Kids who are physically active tend to have better grades, school attendance, memory, concentration, and behavior. As an active family who likes to hike, rock climb, and ski, I want to instill in my kids the desire to stay fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Packing protein bars for our adventures ensures we have a nutritious snack to keep our energy levels up while enjoying outdoor activities together. Also, the more technologically advanced kids become nowadays, the higher the chance they’ll succeed in the future. There’s no better way to accomplish this than incorporating the use of technology into their daily lives.

To encourage this, I decided to get fitness trackers for our daughters who are six and nine years old. The primary functions in fitness trackers I was looking for were pretty basic: waterproof, displays the date and time, step tracking, and relatively long battery life.

I’ve found that these devices are useful even for young children. My 5-year-old can benefit from a fitness tracker by being aware of the current month, day, and time. She can answer many questions on her own now — How much longer until lunchtime? Is it almost time to go home? With the addition of timers, kids also get a better feel for time and actually how long is five, ten, fifteen, etc. minutes. Time is one of those concepts that is difficult to explain and needs personal experience on a repetitive basis to truly understand.

With the ability to set personal timers, children can also learn time management. Kids can tell what time of the day it is and choose when to start their thirty minutes of daily reading as an example.

Kids are also intrigued by tracking their physical activities, like hiking, walking, or running, and comparing step counts. It’s a fun way for the family to engage in friendly competition, encouraging each other to reach our individual fitness goals. If you’re looking for additional resources or tips on family fitness, websites like Americansportandfitness.com can provide valuable insights.

All that said, below are some of the best fitness trackers for kids that made my list.

Garmin Vivofit Jr

The popular Garmin Vivofit Jr is first on the list. With a battery life of 1+ year, it’s one less thing for kids (and me!) to worry about. After all, frequent battery charging is a hassle. Combined with the waterproof feature, the Garmin Vivofit Jr eliminates the need for kids to remove (and possibly lose) their fitness trackers.

The device capabilities are intuitive to use. There is only one button on the device that lets them cycle through the functions and make selections. They can easily see the month, date and time, the number of steps they have so far, and how close they are to their daily activity goal. As a side note, the United States Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day.

The stretchy band is pretty small though. It fit my 5-year-old, but not my 8-year-old. Fortunately, that’s not much of an issue since there are replacement bands for purchase.

The Garmin Vivofit Jr currently runs about $50 at Amazon.

Garmin Vivofit Jr 2

Interestingly, I found the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 for only about $10 – $20 more! Version 2 has the same functions as version 1 (see above) but with some significant improvements. The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 is intended for ages 4+. Version 2 has a colorful screen sized at 11 x 11 mm. In my opinion, the screen makes a big difference to children especially since they are used to colorful screens elsewhere, such as TVs, iPads, etc.

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 also comes with a lot more designs to choose from both in stretchy bands and adjustable bands. Kids can also set up to two timers. Due to this, I purchased the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 for each of my daughters.

Setup was a breeze. I merely had to download the free Garmin Vivofit Jr app onto my phone, and then create an account to pair the fitness trackers to my phone. One account can have multiple profiles. So at a glance, I can view details for both of my daughters.

After three months of daily use, I did have to change the battery for one of the fitness trackers. Fortunately, it was an easy process. I did have an issue syncing the time though, which was two minutes behind. Garmin customer support was GREAT and immediately walked me through the steps on how to resolve the issue.

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 currently runs about $60 at Amazon.

A few months later, my oldest daughter lost her fitness tracker. I’m pretty sure it’s still at home, but we were unable to locate it after a week of searching. Which means I was in the market again to research and purchase another fitness tracker. This time I wanted a fitness tracker with the weather function. Living in Colorado, the weather changes constantly and she’s always asking for the weather forecast when picking out her school clothes.

In short, I wanted all the functions of the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 plus weather updates. With the additional weather feature, it felt like I was stepping into the realm of adult fitness trackers or smartwatches. However, before fully committing to a new device, I also considered watch service, just in case maintenance or repairs were needed down the line.

Here’s what I found.

