Five years ago this news would have had me rushing to the expo, never mind collecting my race number, I would want to get my hands on the latest piece of ‘essential’ training equipment – but my excitement at the news of the latest member to the Forerunner family is rather subdued after my experience with the Forerunner 405.

My first experience of Gamin came with the Forerunner 301 and I quickly became obsessed with it. Downloading and analysing all my training and races, sharing my training routes with club mates and also using it when travelling to record where I had been exploring. I think that a clear indication of how much I loved and relied on my Forerunner was when I lost my watch during a weekend away and in spite of being a poor student, I ordered a new one with two days of exhausting all search options.

Fast forward to January 2008 and the news came out that of the launch of the Forerunner 405. Instead of the bulk and size of its predecessor, the 405 looked like a watch, so could be worn all the time without weird looks form colleagues at work and if you don’t have to take it off after running I have less chance of losing it. But for me I had to get it for the ‘HotFix satellite prediction, which means it locks onto satellites quickly so you can be out the door and on with your run in no time. It also has a high-sensitivity GPS receiver to stay locked onto satellites, even near tall buildings or under tree cover.’ As I was living in New York at the time I often lost signal running around Central Park with my 301 so was eager to get hold of the new 405. With delay after delay the 405 was finally release in May 2008 and after playing with it in a few stores I decided to part with my $349 plus tax. It was the worst $349 I have ever spent.

I don’t know where to start with my hatred of this gadget. I don’t think I have ever hated any piece of equipment so much and far from being a method of relaxation my runs with my forerunner 405 leave me frustrated and more wound up than before I left the house. The Forerunner is so unreliable that I wear both my 301 and 405 when training or racing with the 405 purely to record my heart rate.

To summarise the differences I’ll describe my experiences with both. The 305 is charged by plugging into a standard USB cable into the watch which can be attached to your computer or plugged into the wall. The screen tells you when the battery charging process is complete and you can unplug it and leave it in your training bag. One month later when you go back to the watch if you haven’t used it then you will still have 13 hours of battery life. Also if it says you have 2hours charge left then you know you actually do have 2 hours. If you get to work and remember you need to charge your 305 or are away from home for a weekend then you can use any standard USB cable to recharge it. When you go to use it if you are in a new area then it can take a while for the signal to pick up but never more than 10 minutes. The screen is large and the most important feature being the large chunky buttons that can be activated when wearing gloves, in the rain, with sticky gel covered fingers and without accidentally pressing adjacent buttons. Its major flaw is that in built up areas you can lose signal but this flaw is more than acceptable when added to the ease at programming the watch with a virtual partner and audio training alerts for distance or pace. Laps are easily recorded by pressing the large lap button with the large red stop button easy to see, no matter how hard the rain may be blowing into your eyes. Finally to download the data to your computer you simply plug it into your computer using the USB.

The Forerunner 405 requires a provided clip to charge the battery. Again this can be plugged into a wall plug or computer, but if you find you need to charge it up away from your home (believe me that is a lot of the time) and if you haven’t carried around your charger with you then you are stuck. The other aspect is you can’t just plug it into the wall to start the charging you have to press a button to activate the charging process. Sounds like a simple process but it is frustrating when you go to use the watch at a race and realise it never charged overnight. The other annoying aspect is that if you are charging you and you have a power cut or a light bulb blows you presume that when the power comes back on it will restart charging but it doesn’t. Many times I have returned to my watch after a day of charging to find it has a blank screen. Don’t assume that because you have had it charged for 16 hours that it will be fully charged when you go to use it. Often I unplug it with 100% charge to step out the door and be greeted with the low battery notification and a blank screen before I have reached the end of the road.

A further issue with the battery is how quickly it gets used up trying to find the GPS signal. 30 minutes before a race starts I switch on my 301 and try to get my 405 to pick up a signal. By the time the race starts my 405 will still be searching but helpfully telling me the accuracy of the satellites (so much for the Hotfix satellite prediction). For all this effort I find that my battery life is now 87% fine I think 100% is 8 hours so I must still have around 7 hours left, plenty of time to finish the race. But whilst the 301 picked up the signal within 5 minutes at the start line the 405 waits a further 2 miles before I get any data from it. Things then work well scrolling through my predetermined screens of heart rate, pace, virtual partner, distance.  As I approach the next mile marker I try to press the lap button, and again, and again, in the end I give up it’s not too important I can read it off my 301 or I can distract myself with some maths as I run to calculate my pace. 6 miles in everything else is fine. I have locked the bezel so I can’t accidentally catch it with my clothing, a fellow competitor or passing motorist but my screen starts randomly scrolling not with pace/heart rate/time but with the accuracy of the GPS satellite and battery life and compass directions. Great I don’t know how fast I am running but I do know that I have 10% battery life left. 10%?? How did I use 77% of my battery in less than 1 hour. Before I can check the screen again the battery life warning appears on the screen and the bleeping begins.

