Tag: Fitness

Huawei Watch D smart watch

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 15, 2022
No Comments on Huawei Watch D smart watch

The Huawei Watch D is the latest flagship smart watch from the Chinese tech giant, and it’s further proof that the company is more than capable of competing with the likes of Samsung and Apple in the highly competitive wearable market.

The cutting-edge blood pressure monitoring feature uses a built-in airbag to make it as accurate as possible, and other standout features like 70+ workout modes and ECG and skin temperature monitoring make the Watch D a true contender if you’re in the market for a new premium smart watch.

First impressions and setup

Compared to other smart watches in Huawei’s current portfolio, you can tell straight away that this is its best model. The packaging and the overall unboxing experience feels premium and (dare I say it) almost ‘Apple-like’.

The device is surprisingly weighty at 41 grams and feels nice and solid on your wrist. It’s also pretty and features just two non-intrusive buttons on the face’s right-hand side.

The Watch D puts a lot of focus on the device’s setup. This is partly to optimize comfort, but it also ensures that the blood pressure monitor performs as accurately as possible.

Two butterfly clasp straps are included in the box to tailor the watch to your wrist, as well as an innovative foldable ‘ruler’ to measure your wrist with. The straps are made from a rubber-like material, while the rectangular watch face is made from glass within a durable aluminum case. It feels premium and very well put together.

I reviewed the Huawei Watch GT back in March 2019 and commented then on how simple it was to set up. It’s a good thing that, other than some minor upgrades to the app over the last three years, Huawei’s user experience remains pretty much the same. Pairing to the watch takes just a couple of minutes via the HUAWEI Health app, and once complete, your device will appear on your phone and allow you to update things like the watch face with ease.

All your data can also be viewed through the app, and it goes without saying that the more you wear it, the more you can find out about your fitness and lifestyle. After approximately three weeks of wearing the Watch D, I was fascinated to see how closely my fitness was being tracked – from the dozens of times I tested my blood pressure to the amount of REM sleep I was getting.

Performance

The Huawei Watch D runs smoothly, and the 1.64-inch, 456×280-pixel AMOLED screen is one of the most responsive I’ve tested.

I’ve already touched on a handful of things the watch can do, but things like the HUAWEI TruSeen 5.0+ heart rate monitoring technology make this one of the most accurate smart watches on the market.

The ECG app packs a high-performance ECG sensor module, which provides single-lead ECG measurements, real-time analysis, and sinus rhythm, atrial fibrillation, and premature atrial and ventricular beat reminders to stay informed and proactive about major heart health-related risks.

The handful of the 70+ workout modes I tried worked great and were familiar, too, given my time with the Watch GT (which I still use to this day). One thing to consider is that the fabric airbag built into the strap can get sweaty after a particularly heavy workout. This could prove to be a smelly problem over time. Built-in GPS allows you to track your runs without needing your smartphone nearby.

The HUAWEI TruSleep 2.0 app works excellently. It identifies key sleep states, including deep sleep, light sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, naps, and wake-up times, with sleep quality scores and personalized advice on how to get the best possible night’s rest. I found myself checking this every day, so I could try and improve my rest time the next night.

Other key features like stress and SpO2 monitoring also worked well. Importantly, all the key information was displayed well in the HUAWEI Health app.

There are also handy features like the ability to do a daily health check-in and share your results with family members via the app. This could be particularly useful for older users who might want to share their health information.

The battery can run for an outstanding seven days between charges, which is a great selling point ahead of the likes of the Apple Watch.

One flu I did have during my time with the Watch D was that it seemed to disconnect randomly from my iPhone 11, although I suspect it might not have this issue with an Android device, particularly a Huawei one.

Sadly, you can’t do things like respond to messages via the device (which is a feature that I know a lot of Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch users don’t even use due to the small screen size). It also lacks features like web browsing, which, again, isn’t for everyone.

verdict

The Huawei Watch D is well-equipped and has some of the best (and most) features I’ve ever seen in a smart watch. Devices like this one have now reached the point where they’re genuinely able to change lifestyles and even save lives.