Garmin Vivofit 4

The Garmin Vivofit 4 seems to be an adult version of the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2. It has the weather function plus all the benefits of the Vivofit Jr 2.

The Garmin Vivofit 4 currently runs about $60 at Amazon.

Garmin Vivosmart 3

The Garmin Vivosmart 3 has a larger screen compared to the Vivofit Jr and the Vivofit 4. The device is waterproof which is a requirement in my opinion. It also has the weather function, my key requirement. This fitness tracker does not have GPS though and is, therefore, a satellite device to a smartphone. To update the weather, the fitness tracker needs to be near the phone where the app is installed.

The Vivosmart 3 has some interesting, advanced functions. It can monitor heart rate 24/7, as well as the number of calories burned. This Garmin device also includes their Smart Notifications function where the user can view emails and text messages right from their wrist. As you can see, this fitness tracker is more intended for adults.

Battery life is only up to five days. On the plus side, it has a small and thin profile. The band is not changeable though, so if the band breaks, it’s a significant issue.

The Garmin Vivosmart 3 currently runs about $73 at Amazon.

Fitbit Ace

The Fitbit Ace is intended for kids ages 8+. It doesn’t have the weather function. A huge negative is it is “showerproof – survives splashes and spills”. Which means to me it is not swim friendly or waterproof. Taking long showers or baths might be an issue. I’m a proponent of wearing fitness trackers 24/7. Especially for kids, having to take their fitness trackers off increases the risk of losing it.

Since this fitness tracker doesn’t have the weather function and not waterproof, the Fitbit Ace was not an option for us.

The Fitbit Ace currently runs about $99 at Amazon.

Apple Watch Series 3 (38mm)

Both my husband and I owned Apple watches. Before that, I cannot remember the last time I wore a watch on my wrist. The design of the watch is compact and efficient. The functions are intuitive to use; I didn’t even need to read the manual that came with it. I quickly got used to wearing it 24/7. I was able to monitor my health better and getting hourly notices to breathe or stand up helps too.

The notion of getting an Apple Watch for my oldest daughter was especially enticing around the holidays when the prices dropped by $80. Why deal with all the possible issues that might occur with other fitness trackers when I know the Apple watch works so well? Aside from a fitness tracker, it’s also a smartwatch. In the end though, I couldn’t justify sending her off to school with such an expensive item.

The Apple Watch Series 3 currently runs about $280 at Amazon.

I ended up replacing the lost Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 with the Garmin Vivosmart 3 for my oldest daughter. The Garmin Vivosmart 3 fits our needs quite well. My daughter likes the weather function and finds the other advanced features interesting such as the ability to monitor her heart rate during different activities. The larger screen is also a bonus.

Parenting is a huge and complex responsibility. As parents, it’s our responsibility to do our best for them now and ensure they have a bright future. While this is a small action in the greater scheme of things, I’m glad we got fitness trackers for both our daughters. As a family, we like to see who has the most steps after a day trip, thereby encouraging each other to reach our daily fitness goals. And the ability for young kids to include technology into their daily lives is tremendous. Especially with this improved understanding of time, they can manage their daily activities better and plan for the days to come. If you have kids and haven’t considered getting them a fitness tracker, there’s never been a better time to start!

The post Best Fitness Trackers for Kids first appeared on All Climbing.

Progression – Climbing Magazine

Petzl Reverso 3 belay device, Mountain Hardwear Runout climbing pants, Mammut Infinity 9.5mm rope, Black Diamond C3 cams – The Mountain World

La Sportiva Speedsters – straight outta bedlam

SuperTopo Guides To Zion and Tuolumne – Climbing Narc

Five Ten Team rock shoes – Sicky Gnar Gnar, Climbing Narc, Paul Robinson

Black Diamond Aura Harness, La Sportiva Mantis – Rock Climber Girl

Sterling Ice Thong 7.7mm twin rope – Colorado Mountain School

Patagonia Alpine Wind Jacket – SplitterChoss

Five Ten Copperhead – GetOutdoors

Black Diamond C3 and Oz and Petzl Reverso 3 – Dream in Vertical

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 10/8/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

