This week I had my first two sessions of Scalp Micro Pigmentation performed by Kyle the owner of Studio Sashiko. My appointments where for Monday and Tuesday where each day I had a 3-4 hours SMP session. Day one was to address the crown or back area of my head and day two was for the frontal hairline area. I will be going back in about a month to do some fill in and add a bit more density in some areas. It's better to do this type of process using multiple stages rather than going to dense or dark by mistake as it is easier to add more density then take it away.
SMP or Scalp Micro Pigmentation is like getting a tattoo but the needles are not as large so it is actually a little less painful overall and I did use some numbing cream before each process. I would say the pain level while the needling is happing is fairly mild and if anything I felt more irritation after the process than during since my skin got fairly red to the point where I could even feel some throbbing from my pulse especially when I had the crown or back area done. I did not notice this throbbing as much when I had the second procedure done for my frontal areas.
In this video I take short video clips throughout the week so you can follow along how this entire process went and what if this is something you may be interested in it should give you a good idea on what to expect the first couple of sessions.
Overall I am really happy with these initial results, the density is a bit better than I expected it to be but it may soften a bit over the following month. There are some patchy spots that need a some more filling in and my frontal hairline needs to be a little less perfect with some softening right on the frontal hairline edge. All of this is super easy to do and I may even be able to get it all done during my third session which will be in about a months time.
There are lots of shaker bottles out there for mixing your supplements and sport drinks, some even offer special separate compartments for storing your protein powders or other supplements for later mixing and consumption.
The FUELSHAKER PRO Hybrid Shaker Bottle does this a little different in a couple of ways. First off the design, quality and attention to detail is the best I have seen from any shaker bottle I have come across! And secondly the FUELSHAKER PRO Hybrid Shaker Bottle has a unique system that not only allows you to store your sport drink mixes in a separate and dry area from your liquids but also quickly and easily release your supplements or powders into your fluids without having to unscrew or open the FUELSHAKER PRO mixer container. So no accidental spills or protein powder mishaps :)
This is done by simply pressing on the rubber coated bottom of the FUELSHAKER PRO Hybrid Shaker Bottle to release the mixer disk which at the same time opens a passageway between your stored fluids and powdered mixes.
All you need to do after that one simple step is shake and enjoy :)
Here are some of the main features and benefits of the FUELSHAKER PRO Hybrid Shaker Bottle:
Our signature Fueler Pro powder cartridge
Hassle-free push mixing system
Turbine-shaped agitator for a perfect mix
100% Leak-proof technology
Latchable loop for easy carrying
Easy dual-open body for cleaning
Dishwasher safe body
Fits to almost any cup holder
Holds 600ml fluid capacity
Holds 50 grams of powders
BPA free
My personal impressions of the FUELSHAKER PRO Hybrid Shaker Bottle:
I was extremely impressed with the design, quality and build for the FUEL SHAKER PRO. Most containers are made from thin flexible plastics while the FUELSHAKER PRO uses thick rigid plastics with rubber coatings in many key areas.
It’s really great to be able to store my fluids and workout powders separately so that when I actually need them they are freshly mixed and at their most nutritious state. The ability to simply press the bottom of the FUELSHAKER PRO container to do this makes the entire process simple and efficient.
I also liked that the FUELSHAKER PRO was completely leak proof with a screw on lid, many shaker bottles have snap on lids which I have found can open accidentally in your gym bag or in other situations where messy fluids are not what you where hoping for.
The design of the FUELSHAKER PRO allows the main holding area to be opened from both ends which makes cleaning super easy, no trying to scrape out caked on powder from crevices.
One thing I found that took some getting used to was the rather smallish opening for adding your supplement powders, there is just enough room for an average size protein scoop to fit from side to side so it is easy to get protein powders along the edge where the mixing disc needs to be placed. Thins could result in an improper seal which could cause some cross mining of your chosen supplement powder and fluid. So you either have to be a little careful when loading up your supplement powders or make sure to clean the edges before popping in the mixing disk.
All in all the FUELSHAKER PRO Hybrid Shaker Bottle is a really great product and if you take your supplements seriously then you are going to have to seriously consider getting yourself a FUELSHAKER PRO Hybrid Shaker Bottle!