The elephant in the room here is the price, which I’ve purposely not mentioned until now. The Watch D currently has an RRP of $749. Pricewise, this puts the watch right next to the flagships from Samsung and Apple.

The question is – will Huawei be able to do enough to sway potential buyers towards the Watch D? If it were me, I’d be seriously tempted…

Tags Fitness, huawei, products, review, smart watch, Technology

Australia

Better bones, stronger muscles and a happier heart — the benefits of exercising into old age are big

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 12, 2022
No Comments on Better bones, stronger muscles and a happier heart — the benefits of exercising into old age are big

Aging. It’s something many Australians dread.

Things that used to be easy may not be anymore, appearances change and the body functions differently – but it’s not all bad.

The aging process can’t be stopped, but physical activity can bring a host of benefits as people get older.

According to Pazit Levinger, principal researcher at the National Aging Research Institute, overall wellbeing and health are better for those who exercise into old age.

“Physical activity is one way you can preserve efficient systems in the body that help you overcome diseases, function better and live a good quality of life,” she said.

‘Running has kept me healthy’

While not all older Australians can expect instant health improvements from exercise, 84-year-old Abdon Ulloa swears by his regular running routine.

Abdon Ulloa gives two thumbs up while at parkrun. — Abdon Ulloa has been running for the last 40 years.(Supplied: Abdon Ulloa)

Abdon took up the hobby in his mid-40s. He’s now done 75 marathons (his last one of him was at 77 years old) and he estimates his half-marathons of him are now into the thousands.

He goes to park run weekly. He’s been turning up on Saturday mornings for the last three years and has clocked up 184 runs.

All that exercise, he believes, has paid off.

“To keep running, to keep moving, you have very much kept me healthy,” he said.

Abdon Ulloa runs along the water at Port Macquarie parkrun. — Abdon believes the exercise he’s done, and is doing, is keeping him healthy.(Supplied: Abdon Ulloa)

“I don’t take any medicines and I visit the doctor once a year. I have no problems at all.”

Abdon is in a league of his own at his local parkrun in Menai in Sydney, where he’s the only runner over 80.

About an hour south, 82-year-old Ron Perry can be found making his way around the North Wollongong track.

“A lot of us still shuffle along up the back of the field,” he said.

Like Abdon, Ron took up running in his 40s and believes it’s kept him in good health.

Ronald Perry walks on red dirt in Broken Hill as part of parkrun. — Ron Perry was at North Wollongong’s first ever parkrun and has been there most Saturdays since.(Supplied: Ronald Perry)

“I started running around the block and then along the beach and just took it on from there,” he said.

In the nine years since starting parkrun, he’s done 215 runs.

‘Use it or lose it’

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Australian Department of Health and Aged Care recommend people aged 65 and older do about 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week. But data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows half of this cohort isn’t that active.

“It’s one of those things, we know it’s working [exercise]we just need to encourage people to do it more,” Professor Levinger said.

A portrait of Professor Pazit Levinger — Professor Levinger says overall health and wellbeing is better for those who exercise into old age.(Supplied: Pazit Levinger)

She also explained that ideally, exercise in older age should target the heart and lungs, with a bit of strength and resistance training too.

There should also be a focus on balance exercises.

“The heart has less capacity to function efficiently like it used to when we were younger,” Professor Levinger said.

“And the same with the respiratory system. We often might feel a bit breathless when we get older.”

Then there’s the issue of muscles getting weaker.

“If we don’t use them and preserve the strength we have, we lose muscle mass and strength and that will have a direct impact on how we function,” Professor Levinger said.

“When you exercise, you can improve how those systems function.”

When it comes to running in particular, Professor Levinger said the benefits were large, particularly for the cardiorespiratory system and bones.

A shot of an older woman running from behind. — Running into older age brings about benefits for the heart, lungs and bones.(Supplied: park run)

“Your blood pressure is in the healthy/normal range, your resting heart rate is reduced and pretty much your heart works more efficiently,” Professor Levinger said.