New S10 Black Diamond Products – TetonAT.com

Five Ten’s Prisms – The Mountain World

DMM Dragon Cams – UKclimbing.com

La Sportiva Exum Pro – Colorado Mountain School

Arc’Teryx Alpha LT jacket and the CAMP USA Alp 95 harness – GearFlogger

Chaco Pro Series Sandals – Trailspace.com

New dual axel cam from DMM – Carabiner development blog

New Petzl Tikka and Zipka headlamps – trailrunningSoul.com

If you’ve seen any good climbing gear reviews recently, please link them in the comments.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 8/25/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

Back in 2002, I had a business trip to Silicon Valley and took a long weekend to head to Yosemite for some bouldering. There was only a smallish guidebook to the Valley bouldering at the time, but it was enough to get around and for me to sample the bouldering.

Since it was the middle of July, I was wise enough to head up to Tuolumne Meadows and avoid the 100+ degree temperatures and hordes of tourists. Unfortunately, there was no guidebook, but several climbers gave me rough directions to The Knobs.

As I was trying to figure out the correct parking pull-off, I saw what appeared to be an obvious looking climber. I pulled over, asked for directions, and was given tons of enthusiastic beta for the area. As I parked and gathered my gear, I kept thinking that guy looked really familiar. Then it hit me. It was Ron Kauk. He and Sterling Johnson were filming for their newest climbing video at the time.

In what was a completely random event, I and a few other climbers had the great pleasure of spending the afternoon bouldering with Ron and watching him climb some Tuolumne boulders as part of their filming. The combination of the beautiful scenery and spending the afternoon with a climbing legend will always hold a special place in my climbing memories.

So when Chris McNamara of SuperTopo asked me if I was interested in reviewing their new Tuolumne Bouldering guidebook, I excitedly accepted the offer.

If you’re familiar with other guidebooks from SuperTopo, then you’ll know what to expect as this guide follows their tried and true format. If you’re new to any of their guides, then you’re in for a great surprise.

This is the first edition of the guide, just released this July 2009. What I love about SuperTopo’s business model is when you buy the ebook, you receive three years worth of updates.

With tons of full color pictures, the Tuolumne Bouldering guidebook by Chris Summit is an excellent resource for over 20 Tuolumne bouldering areas. This thin book is only 72 pages in length but covers everything you need for each area including:

• number of problems
• best time of day
• difficulty range
• driving directions
• the approach

I particularly liked the blend of problem guide pictures with climber action shots of many areas. I believe the trend toward full-color guidebooks is excellent as it can solve the old problem of not being able to see the routes on black and white images (anyone remember the old Seneca Rocks, WV guidebook?). The photos of problems in Tuolumne Bouldering use a picture of the boulder (with no climber) superimposed with a red line outlined by white and a problem number corresponding to the text. Very visible and easy to follow.

The guide’s introduction also includes everything you need to plan a trip to Tuolumne Meadows especially the all-important weather and lodging information.

For each bouldering area, Chris Summit (yes, he says that’s his real name!) provides an overview plus some historical context where applicable. There’s also two mini-articles by John Bachar and Ron Kauk.

I was also pleased to see a star rating for each bouldering problem. I’ve been seeing too many guidebooks moving away from this and it really disappoints me. I understand that placing a quality rating on a climb or boulder problem is subjective, but regardless it gives the reader a baseline to see what stands out above the rest. Chris uses a star rating of one to four where every problem gets at least one star. I would have liked to have seen what this meant. Is one star worthwhile or just so-so? A legend/guide to the star rating system would have been useful.

But looking at the star rating system leads me to a question. Are there problems with zero stars and if so, were they not included in the book? The back of the guide says it includes the best boulder problems in Tuolumne so I’m assuming the crummy ones were left out. This can be good and bad.

