Team Geared Up

If you keep up with Mac news or are a constant iTunes user you’ll have noticed that there is a new section to the ever growing iTunes library. The new “Nike Sport Music” section is the first release from the new Nike and Apple collaboration at time of post it has 4 subsections the real one they are selling is the “Nike+ Workouts” section which features a continuous mix of songs along with one of the Nike trainers giving instructions for the workout in the background plus all the songs from the mix on there own. 3 of the workouts are done by Nike trainer Alberto Salazar and 1 by Jay Blahnik. The last “workout” is a continuous 45min track by The Crystal Method done just for this new section. The weird thing about this last one is that its not really a workout and it contains around 7 individual songs but is not split like the other workouts. The other subsections include “Sport iMixes” which gives you a chance to make your own mix of music you use while training; “Podcasts” that relate with Nike and the new colab product, and the “Athlete Inspirations” section which is just iMixes by famous athletes.
Now on to my review. I’ve preordered the new Nike+ attachment to the iPod Nano and will be reviewing it fully this August. So I decided to download one of these workouts, I’m a track sprinter so I thought the “Increase Your Speed 1″ workout would be appropriate. The download consisted of one 40 minute Continuous Mix with the trainer workout and 11 individual songs that are featured in the mix. Some great bands in the playlist that include All American Rejects, Queens of the Stone Age, Wolfmother and AFI. I went on the treadmill (I find this to work better as you can control your pace electronically which prevents straying) and set the timer to 40min which was the length of the workout. First was the music starting and then the trainer introduction and then he tells you to warm up for ten minutes. Since its a continuous mix each song blends nicely into the other without the lag switchover that iPods are infamous for. Eventually you hear the trainer who praises you and then tells you to increase your pace for a short period of time. Then you go back to a slower pace cooling down a bit until the next interval. You then continual increase your speed for the next 3 intervals until your at 95% of your possibly speed. It then ends with a warm down at your warm up pace. The workout is great, some of the songs really set the pace for you and you feel like you’ve gotten a good workout without killing yourself. Some of the only problems I found with these new workouts is if you don’t like the song in the workout, tough, your stuck with it and you can’t just get the workout mix you have to buy the whole album which is a little more than a normal album price at $14.99. Also since they are continuous mixes you can’t “Activate Your Power Song” like in the ad as it won’t fit the workout. In terms of a workout they are all good as the trainers are real professionals but music wise I found the Speed training and The Crystal Method workouts to be the best. I highly recommend the speed one to any sprinters.
by ALX

Here’s a link to Nike Sport Music