“Those who, for example, have run for a long time, and they keep running, it’s great for the bones, great for the muscles.

“We often use the phrase ‘use it or lose it’, which is actually correct.”

Someone using it is 98-year-old Colin Thorne, who in New Zealand has become the oldest person to join the 100-club at parkrun.

“I’m not going to give up until I have to,” he said.

It’s never too late

Bill Lamont is Australia’s oldest active parkrunner. He signed up a couple of months ago and broke the record for his age group at Jells parkrun, on his first walk around the track.

“In June, on my 93rd birthday, I decided to give it a try and I’m very pleased that I did so, I’m thoroughly enjoying it,” Bill said.

93-year-old Bill Lamont holds a parkrun cut-out frame and smiles. — Australia’s oldest active parkrunner, 93-year-old Bill Lamont, has done nine parkruns so far.(Supplied: Bill Lamont)

Bill has always been active, and even now he does exercise classes, orienteering walks and plays table tennis.

“All those activities, I’m quite sure, are what is keeping me as healthy as I am. I don’t have any medical problems at this age,” Bill said.

Professor Levinger says the bottom line is, do what you can manage, and do what you enjoy.

“Do whatever you can and build up. You don’t have to be fit, you can exercise and start at any age.”

Lenore Rutley with 80th-birthday balloons. — Lenore Rutley took up running at 72.(Supplied: Lenore Rutley)

Just like Lenore Rutley, who’s always done her morning walk, but took up running at 72.

“I wanted to do something a little different,” she said.

Since that decision was made, Lenore has amassed 332 parkruns.

“I just run down hills now. Every so often I’ll get a spurt up and do a little bit of a run and then I’ll do a little bit of walking,” she said.

Professor Levinger said the key thing was that people aim to do something they enjoy.

“You want to do things that you feel comfortable with and find fun, because then you are likely to stick with it,” she said.

And as Lenore puts it – “what else would you do on a Saturday morning?”

ABC Sport is partnering with park run to promote the benefits of physical activity and community participation.

Tags elderly, exercise, Fitness, Health, old age, park run, Pazit Levinger, physical activity, Running, walking

Australia

Victoria University study suggests children experience high rates of violence in community sport

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 10, 2022
No Comments on Victoria University study suggests children experience high rates of violence in community sport

Eighty-two per cent of people sampled in a study conducted by Victoria University have reported experiencing at least one form of interpersonal violence when participating in community sport as a child.

The survey, which is the most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, asked 886 adults whether they had experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence, as well as neglect, from either coaches, peers or parents during childhood.

Seventy-six per cent said they had experienced psychological violence or neglect, 66 per cent reported physical violence and 38 per cent reported sexual violence.

One in three respondents, meanwhile, said they had experienced all four forms of violence.

The respondents had participated in a large variety of sports, with nearly 70 represented.

A graph showing key statistics including that 82% of respondents experienced at least one type of violence — Seventy per cent of respondents experienced physical and psychological violence from a peer. (Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)

While such large numbers may come as a surprise to some, study co-author Mary Woessner said she was not shocked.

“From the literature, and knowing what’s happening internationally, I would say that’s right about what we were expecting,” Dr Woessner told the ABC.

“One of the first things you need to create change, positive change, is generate understanding that there’s a problem.

“We just want people to know it exists, so we can make evidence-based decisions to change it.”

Dr Woessner’s co-author, Aurélie Pankowiak, explained that the survey asked participants about explicit examples of violence they may have experienced in a sporting context.

Dr Aurélie Pankowiak poses for a photo on one of the basketball courts at Victoria University — Aurélie Pankowiak co-authored the study with Mary Woessner.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)

For neglect, for example, participants were asked if they had experienced being refused time off for medical injuries.

For psychological, participants were asked whether they had been insulted, threatened or humiliated (for example by being bullied, given an unwanted nickname violence or otherwise ostracised).