I’d say that while Tuolumne Bouldering covers over 275 boulder problems, I’m always a bit wary of “best of” or “highlights of” guidebooks for an area. Mainly becuase I end up needing to warm up on a bunch of problems and they occasionally are less than stellar. Are these then not included? I’m usually more inclined to see everything and then make my own decisions about what to avoid based on star ratings. My apprehension was completely appeased though with an appendix in the back of the book that lists other areas worth exploring and possibly not completely developed yet. The obvious advantages to a best of guide are the smaller size and a conciseness that allows you to focus on hitting the best problems.

If you’re interested in checking out the format of the guidebook, SuperTopo offers a free PDF chapter for the Tamarack Boulders.

Overall, this guidebook is a must have for any climber planning to visit the area and do some bouldering in Tuolumne Meadows. I wish this was available for my first trip years ago. Even if you only have eyes for the classic routes, take an afternoon to sample the bouldering and I can guarantee you will not be disappointed.

The post Review: Tuolumne Bouldering by SuperTopo first appeared on All Climbing.

Let me make this clear: my review of Vibram Five Fingers shoes is self serving. The more people who know about them, the less I will be stopped by total strangers asking “What are those?”

Basically, the Five Finger shoes are the antithesis of footwear technology – not much more than a flexible, semi-form fitting rubber sole attached to the bottom of your foot, you can find shoes like this one at Bootbomb. You can feel everything. I actually find myself wanting to walk more often, and taking strange paths home just to feel the difference between concrete, grass, and gravel. You can purchase these and other shoes online with a macys promo code.

What are they for? Everything. I’ve worn mine:

• Walking around town with shoes from https://vessi.com/.
• Climbing easy routes (these aren’t great for cracks, dime edges or
  smearing)
• Hiking (both with and without a pack
• Sprinting
• At work (caveat: I’m in Boulder!)
• Trail running
• Playing soccer on astroturf (amazing ball control)

Why should you get them?

• There is growing evidence that “high performance” running shoes may actually cause more injuries
• You’ll strengthen your feet beyond what is possible in normal footwear
• Traveling on foot becomes much more fun
• Better balance on uneven surfaces (I’m actually more likely to step on smaller stones and branches because I can feel them – and won’t wobble)
• They can solve lower back problems (see Tim Ferriss’ post for a good explanation)

That sounds great, but what if you have __________ (fill in the blank: high arches, flat feet, pronation, weak ankles, etc)? Well, I would ask you this question: why would you be born with feet you couldn’t use as is? What do you do for arch support? Use your arches. What do you do for ankle support? Use your ankles.

I have high arches myself (my footprint in the sand is two unconnected imprints) and have not had a single problem. Two days after my track workout (complete with sprinting) my arches were killing me. And then a strange realization – was this the first time in my life I’d ever felt the need to stretch my arches? It was. The next day I felt fine – and my feet were stronger than ever before, so they were perfect for walking and hiking and they felt as good as the best hiking shoes you can find online.

The best part is that my occasional lower back pain is gone. Heels on our shoes push our hips forward, arching our lower back. This doesn’t happen with my VFFs. Why are we wearing footwear that is bad for our posture and makes our feet weaker? Pretty crazy when you think about it!

The cons:

1. Don’t overdo it. It takes a little while for your feet to get stronger. Work up to longer hikes and runs.
2. Unwanted attention. Extreme introverts might have a problem with strangers approaching to ask about your Vibram Five Fingers. In particular, I catch women and children staring at my feet constantly.
3. If you wear them for more than a few hours consecutively, you’ll need to wash them. Your feet won’t be hot, but the shoes will be stinky.

Find a store and try them on for sizing purposes (for reference: I wear an 11 mens US, but ended up with size 42 five fingers – your situation might be different). There are 4 different styles. I own the KSOs but have not tried any of the others, so I can’t enumerate the differences, other than saying that the Flows are thick neoprene on top and more suited for water-only activities.

Expecting to walk home in the Classics, I went with KSO because I did not want an open top which would likely collect dirt and pebbles on the trail.

Anyone else own these or seen them around? I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in the last few weeks.

You can order the Vibram Five Fingers online from Amazon.

Special thanks to Ryan Wanger of Everlater for writing this guest post. I’m still not 100% sold on these shoes, but he’s been doing a good job trying to convince me!

