Seek ‘n’ Spell puts the iPhone’s GPS to use, so you and your army of friends (real friends see – not Facebook cronies you sad, sad, tragic loser) can go to the swings where the game will overlay the location with letters scattered about the place.

It’s then a mad dash to collect up as many letters as possible and – Countdown style – come up with the longest word possible to win. Educational, informational, sociable and … exerciseationable.

Seek ‘n’ Spell’s just been submitted for Apple’s approval, and should be with us in the next week or two, so get some new laces for your running shoes, fatso. Check out the official site, while you’re lacing ‘em up.

From google.com (The Canadian Press):

Calling all couch potatoes: Those television sets, iPhones and yes, even video game consoles may actually provide some of the momentum you need to begin to shed those pounds this year.

But exercise experts and fitness fanatics say while it may be a push in the right direction, working out to an instructional video game or downloading yoga classes on your iPhone won’t transform your pudgy frame to svelte form in a timely fashion.

"The nice thing about the Wii Fit or the iPhone, or any technological thing, is it’s more likely to entice younger people," explains Rod Macdonald, the executive director of Can-Fit Pro, an organization which certifies personal trainers.

"But people aren’t going to be fitness fanatics because of an iPhone."

Last spring, Nintendo Wii introduced Wii Fit with much fanfare and a revolutionary idea: people could put on their stretchy white yoga pants and work out at home in front of their video game console.

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From timesdaily.com:

New digital equipment makes it possible to hike through the Swiss Alps and take personalized spin classes any time.

Such interactive workouts offer animation and scenery to distract exercisers from their activities and entertain.

Exercise in 2009 will follow a "computerized philosophy of creating a scene," said Sybil Wilson, a commercial sales representative for Commercial Fitness in Florence.

Even stationary equipment transports its users.

Star Trac’s Stepper allows users to scale the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building through its Famous Steps screen.

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From emediawire.com:

NexGym (www.nexgym.com), the innovative new fitness club for kids aged 3 through 14, announced today that it will open its first location in Georgia in January 2009. The new fitness club for kids and teens will be located in the Atlanta area at the Mall of Georgia, next to Toys R Us.

With child obesity rates at their highest in the U.S., the necessity for children’s fitness has never been so great. In Georgia, 43% of third grade children are either overweight or obese, according to a study by the Georgia Department of Human Services. But in an age of computers, video games and sedentary lifestyles, how do you lure kids into the world of healthy exercise?

“NexGym makes it simple,” said NexGym Mall of Georgia co-owner Antwan Lake, also an NFL defensive lineman for the New Orleans Saints and a former Atlanta Falcon. “By combining video gaming and virtual reality with healthy activity, kids don’t even know they’re exercising. They just think they’re having fun.”

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From independent.co.uk:

What possesses these stationary cyclists? Last time I used an exercise bike I was bored out of my brain, giving up after a few virtual miles to head for the steam room. But it turns out the machines whirring away today are not your average stationary cycles. From a distance they look pretty standard, but up close it’s clear the X-dream, which is spinning its way into gyms and homes (well, some – it costs £6,000), is something different. It is, its makers claim, the most sophisticated exercise bike in the world. And, in a winter that’s getting wetter and colder, the X-dream’s British designer hopes the new machine will attract more of us to the warm embrace of the gym.

I’ve come to Virgin Active near Shepherd’s Bush to meet the X-dream’s creator, Mike Rice, and to race the champion mountain biker Scott “Boom Boom” Beaumont. Once I’m perched on the saddle for a practice run, the differences become clear – rather than show MTV or a mile counter, the X-dream sports a full-size computer screen playing what looks more like a PlayStation game than something you would expect to see in a gym.

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From hutchnews.com:

Teachers across the state are implementing new strategies to encourage children to exercise and eat nutritious foods.

Students in Buhler are shaking their tail feathers to a popular video game for exercise; Garden City students could soon learn how to spend “fat bucks”; and the Scott County school district hopes to purchase a “spinner bike” for its students.

Those are just a few examples of new health and wellness activities offered thanks to grant money recently awarded through the Kansas Coordinated School Health Program. The program is a collaborative effort between the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas State Department of Education.

…

She said grant money awarded last year helped purchase the “Dance Dance Revolution” video game and Sony PlayStations that are popular among the students.

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