“We had very concrete examples of different types of violence, so we did not leave it up to the person’s interpretation of whether or not what they experienced was violent,” Dr Pankowiak said.

One reason for this, the authors say, is that it can take victims a long time to recognize that what they experienced constituted violence.

“The average reporting time for sexual abuse can be 20 years or longer,” Dr Woessner said.

“At the moment we have a system that relies on children telling us what happened while knowing that the vast majority of literature says they won’t [come forward] for years to come.

“That’s why in this study, the easiest and safest way of collecting this data was to do it retrospectively. [by asking adults].”

Most children experience violence from peers

In a first, the study sought to break down children’s experiences of violence by who perpetrated it, including peers and parents as well as coaches.

This breakdown showed that 73 per cent of respondents experienced violence from their peers, followed by coaches (60 per cent) and parents (35 per cent).

Most respondents had experienced violence from a peer. A coach was the next most common.(Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)

Dr Woessner said distinguishing who was perpetrating violence was important because most academic literature, as well as media coverage, has focused on violence perpetrated by coaches, usually at the elite level.

This includes high-profile cases like that of Larry Nassar, the former US Olympic gymnastics team doctor who is serving an effective life sentence for sexually abusing at least 40 girls and women.

Australian swimmer Maddie Groves also recently came forward with the allegation that she was sexually abused by a former coach who is still working in the sport.

“You can distance yourself from an Olympic athlete experiencing abuse and start to think that it only happens at the elite level,” Dr Woessner said.

“There’s a mentality, ‘well that’s not my child, it’s not happening in my sport, or at my club’ … but I think with this data we can show that it might be.”

Data collected by Dr Pankowiak and Dr Woessner also showed significant gendered differences in the types of violence being experienced by men, women and gender-diverse people in childhood.

Women were more likely to experience sexual violence compared to men, while they were also more likely to experience psychological violence and neglect.

Men, on the other hand, were more likely to experience physical violence from a peer.

“When you talk about a gendered experience, we sometimes focus only on women,” Dr Woessner said.

“But it’s not that men aren’t experiencing violence, they’re just experiencing different types.”

Women experienced higher rates of sexual and psychological violence, as well as neglect.

The authors also analyzed a third category, gender-diverse people, encompassing those who identified as non-binary, gender questioning or selected “don’t know” for their gender identity.

While the sample size was small, at 17 people total, the authors found gender-diverse people experienced higher rates of many types of violence compared to cisgender men and women.

“We know from the literature broadly that marginalized communities experience institutionalized violence,” Dr Pankowiak said.

What was less clear, Dr Pankowiak said, was how the experience of systemic marginalization translated into interpersonal violence in a sporting context.

“We need an understanding of what’s driving those rates,” Dr Woessner said.

“We are talking about gender diversity here, but we know that the LGBTQI+ community broadly, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, they all have higher risks. We just don’t fully understand why and how that’s happening.”

A wake-up call with ‘no quick fix’

While this particular study did not look at the impacts of the childhood experience of violence, the authors said there was clear evidence that it could have lifelong detrimental effects.

“We do know that there are long-term impacts,” Dr Woessner said.

“Often they [victim survivors] leave sport. They might only leave the team they’re on, but there are some people who leave sport entirely.

Co-author Mary Woessner hopes the study will be a call to action for Australian sport.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)

“Beyond the individual, you see families torn apart, you see communities torn apart.

“Community sport is led by volunteers, and when something like this happens, it impacts not just the individual but their friends, their family, and by default the community.”

Moving forward, the authors argued it was essential to intervene early so that children and adults could continue to enjoy the many benefits sport provides.

“What we’re seeing in the data is that we have a cultural normalization of violence in sport,” Dr Woessner said.

“It’s systemic, there’s not one type of violence or only one type of perpetrator and it’s happening across all sports.”

Dr Woessner added that while there was no “quick fix”, there were clear steps sports could take to safeguard children.

“When we’re thinking about changing culture, we need to go a step further than just education and policies,” Dr Woessner said.