The Atlas Wristband is an exercise tracker you wear on your wrist .
The Atlas Wristband automatically figures out what exercise you are doing and counts each rep as you do it.
The Atlas Wristband has a built in Heart Rate Monitor for tracking your heart rate during workouts.
The Atlas Wristband has 3-axis Accelerometer and a 3-axis Gyroscope built into it for motion tracking.
The Atlas Wristband App will figure out approximately how many calories you burn during a workout.
The Atlas Wristband does have a built in watch feature that displays the time and date.
The Atlas Wristband has a built in motor to allow for vibration alerts.
The Atlas Wristband is water resistant to 30 Meters.
The Atlas Wristband Syncs to your Smart Phone via Smart BT (BT LE) and syncs your workout data to the Atlas App.
What the Atlas Wristband Does not do:
The Atlas Wristband is not an all day fitness tracker.
The Atlas Wristband does not track your steps or sleep.
The Atlas Wristband does not automatically figure out how much weight you are lifting.
The Atlas Wristband does not currently have an online cloud based interface.
The Atlas Wristband does not pair or sync with any other devices or Apps at this time.
More Details for the The Atlas Wristband:
One of the better Optical Heart Rate Monitors I have tested. It was actually able to read my heart rate for the most part but lagged somewhat.
The Atlas Wristband Currently recognizes about 50 exercises, however you can only place 15 of them in the Atlas Wristbands memory at any given time.
After each set you will have to confirm the exercise type, how many reps and how much weight you used, the Atlas Wristband will remember the last weight you did from your previous set.
Let’s take a quick look at the Atlas Wristband:
The Atlas Wristband has a two piece design with a wrist strap and removable module. The module is held in place securely using strong magnets and it works very well.
The wrist strap is fairly rigid but not overly so and uses a standard watch clasp. There is some texturing on the back of the strap but not so much on the front which helps to keep it fairly lint free.
The main module has a White PM OLED touch screen, a USB charging port on one side, a kind of on/off button on the other side and the Optical Heart Rate Sensor on the back.
Once the screen is on you can toggle using the touch screen between different options: The main watch, your Programed Workouts, your Freestyle Workouts, your Heart Rate, Device Tips and Power Off. Within Device Tips you can see your battery Power Level, select which power saving mode you want to use and see a few quick tips on how to use the device.
The Atlas App:
Home Screen: The Home Screen has three main areas: “My Workouts”, “Plan Workouts” and the “Sync” Icon. Pressing the Sync Icon will Sync your data back and forth between the Atlas App and the Atlas Wristband. “My Workouts” shows you your completed workouts, the Summary window shows you the type of workout you performed along with how many calories you burned, your average heart rate and how long your workout was. The Cardio Window shows you a diagram of your Heart Rate Activity and the Velocity Window let’s you know if your rep speed was where it needs to be. When you use the Atlas Wristband Exercise tracking feature you will also see the exercises you performed along with their reps and the weight used for each set. You can make changes after the fact in this area of the Atlas App. “Plan Workouts” has a several pre-programed workouts that can be loaded on the Atlas Wristband, you can also create your own custom workouts and have access to the list of Freestyle Exercises that you can sync to the Atlas Wristband.
My Profile: The “My Profile” area is of course where you would setup your personal information.
Freestyle: This area again is where you have access to the 50 or so available exercises the Atlas Wristband is currently able to recognize. Again you can select 15 at a time that can be transferred to the Atlas Wristband for any given workout.
Exercise Guide: This is essentially the instructional area where you can watch a video of supported exercises. You can also select to view a brief description of how to perform an exercise and view a graphic of the muscles that are utilized in this exercise.
User Tips: This tab sends you to an online reference where you can access tips on how to use your Atlas Wristband.
Comparisons Between other Strength Training Tracking Options:
My Garmin VivoActive does not track exercises, reps, sets or weights used. It tracks your weight lifting workout activity level based strictly on your heart rate activity (while wearing an additional Heart Rate monitor). All other workout details are not recorded but in terms of calories burned this method is very accurate.