The post Review: Vibram Five Fingers Shoes first appeared on All Climbing.

GearFlogger looks at pro reviewing the DMM Wallnuts and also reviews the Arc’Teryx Dually belay parka.

Cupcake Mafia reviews the PrAna Natural Sticky Mat for yoga and the Petzl Bug Bag. That Bug Bag intrigues me.

The Adventure Blog reviews the REI Traverse Pack. I just bought one of these to use as my main laptop bag.

Sicky Gnar Gnar looks at the Five Ten Projects, while ClimbingNarc reviews The Players DVD.

SplitterChoss reviews the Black Diamond LiveWire quickdraw and the Petzl Fuse 9.4mm rope.

The Mad Rock Con-Flicts (and especially their rubber) was reviewed by straight outta bedlam.

reel deep snow looks at the Five Ten Freerunner

More trad gear as the RockClimberGirl reviews the Black Diamond Camalot C3.

Colorado Mountain School discusses the Sterling Ion 9.5mm rope and the Black Diamond RPM pack.

It Came from the Garage reviews the Mammut Champ Pants.

And finally, RockClimbing.com reviews the Five Ten Projects.

With the next installment of the gear review roundup, I’ll be changing the format a little to make them easier to scan and read.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 7/21/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

I’ve started reading the book One Move Too Many as it was recommended to me by several different climbers. I’ll be posting my full thoughts when I’ve finished the book, but I can already tell you that this is a must have for any climber, especially those dealing with specific injuries.

One idea from the book really stands out to me. The authors discuss warming up and state that:

Scientific studies have shown that bringing the pulleys and tendons up to a perfect state of “readiness” requires about four routes or 120 moves of climbing.

Think about that statement. Do you warm up that effectively? Do you climb four easy routes as a warm up? I’d wager that the vast majority of climbers do two routes maximum and call themselves warmed up.

More thoughts on this book are forthcoming, but I thought that tidbit was too interesting to not share immediately.

The post 120 Moves of Climbing first appeared on All Climbing.

While grocery shopping and searching for unusual gifts the other day, I saw a large display for the new Clif Quench sport drinks. I vaguely remembered hearing about these, so I decided to buy one of each flavor and try them out.

Let me start off by saying that my primary sports drinks are massive quantities of coffee in the morning, followed by as much water as I can consume the rest of the day. That said, I occasionally buy a Gatorade or Powerade and throw it in my climbing pack for a long day.

The selling points of Clif’s new drink line is the list of ingredients and its recycled bottle. The Clif Quench is 88% organic with no high fructose corn syrup. From the company:

CLIF Quench offers the optimal balance of ingredients your thirsty body needs, including electrolytes and carbohydrates to move water where your body needs it most. CLIF Quench is all-natural and contains no artificial colors, sweeteners and preservatives used in many beverages today.

Continuing on the companyâ??s journey toward sustainability, the CLIF Quench bottle and label are the most planet-friendly options on the market. The bottle is made of 40 percent post-consumer recycled PET plasticâ??the highest percentage of any U.S. bottled beverageâ??and the bottle and label are fully recyclable.

To further support their eco-friendly efforts, individuals can consider recycling the bottles responsibly through dumpster rentals, you can visit website, ensuring they contribute to reducing waste and conserving resources. they can take care of any waste materials you have with keeping the environment in mind. Whether it’s household recyclables, construction debris, or any other waste materials, opting for conscientious dumpster rentals allows individuals to contribute to a cleaner, greener Earth.

Unfortunately, the drink tastes like a big gulp of ocean water. Seriously, the Quench has such a strong salty taste that I almost couldn’t drink a full bottle. And I love Clif’s other products, so this was a real disappointment.

My initial thought was that the taste was due to a much higher sodium content which is common in sports drinks. So yesterday, I picked up a bottle of Gatorade (Frost Glacier Freeze if you must know) and guzzled it down. Just as I remembered, I did not feel like I was drowning in the Pacific Ocean.

