The Lazy Hacker’s Guide To Fitness

Why not make exercise easier?

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Posted on May 20, 2015 8:10 AM EDT

Boxers have long known that jumping rope works nearly every major muscle group. It also burns as many calories in 10 minutes as jogging an eight-minute mile. The Smart Rope syncs with your phone to make training recommendations (like when to speed up) and log calories burned. The rope’s 23 LEDs display your progress as you jump, so you don’t have to keep count of hundreds of revolutions. $70 Image Courtesy of Tangram

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Working out is tough. Activity trackers like the Nike+ FuelBand are good motivators, but they’re bad at crunching important data. Some can fail to track calories burned by as much as 40 percent, according to a study last year from Iowa State University. Still, technology can help you lose weight and get in shape if you know what to use–and how to use it. Jumpstart your summer fitness regimen with these tools.

This article was originally published in the June 2015 issue of Popular Science, under the title “The Lazy Hacker’s Guide To Fitness.”