmin, Lifewise, New Lifestyles, Nike, Omron, Robic, Sportsline and Timex. Pedometer ratings based on accuracy, ease of use and features determines the best pedometers in their class.

Best Pedometer (Basic)

Pedometer Reviews #1: Coming out top with outstanding pedometer reviews from walkers is the best rated Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer with Advanced Omron Health Management Software. If you want a device that is so reliable that can count steps accurately, then by all means get this Omron pedometer for your walking routine. This best pedometer from Omron features dual sensor technology that measure steps whether it’s in your bag or strapped to your body for total steps taken. Comes in easy to read LCD display. Includes Advanced Health Management Software that records and monitors your progress for goal setting purposes.

Resources: Pedometer (Wikipedia)