Next obvious step – check the ingredient labels. Here is the surprising result of my quick research:

Gatorade (8 fl. oz)
Calories – 50
Sodium – 110 mg
Potassium – 30 mg
Total Carbs – 14 g
Sugars – 14 g

Clif Quench (8 fl. oz)
Calories – 45
Sodium – 130 mg
Potassium – 35 mg
Total Carbs – 11 g
Sugars – 10 g

These drinks are quite similar except for the real sugar in Clif versus the high fructose corn syrup in the Gatorade. You can also see that there is 18% more sodium in the Clif. From the taste though, I was estimating there would be twice the sodium.

Unless you absolutely refuse to use products with high fructose corn syrup and have to have a sports drink, I can’t recommend this product in its current form. After reading Lean belly juice Ikaria reviews by real customers, I think Ikaria is a better product if you’re trying to lose weight.

Has anyone else tried these yet? What was your opinion, especially on the taste?

The post Review: Clif Quench Sport Drink first appeared on All Climbing.

As climbers, we suffer from numerous injuries. One of the more common climber injuries is medial epicondylitis or golfers elbow. Essentially this is pain on the inside of your elbow and it originates from overuse of the flexor muscles. All our gripping without exercising the opposing muscle groups is usually the culprit for climbers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been suffering from this condition for months now. I’ve been seeing a sports medicine doctor and slowly my severe pain has reduced. When I started rehab, my pain was about an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. After about three months of daily ice baths and exercises to strengthening opposing muscle groups (including a couple initial weeks of ultrasound), I was finally down in the 4 out 10 pain range.

So when I was contacted by the inventor of a device called Armaid, I was initially quite skeptical. First, if there was some device that would help, why didn’t my doctor or any literature mention it? Is this really going to help me and how long will it take? But since I really had nothing to lose at this point, I decided to try it out. The company saw a few of its customers were climbers and was interested to see what the reaction from the climbing community would be for this device. My goal was to test it out using my own pain and injuries as a guinea pig and provide some critical feedback to Armaid.

Amazingly, I felt pain relief from the Armaid device immediately. And before getting into details about Armaid, let me give you a quick summary. I’ve been using the device daily for about 2 – 3 minutes each on each forearm and my pain level has dropped at least another full notch on my pain scale after only a couple weeks.

Details of the Armaid Device

Armaid costs $99.95 and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. Initially I thought was that this was a high price for an unproven device for notoriously cheap climbers. But after using Armaid and finding it actually works, I changed my mind about the pricing. Let’s assume you have medical insurance. For the price of about two co-pay sessions of a tantric massage London, you’ve paid for Armaid. Comparing the cost of Armaid to all the other medical treatment I have received in the past for climbing related injuries, a hundred dollars is a steal.

The Armaid device works by relaxing and releasing tight muscle tissue by massaging and stretching muscles in the arm. It comes with a detailed DVD with instructional videos as you must use the device in a specific manner to achieve results.

The Armaid appears to be constructed well. The apparatus is made of a sturdy plastic mounted on a swivel that allows for moving to a variety of angles. There are different stiffnesses of the therapy balls that actually run over your forearms to adjust the level of pressure.

Another small climber-related complaint I had was the size of the device. Armaid is rather large (about 16″ long), but to mechanically achieve its mission I realize it pretty much has to be that way. My initial opinion (before testing it) was that climbers may not want to take it on our frequent road trips. After using it, I realize that if you have chronic pain like I do, you’re not going to care about the size and you’ll throw it in the car. It’s really not that big, but you can see for yourself in one of Armaid’s demo videos. It also weighs just over a pound so it’s not too heavy.

I haven’t seen much discussion of this device elsewhere, despite it usefulness. I did see a brief recommendation in Clyde Soles’ training book, but other than that the Armaid appears to be quite unknown to climbers.

My next obvious question was what is this company all about? Who are they and why should I trust them with my health?

Armaid’s Founder

I had several conversations with the founder of Armaid, Terry Cross, and asked him some very pointed questions that I knew climbers would be interested in learning before committing to this product.