‘What’s that telling you?’ asks a fellow competitor ‘are we going too fast?’.

‘No, my battery is low’ I reply

‘Ah, forgot to charge it did you?’

Getting back home I want to download the little data my 405 recorded but unlike the 301 the 405 needs a handy ant stick for wireless transfer. That ant stick that you have to remove when carrying your laptop and fell down behind the drawer or you left plugged in your work computer.

One of my major issues with Garmin is that they know that the Forerunner 405 is flawed and have done nothing to rectify the problem with their customers. I am on 405 watch number three. I cannot fault the friendliness of the customer service people at Garmin. After getting to my uncharged watch again as I set out for a 22 mile run I ring up the customer service line ready to rant at them yet the clear English speaking operator is so understanding I can’t shout at them anymore. Although really I should. Every time they ask me if I have the most up to date software, I say it was down loaded last week, they say there was a new update yesterday I should try that to see if it solves the problem. I hang up happy then a week later conclude it isn’t any better. Occasionally the operator tells me what I am experiencing is a known problem and will send me a replacement. The first one was a brand new 405, the second one exactly a year ago was a refurbished model. Refurbished so well that on its first wear the strap fell off and I had to rush to the London marathon expo to get a new strap fitted before the next days race.

As I said Garmin know there are many faults with the 405 that they quickly released the 410. Comparing the specifications they are identical although the improvements to the Forerunner 410 include:

• Added device shutdown feature to the System menu
• Added banner that notifies customer when the device will be entering low power mode
• Added enhanced touch bezel

There is also the option of two additional wrist straps which allow a more comfortable fit for us thin wristed females. I am not the only person who has experienced problems with the 405 as many online forum users have discussed although the 410 appears to still have issues in the wet. I wish Garmin had offered replacement upgrades to those of us who have the flawed Forerunner 405. I would love to train with the Forerunner 610 with its new touch screen and new functions such as the Training Effect which measures the impact of an activity on your aerobic fitness, but I don’t have the money to risk on a product which may have as many problems as the 405 did when its new bezel was launched. My loyalty to Garmin disappears further with every frustrating run I attempt with my Forerunner 405 and with new GPS watches coming on to the market such the Nike+ sportwatch with GPS provided by TomTom at half the price of £179. Maybe it is time for a change.

Rolling back massagers are OK for relaxing the whole back but I never find they reach my shoulder area. And handheld manual massagers such as the ones supposedly that treat cellulite don’t get deep enough. So I was happy to trial a new massager from HoMedics who identify themselves as ‘an innovative leader in self-care, wellness and personal health products.’

What is Percussion Massage?

The HoMedics Compact Percussion Massager is described as having ‘Percussion action for deep tissue massage’. As I thought percussion was term to describe musical instruments I wasn’t really sure what that means in terms of massage so I did a bit of research, apparently in massage percussion movements are known as tapotement.

The purpose being:

• to vibrate tissues
• trigger reflexes from the skin
• cause widening of the blood vessels (vasodilation).
• disperse fluid and inflammation from an injury
• reduce swelling

Benefits of percussion movements include:

• being very stimulating
• particularly useful to athletes before an event.
• strengthen muscles by stimulating the muscle to contract.
• useful in reducing fatty deposits and flabby muscle areas

Sounded great, although in massage terms as it is described as a cupping action I presumed that this massager was going to work the vibration principle.

HoMedics Compact Percussion Massager is described as compact and light weight. I found that it weighs 850g, around 950g with the plug and cable, and is 33cm long. Not that compact for carrying around, but it is the perfect size for what it is designed for. It is solidly built and if it was lightweight I would feel it wouldn’t be massaging deep enough, just tickling the surface of the skin. It is however not too heavy that you can’t hold it with one hand over your shoulder to massage your trapezius muscle effectively, although after a few minutes held in that position you can feel your hand and arm vibrating on their own. In terms of the length of the handle (25cm) it is ideal for reaching all areas of your body with the appropriate pressure.

It comes with 4 customisable attachments including, soft, medium, firm, although I have to say that I didn’t notice much difference between the various options. Admittedly I didn’t require very deep tissue massage such as after a marathon but I found them effective in easing stiff muscles the following day after a 10k race. There is also a heated attachment, but this requires the vibrating action to be switched on whilst it was heating and I felt I needed a stand whilst it was heating as I didn’t want to just hold it for 5 minutes but if you but it on a table it vibrated off and I was worried about leaving it on a carpet incase it over heated. Luckily it doesn’t heat that much to worry about, just enough to be soothing and whilst it isn’t silent it is no louder than an electric toothbrush.