“We need to go from the ground up and work with clubs on initiatives that are long-lasting and can create behavioral change.

“I would hope that this data starts to change public perception on the prevalence of these experiences in community sport and that it calls sports to action.”

If you believe you have experienced violence during your childhood participation in sport, you can lodge a complaint through Sport Integrity Australia’s online portal.

Tags abuse, CALD, child, child sexual abuse, children, coach, Data, Fitness, gender, gender diverse, gymnastics, impacts, Larry Nassar, LGBT, LGBTQI, Maddie Groves, Men, neglect, non-binary, Pankowiak, parent, peer, prevail, psychological, reporting, research, Sport, standards, statistics, study, Survey, swimming, victoria college, Violence, Woessner, women

Technology

Montblanc’s Summit 3 Smartwatch Has Brains Plus Beauty

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 9, 2022
No Comments on Montblanc’s Summit 3 Smartwatch Has Brains Plus Beauty

Montblanc’s Summit 3 features a lightweight titanium case with hand finishes and other design tweaks.

Montblanc

Textsize

Entertainment

Social media posts suggest Milli Lucas’ doctor Charlie Teo is engaged

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 6, 2022
No Comments on Social media posts suggest Milli Lucas’ doctor Charlie Teo is engaged

Sydney neurosurgeon Charlie Teo could be trading scrubs for a wedding suit soon after revealing social media posts hinted he has recently become engaged to his girlfriend Traci Griffiths.

The couple met when Ms Griffiths sought Dr Teo’s expert advice in 2009, although they did not begin dating until 11 years later after the brain surgeon split from his wife.

Dr Teo previously operated on WA girl Amelia ‘Milli’ Lucas, who captured the hearts of the nation during her brave cancer battle. The 14-year-old lost her cancer battle in January 2021.

Wedding rumors have followed the well-known surgeon and his former patient for more than a year, but it appears there may now be some truth to the whispers.

Ms Griffiths, a vegan activist and fitness influencer, has used revealing hashtags in pictures of the couple to hint at the change in their relationship status.

The former model has consistently tagged photos of her and Dr Teo with references to “#myhero” and “#mybestfriend” during their relationship, but she upgraded the hashtags in May to “#myfiance” and “#ilovemyfiance”.

The revelations are buried in a number of hashtags attached to photos of Ms Griffiths at the Charlie Teo Foundation Ball more than two months ago.

Traci Griffiths first dropped engagement hints on social media in May. Instagram Credit: News Corp Australia

The engagement hints continued in June with pictures of the costumed couple attending a Great Gastby themed birthday party.

Photos from the night are captioned with the same fiance hashtags and a nod to Dr Teo’s paperboy outfit.

After dropping the tantalizing suggestions, Ms Griffiths has remained quiet on the topic of her relationship.

The animal activist hasn’t posted any further photos of the couple on her social media accounts and there have been no more revealing hashtags.

Neither she nor Dr Teo responded to requests for comments about the engagement.

The exciting hints come as Dr Teo has taken a step back from his work as a neurosurgeon after conditions were imposed on his medical registration last year following complaints from colleagues.

The revealing hashtags were again employed in June. Instagram Credit: News Corp Australia

In August 2021, the Medical Council of NSW banned Dr Teo from performing high-risk surgeries without the written approval from a second independent neurosurgeon.

The restrictions will remain in place until next month.

Prior to the review of his medical practices, Dr Teo had built his reputation by operating on those with incurable or inoperable brain cancers.

Dr Teo had operated on WA girl Amelia ‘Milli’ Lucas, who captured the hearts of the nation during her brave cancer battle. Credit: News Corp Australia

Tags Australia, celebrities, Entertainment, Fitness, Health & Wellness, Lifestyle, News, NSWNews, relationships, Weddings

Entertainment

Social media posts suggest Milli Lucas’ doctor Charlie Teo is engaged

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 6, 2022
No Comments on Social media posts suggest Milli Lucas’ doctor Charlie Teo is engaged