Gym Hero Pro is an App for the iPhone that is software based only and all data must be manually entered in by the user. Gym Hero Pro is however very clever and will auto fill your past data in for you which can be helpful not only by saving time but also being able to see exactly how you performed during your last same workout. Gym Hero Pro does a pretty good job of figuring out how many calories where burned and has a lot of other very useful data that you can review either on the iPhone App or online using (fitty.co) cloud based web services.
Overall the Atlas Wristband was in the ballpark in terms of Heart Rate measured but was a little on the low side which is pretty common for Optical Heart Rate Sensors and in terms of claoreis burned I felt it tracked a little bit low. I did find it was pretty good at recording what exercise I was doing and usually got the reps right. I did notice that every once in a while the Atlas Wristband would think I was doing a workout set when I was simply moving around the gym getting ready for a set. This can throw things off a bit if you don’t catch it before you start your next set. I did like that the Atlas Wristband preloaded the last weight I used from my previous exercise set which made it pretty easy to adjust quickly if I went up or down 5 or 10 pounds between sets.
Is the Atlas Wristband Strength Training Fitness Tracker the Real Deal and does it live up to all it claims to be?
I am a bit on the fence here. I have know doubt this technology will get better and better to the point that any objections I have now will be taken care of, perhaps even sooner than later since I know for a fact that Atlas is working feverishly to improve the user experience on their Atlas Wristband.
What I think is really cool about the Atlas Wristband is that it does do a fair amount of the work for you so in a way you only have to enter in some of the data, but it is not fully automatic and either the Atlas Wristband can get confused or sometimes it’s me to blame for not interacting with the Atlas Wristband at the right time. This can lead to some missed data and if you really screw up, you may even kick yourself out of a session and not be able to get back in again.
There are around 50 pre-programed exercises you can pick from but I found there where many exercises I regularly perform that where not listed and so I either had to change those exercises or leave them to the end and skip them on the Atlas Wristband. I know Atlas is working hard to bring more and more pre-programed exercises to their Atlas Wristband but as of right now this is a big limitation for me. Atlas has said that in the future, you will be able to create your own exercises using a type of monitored user programming mode.
I was really impressed with the optical heart rate monitor since most of them simply do not work with me at all, completely failing and sometimes thinking I’m dead when my heart rate becomes elevated. So for me, at least for now I can choose the Heart Rate option for tracking my workouts but that is really not what the Atlas Wristband is all about. Once a few of these limitations are taken care of I really feel the Atlas Wristband will come into its own and I think a revisit may be in order at that time. Unfortunately for now I will have to stick with my Garmin VivoActive and Gym Hero Pro for tracking all my workout data.
Watch my Full Review Video for the Atlas Wristband Strength Training Fitness Tracker:
Again I want to thank Adam from Athletes Collective for providing me with these really great athletics shirts!
This is my final review of Athletes Collective Athletics Wear so this video not only goes over the key features and benefits of the Athletes Collective Athletics Wear line but I also talk about my experience wearing this clothing line. The beginning section is more info based while the end section are mainly my thoughts and Opinions about Athletes Collective Athletics Wear.
Key Points & Features: All shirts are unbranded, so you can wear a nice quality athletics shirt without being a walking advertisement for some company. After all you more than likely had to pay for your shirt so why do you need to advertise for them too?
All Athletes Collective Shirts are Pre-shrunk, you can dry on high heat and wash and dry them as often as you like and Adam has promised they will not shrink no matter what! Mind you Adam has not met my wife...
Another awesome fact about Athletes Collective is that they are Canada based and all products are made just outside of Toronto Canada - eh!
Adam boasts that his Athletes Collective Shirts have an Athletic fit, not a compression shirt and not too lose, true to size. I am a large in real life and so I asked Adam to send me all large shirts trusting him that this was true and they are a perfect fit. They are also super stretchy so you will not feel constricted at all while working out and as you get even more huge, the Athletes Collective shirts will accommodate your new massiveness :)
Pricing is very competitive as compared to other similar major brands, and that’s in Canadian funds which is good for us here in Canada and for all everyone in the US since your dollar is so strong right now!:
Sleeveless $22.50
Short Sleeve $25
Long Sleeve $30
Athletes Collective also offers Free Shipping to Canada and the US on orders over $50 which is a great deal since you only need to buy a couple of items to take advantage of the free shipping.