Whilst I tested the compact massager there is also a version with a width adjustable head. I however was happy with the width of the compact head, it was a perfect size for my arms and what I found most useful was for treating my tarsal tunnel syndrome.  It was the exact width for massaging the base of my calves to relieve my symptoms and especially useful was to use one head with the heat attachment on the base of my heel.

Overall

HoMedics Compact Percussion Massager is easy to use alone, due to the long handle and the solid head allows massaging of deep tissues efficiently.

Has two different speeds offering variable intensity massages for strong and therapeutic relief. The different attachments did not provide obvious differences in massage intensities.

Not particularly lightweight but appropriate for massaging deep muscles effectively.

Soothing heat attachment provides warmth whilst massaging but needs a support whilst heating which takes a while.

HoMedics Compact Percussion Massager RRP £34.99, available from Amazon,  Boots, Sainsbury’s, and Lloyds Pharmacy.

I was looking forward to try the warmer even though the press release sounded like it had been written by someone who had never experienced the need for one:

‘The Hand Warmer is a great accessory if you’re outdoors a lot of the time – we all know that even in the hottest summer it can get cold at night… This would be perfect keeping you warm in your caravan, as well as being an ideal accompaniment to take with you to the footballing terraces when the weather turns sour. It is also ideal for those taking part in outdoor sports and want to warm up/down’.

My experiences of hot summers are that even in the evenings I’ve no need for a hand warmer as I’ve got a cold drink in my hand; caravans have heaters and if you are cold you have your hands round a mug of coffee or you have a hot water bottle; the people who would use one on a football terrace are the sort who bring a flask of tea with them anyway and for the rest of us can you imagine being with your mates and getting your hand warmer out?  And finally if you take part in outdoor sports you warm up and down by moving you whole body and getting blood flowing though your muscles not holding a hand warmer.

In spite of this I was keen to try it as it is made by Zippo, a worldwide trusted and recognized brand, and unlike other types of heat packs that either only last for 40 minutes, require heating in a microwave, or can only be used once, this is a new liquid-fuel warmer. The Zippo Hand Warmer claims it can produce more than ten times the heat of traditional warmers and lasts up to 12 hours on just 0.4 ounces of Zippo’s Premium Lighter Fluid.

To see how easy it was to use the hand warmer watch the video below. The Zippo Hand Warmer also comes complete with a can of lighter fluid, and using the filling cup you can fill the warmer to work for either 6 or 12 hours. After lighting the platinum-catalyzed glass fiber burner, heat is produced without a flame. It recommends you put it straight away into the warming bag included and you really need to as quickly it felt as hot as a boiled kettle if you touched the warmer directly. After about 8 hours it had cooled so I could hold it without the bag but after giving it a shake it immediately reheated to the initial temperature and lasted for a further 4 hours.

After road testing the hand warmer I appreciated why the press release was a bit vague on where or when you could use it:

• It is slimline, about the size of an iPhone or Blackberry, so fits easily into pockets but you probably want to buy two as it’s not something you would stand about wrapping you hands round.
• If you are going to use it when you watch an outdoor sporting event or on a summer evening out then you can’t be spontaneous when you want to use it as you wouldn’t want to carry lighter fluid around with you so you have to fill it up before hand which also means you have to estimate how long you will need it for as once it’s lit you can’t turn it off.
• After watersports would be when I would find it the most useful, but it’s not a very waterproof product as you wouldn’t want to get the glass fiber burner wet by taking it with you on the water.

I feel that the hand warmer is a really useful product. It is compact, it maintains a high constant heat for a long time, it’s virtually odourless and it’s reusable and at around £20 is affordable. I just don’t know exactly which outdoor activities it is most suitable for.

However, the best use for the warmer that I found though was not for using as a hand warmer but as a heat pack for muscles. Although heat should not be applied in the first 24 hours following an injury, heat application can increase blood flow and promote healing in an injured area.

Heat is also useful to increase muscle temperature and if it’s used before stretching exercises, can increase extensibility of connective tissue such as tendons, ligaments and muscles, significantly increasing flexibility.

Hot water bottles and microwaveable heat packs are great but they are large and quite inconvenient also they need to be regularly re-heated. This hand warmer though was the perfect size to hold against specific muscles or joints and slipping it down some tubigrip round my arm or leg kept it in place even when I was moving about.

Overall I can’t fault the Zippo Hand Warmer for the quality of the product and it performs exactly as it is described, my only problem is recommending when it could be of most use.

Zippo hand warmers are available on eBay, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and leading outdoor stores.