Terry is a former sports injury and occupational injury therapist and I asked him how he came up with the idea for Armaid:

“I would see sometimes as many as ten clients a day and over time I began to develop repetitive strain (tendinitis) in my arms and hands. I began to do more self massage to maintain my own level of strength and fitness. This worked for a while by using my free hand to massage the other arm but this method often aggravated my problems and after trying several different products I felt there was not a good massage tool available for specifically helping the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. I tried many different prototypes and designs until I came up with the idea of using a lever (as in the mechanical advantage of a nutcracker) to easily amplify the pressure on the trigger points (sore areas) without using a lot of strength necessary from the free hand.

There is a particular type of therapy that I used as a hands-on therapist that I use constantly and it is the most efficient method I have ever found to work to relieve tight muscles you can grow faster using the very best T-level boosters on the market. I built Armaid to specifically incorporate this therapy technique. To keep it simple, I call it “trigger point therapy” on our website. It is called different names depending if you are talking to an Occupational or Physical Therapist, Rolfing Therapist, Chiropractor, etc. I’ve heard it called Myofacial Release, Client Assisted Release, Active Release etc., but it is always the same technique of maintaining static pressure on a sore spot and then stretching the muscle under that pressure (see the “two therapies” video on our website). This releases the muscle fiber much more quickly and efficiently than cross-fiber technique or mere stroking (effluerage). It also has the added benefit of letting the sufferer discover which muscles and which range of motion is the culprit in their problem.”

And on who is using Armaid and why climbers should think about using it:

“Disgruntled sufferers that have had the surgeries, taken the drugs, been upset with unending appointments with expensive therapy sessions and still not happy and are looking for something that they can do for themselves. They hear about Armaid mostly through word of mouth or a search online. For the cost of one or two medical or massage sessions they can buy an Armaid and be in charge of their own arm, elbow and hand health.

It must be made clear that Armaid is only useful if the problem is based in the forearm muscles that can create painful problems in the elbow, wrist and hand. The question that I always ask someone who is considering using Armaid is “Do you have sore forearm muscles?” if they say “yes” then I know that Armaid is perfect for them and will deliver relief when used as shown on the videos. Armaid will not be of use if the problem originates solely in the neck or shoulder region with a pinched nerve or injury “upstream” of the arm.

Armaid is not a cure all or a one-time magic bullet. It does give the sufferer a way to relieve their symptoms and to maintain their own hand, arm, elbow health. Armaid use is like brushing your teeth, regular maintenance is best for health because as an athlete you are constantly using your body and muscles and creating tension and metabolic waste products. That is why professional athletes have massages constantly before and after every work out and performance.

Summary

The Armaid is a useful product that can be used to supplement other healthy physical therapy for rehabilitating several conditions climbers experience. If you have chronic pain, the Armaid by itself will not cure you. But an overall change in habits along with this device can be an effective solution to getting back to lower pain levels.

* Special Discount *

Terry also gave me a special discount only for readers of All Climbing. If you mention you saw Armaid on All Climbing, you will receive 15% off your order of the device. Just mention it when ordering online or when calling them.

Disclaimer: It pains me to even write this, but let me reiterate – I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. If you have medical problems, please consult a doctor or other medical professional.

The post Review of Armaid, a Device for Treating Elbow and Forearm Pain first appeared on All Climbing.

Steve Casimiro of The Adventure Life reviews the Coleman Lantern, the Therm-A-Rest NeoAir, and the Timbuk 2 Doctor’s Bag.

Climbing Narc and Sicky Gnar Gnar have some first impressions on the Five Ten Projects.

Climbing Hold Review examines Jason Kehl’s Cryptochild holds.

A La Sportiva Speedster preview from Joe Kinder.

BJ at Splitter Choss looks at the Black Diamond Chaos harness and the new Indian Creek guidebook.

GearFlogger reviews the Metolius 18mm nylon sling, the DMM Revolver screwgate carabiner, and the Julbo Explorer glacier glasses.

Colorado Mountain School also reviews the Black Diamond Chaos harness.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 5/15/09 first appeared on All Climbing.