And if that was not enough already, every first purchase comes with these free items:
32oz water bottle
Drawstring back with front zipper pocket
What did I think? So now that I have had some time to wear my Athletes Collective Athletics Wear shirts and put them through the wash several times. I can say they have faired really well and look and feel pretty much exactly the same as when I first got them, no shrinking, fading or material changes after wearing and washing.
I am 6 feet tall and about 195 pounds and the shirt size I chose was large. They fit really good but because they are so stretchy I may even be able to get away with a medium and they should still feel pretty comfortable but I do like the way the large fits on me.
One note to point out is the neckline, you may find it to be on the loose side but this works out really nicely when working out since you do not feel constricted in this area or feel like your neck is getting rubbed by your shirt. When wearing more for casual use the looseness may not be a benefit? I did find that after washing the shirts the neckline seemed to fit a little better.
I would like to see more variety in design and colors and it would even be nice to see more clothing options like shorts, pants, hoodies and even hats! I am sure this is probably in the works but I thought I would mention it anyway.
This video is the first in a series of videos I hope to create for my YouTube Channel and GetFitOver40 Blog. In this "Getting Real Series" I want to touch upon subjects that at least for me I feel may be more private, so in other words I would normally not share with most people, especially the YouTube community. It is human nature to want to put our best foot forward and we all have things in our lives that we don't want people to see or know about, they may not even be all that bad but for some of us they can be embarrassing or make us feel less than adequate.
What most people, see when they watch one of my videos or talk to me in person is the person I want them to see, the person I wish I was perhaps and that is usually at their best, not their worst. We all tend to be a little this way.
My first subject in my "Getting Real Series" is the subject of going bald and this may not even just be for men, many women struggle with thinning or balding hair and this video will show people in this situation a rather interesting option to correct not only hair loss on top of the head but also in other areas like thinning eyebrows or even lack of facial hair.
There are all kinds of hair loss options out there, some to try and grow your own hair back, some to mask the effects of baldness and the most extreme measures are to surgically transplant hair back where it has fallen out. The cost for these options can vary a great deal and cost as much as several tens of thousands of dollars. Personally I am not prepared to have surgery or pay a ludicrous amount of money to have my hair back but one option that came to my attention called "Scalp Micropigmentation" looks really appealing to me in terms of the look I want to go for, the lifestyle I want to live and the cost I am prepared to pay.
In a nutshell, Scalp Micropigmentation is basically very similar to a regular tattoo but instead of getting a tattoo to create artwork on your body, Scalp Micropigmentation is used to cosmetically create the look of hair on your body, in my case it will add hair density to the areas where my hair is thinning and even over time will continue to create the look of a full head of hair as my real hair diminishes. I will have to keep my hair short since the hair being tattooed does not look like long hair but rather looks like short hair follicles, so a buzzed hair look works really well with Scalp Micropigmentation. If you have some hair on top of your head like me, you can get away with a bit longer hair even with Scalp Micropigmentation since your scalp will have a darker appearance in general making it hard to distinguish between the real hair and the added shaded hair.
Scalp Micropigmentation technicians also use different ink and needles compared to regular tattoo artists since hair follicles are rather small and so much smaller needles must be used. The ink used in Scalp Micropigmentation is also very different and is charcoal based since it must remain a shade of grey even when fading over time. Regular tattoo dyes can go blue or red over time which would lead to a very unnatural looking hair line. Another very important distinction between a regular tattoo artist and a Scalp Micropigmentation technician, is the level of training required for Scalp Micropigmentation. Scalp Micropigmentation is not something you can simply do even if you are a very good artist, you must be trained and certified or again the results will not look natural or believable.
So after a lot of research in the subject of Scalp Micropigmentation, I feel I will be moving forward with this procedure since I am comfortable with a short or buzzed head look and Scalp Micropigmentation will give me a back my full looking head of hair that I once had :) And at a price that is very affordable compared to other solutions out there. If you live in the Langley BC area and are interested in looking into this option for yourself, then you may want to checkout Studio Sashiko! I will keep you posted on my results...
Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 12:45PM ;)
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