Technology and the fitness industry both have a great healthy relationship with each other. Most people are integrating technology into their workout routines more and more often. From fitness DVDs to portable iPods and pedometers, tech gadgets are becoming more and savvier to the fitness geared professional. For the military professional, technology is often unused, as some military regulations bar the use of iPods and electronic devices during the physical fitness test or during a physical fitness workout. However, there are still tools out there, such as fitness tracking apps and, even fitness video games that can pose an advantage.

Fitocracy – Fitocracy is a social networking website developed by Richard Talens and Brian Wang. The two innovators wanted to create a social media experience by tailoring a fitness experience and a game online. The website launched in February, 2011, and it has slowly become a favorite among gym bunnies and gamers alike. The goal of the game is simple: get fit and through your workouts, the application gives you a certain amount of points based on the increased benefit of the workout. In other words: the website will give you fewer points for a less strenuous workout. And after a threshold is achieved, another level is granted to the user. The more points, workouts and activities on the site means more achievement badges will be granted and more opportunities will be granted to go on quests. This technology application will help track your military workouts along with a wonderful fitness community that will motivate you to succeed.

FitnessBuilder – Fitnessbuilder is a dynamic app exclusively for the iPhone user. This app has a massive library of different fitness routines as well as a custom workout builder which can personalize the workouts to fit in a variety of different locations (ie, a hotel or the gym) or fitness goals such cardio or core strength. The program tracks each workout and offers a variety of different calculators on the device. The app is expensive compared to other apps at $9.99, but is cheap in comparison to the tools offered and the fact that a personal trainer is not a cheap option either.

EA Sports Active 2 – EA Sports Active 2 is an interactive fitness game developed by EA Sports family of games and this was created in 2009 when the first release of EA Sports Active was already released. This newer version is available on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. The game comes with the game disc, (depending on the platform) three straps to put on your body limbs, and a resistance band. One of the straps also works as a heart rate monitor and the game will respond and tailor your workout according to your heart rate. Some people may be misled about the difficulty of this game, simply because other fitness games were notoriously easy in the past. But do not feel the same way about this game. Simply put, this game is not easy. Even on medium mode, some of the drills will literally make you sweat and scream for more. The exercise routines are also varied from outrunning a group of NPCs (computer players), to cardio kickboxing, and mountain biking. If you want an additional way to get fit beyond the normal workouts in the gym, this is definitely the game for you. (As a warning: EA Sports Active 2 disabled the game servers as of March of 2012, however you can still track the EA Sports Active 2 workouts using Fitocracy or any other fitness app.)

Above: Scott Herman, fitness professional and guru of Scott Herman Fitness test drives EA Sports Active 2.

UFC Personal Trainer – UFC Personal Trainer is another fitness game that is on multiple platforms including Xbox Kinect, Wii and the Playstation Move. The game features multiple of different mixed martial routines developed both by the UFC and the National Academy of Sports Medicine. The game is also presented and coached by a league of UFC fighters and boasts over 70 different exercises. The user can choose workouts that are tailored to a variety of different fitness goals including gaining muscle and weight loss.

Above: Alfonso has lost over 20 pounds on the UFC Fighter game and is described on the above trailer.

This is a brief overview of the many technological tools that you can use to track and upkeep your fitness endeavors. Many other people have much success with other fitness products. The main goal to get fit and to stay healthy, according to many professionals, is to find something that is fun and is easy to stick with it over the years. What is your favorite exercise routine? It could be P90X, Insanity, or any of the current popular workouts that are out there! Please leave a comment with your response below!

By Jonathan Mills

This article is the first of a new OutServe Magazine series that will highlight technology, with an emphasis on the way the military uses that technology – both in the field and in the living room. 

The military doesn’t always make it easy for us to work from home. And yet we’re expected to respond to e-mails the instant they hit our inbox and sign forms as soon as they’re uploaded to SharePoint. Some people take their military-issued computers home with them … but not all of us have work laptops that we can just undock and slip into our new Kenneth Cole man bag we just bought from Zappos.

But there is good news. Great news. Apple’s newest operating system, OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8), is one of the easiest operating systems so far to configure for use with your military resources. (Apple, contact me for discussion on how to reimburse us for this ringing endorsement.)

If you haven’t already updated to it, do it now. It’s only twenty bucks in the App Store – so cheap, Apple’s practically paying YOU to take it. You can check to see if your apps are compatible (and all of mine were) by heading over to RoaringApps.com.

Some of the newest features introduced in Mountain Lion are:

-A notification center (think iOS-style) which pops up very unobtrusive alerts and reminders about any new e-mail, messages, events, etc. You can even tweet directly from it … beautiful.

-An almost-Siri feature.  Double-tap the “fn” key on your keyboard and you can dictate text for any program that accepts it. Like this one. I’m actually dictating this entire post. Not really … I would get too tired of saying “semicolon” and “hyphen” and “quotation mark,” which you have to do in order to insert punctuation throughout. It’s actually pretty accurate and I will make myself use it more often. Period.

-Airplay Desktop Mirroring. This makes my heart flutter. If you have a newer Mac, you can mirror whatever is on your display at the moment to your Apple TV. This is useful for watching videos which aren’t really supported by Apple TV … or presenting your latest hair-brained business plan Power Point to your roommate on the big screen.

-Real iCloud integration. Back up and sync your documents, mail, contacts, calendar, messages, and notes to iCloud.

-Pick up where you left off browsing on your iPad or iPhone; the newest update to Safari gives you a new “iCloud tab.” Click it and see what you’re currently viewing on other iDevices.

Those are my favs – check out the complete list here.

So, how do we whip this bad boy into shape? This ain’t a summer camp where you get to play capture the flag and then roast s’mores at night. This is the military. We are at war. And we fight it with our CAC card. So, trainee Mountain Lion, drop and give me 5. Minutes. Because that’s all this will take.

Step 1: After installing your brand new blessing from Mother Apple,  connect your CAC reader to the USB port and insert your CAC card into the reader.

Step 2: Install this utility to instruct Trainee Mountain Lion how to use a CAC card. Once it’s downloaded, open your downloaded items in finder, secondary-click the file that begins with “CACKey…” and choose “open with>installer.” If you don’t and you simply click to open the file, you’ll get a lippy little message from Trainee Mountain Lion about how he doesn’t trust your commands. I’ll look the other way while you apply some “on-the-spot” correction. No need to restart the operating system after the installer completes.

Step 3: Install your “tokens.” This allows your operating system to match your CAC card to DoD authentication systems. Do it by downloading this installer and opening it the same way as the instructions in step one (open your downloaded items in finder, secondary-click the new file, “Lion CAC Token…” and choose “open with>installer.”) Allow the installer to complete.

Step 4: Restart Trainee Mountain Lion.

Step 5: Evaluate Trainee Mountain Lion’s readiness. Open up Safari (or your preferred browser) and go to your Service’s portal page. When it prompts you to enter your PIN, choose the certificate that has “e-mail” in the title. Always. Whether you’re actually looking at e-mail or not, you’ll always want to select this certificate in order to gain access to DoD information systems.

Enjoy! If Trainee Mountain Lion gives you any problems, you can always send him to remedial training at militarycac.com where a whole host of retraining “methods” are at your disposal.