Philips DirectLife Activity monitor is exercising the geek way. As a geek, I don’t understand fancy concepts like calories or body mass index or push-ups. What I do understand is status bars. I know when something is fully loaded, half loaded or almost there. And that’s all I need.

I depend on status bars to tell me how close I am to a goal. Philips knows this. The Philips DirectLife Activity Monitor looks like a pedometer and has the status bar in green LEDs on the front. Using the software that comes with the device, you enter your fitness goals and then go about your day. Then just look at it to see how close you are.

The Withings scale has a sleek and stylish look along with WiFi functionality. The latter will beam your weight and body fat measurements to a web dashboard that can be accessed using a free iPhone app. This way you can track your measurements to help motivate yourself.

It even has “ideal” values that you can try to live up to. Somehow, we think that if you are not motivated enough get fit without this thing, than this isn’t going to do much except get you down. And at $183, it’s hard to get motivated to even buy this.

Just because you use a walking stick it doesn’t mean that you can’t get in on the whole pedometer thing and count your steps. The Pedomostick from Hammacher Schlemmer is like a regular walking stick, but with an integrated pedometer that will count every step you take.

It will calculate the calories you’ve burned and it will measure the distance and time you’ve walked. That’s not all. It also comes with a built-in LCD in the handle to display all of those stats. Oh and there’s also an LED flashlight mounted in the shaft to light your way at night.

Who says you have to leave the office to go to the Gym? Or leave the gym to go to the office. Well, with the Steelcase Sit-to-Walkstation, maybe you won’t have the entire gym at your disposal, but at least you’ll have a treadmill. That’s because the Steelcase Sit-to-Walkstation is a workstation and a treadmill in one. So the question becomes, what will give you a heart-attack first? Your impending deadline or all that running at your desk?

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while being an office worker isn’t easy, but now you will have an edge. The Sit-to-Walkstation from Steelcase is a 2-in-1 workstation that allows users to walk, stand or sit while on the job. Instead of just sit.

Takara Tomy wanted them some of that sweet Wii Fit action, so they launched the Minutes Gym Digital Video Trainer which is a pretty simple looking device that plugs into your TV or display with a composite video input. Just give it some basic info and use the integrated body fat sensor to measure your current state of flabbiness.

After that a bunch of animated figures will guide you through your fitness workouts. An incredible 100,000,000. That’s right 100 million 3-minute workouts. You’d have to be Jabba the Hutt to get through all of them and still be rotund.

Those of us not handicapped take running and bike riding for granted. Sadly, handicapped individuals can not participate in either activity. But the GlideCycle might let them do what they’ve only dreamed about. Check out a video below.

The GlideCycle can be powered with just one leg, or even two disabled legs. It was developed in Oregon and is great for those who are overweight, disabled, amputees, and even non-disabled people. It’s basically a large U with wheels and a seat that lets anyone exercise outdoors.

Reviewing a technology gadget is usually is fair amount of work anyway, but trying out the FiTrainer from iTami turned out to be a little more than I had bargained for. The FiTrainer is essentially a customizable, virtual fitness coach with direct access to your current level of exertion and your ears.

The device is essentially a pair of somewhat-large headphones with a built in heart-rate monitor, music and voice prompts to continuously keep you in the “right” zone for your workout. Users enter in the type of workout and their age and then start exercising. The voice inside the headset guides you through the rest.

The Taxi Walker Pedometer from Japan gives you the usual calorie and distance measurements of a standard pedometer, but what’s interesting is that it integrates a meter displaying how much money you are saving by walking rather then taking a taxi the same distance. A good gadget to have in this economic climate.

Apparently, it’s fully programmable, and will calculate cab fares depending on your geographic location. You can even set it to make sound effects whenever a cab fare increases. The device is available in yellow, orange, white, or black for $29.00. Yeah, but will it yell at you in a foreign accent and honk an imaginary horn?

The Wellness Skull, designed by Atelier Van Lieshout allows people to sweat out illness inside of an actual skull. Because it’s not just for witches and goblins anymore. Others want to get fit in a morbid way too. It features an integrated sauna in the head with a bath located in the neck. Those nearby outside can see hot steam escape through the skull’s eyes.

If that’s not enough for the skull lover in you, the designer also offers up the Sensory Deprivation Skull, which is a chamber where you can get away from it all. The Sensory Deprivation Skull is made of reinforced fiberglass and measures 150cm x 110cm x 137cm. Only 10 are available, which is a good thing. Seeing too many people crawling out of skulls would just be plain weird.

This device is like a 12 sided nerd die with a drill instructor inside. So, maybe a drill instructor mage, tired of your fat dwarf ass. Time to level down pudgy. The idea is that you only get to watch the television when you work out. Because you are a couch potato. If you don’t work hard enough, the TV gets turned off.

The heart rate monitor keeps a check on the heartbeat, and when there is any sign of slack, the TV volume is decreased 20%, and any further slacking will lead to punishment. This motivational device is priced at $39.95. This would be awesome for those fat guys who watch football. They won’t want to miss their game so they are quite motivated to work off that beer belly.

Geek or not, if there’s one thing we all have plenty of it’s Cds. And if you want some exercise, but don’t happen to have any dumbbells around, just create your own with all of those CDs collecting dust. The one pictured is 10lbs. All you need are 150 CDs, a threaded rod and bolts and you’ve got a 10 pound weight. The rest is up to you my flabby friend. This should give you an idea of what mailmen had to go through back when all those AOL CDs were arriving at your house. Sure some got all muscular, but others threw out their backs.

The Treadwall is great for those who love the outdoors but have no mountains to climb. It’s also pretty nifty for those who hate the outdoors but want a good workout while pretending they are scaling K2. Perfect for bloggers to get away from the computer and get some exercise too. It looks kinda fun.

The whole thing is set up on a moving belt and your only job is to climb nowhere. The speed is in part determined by your weight and power you use pulling up, so the better you get, the faster it is. But at $10,000 I think I’ll go climb a building or two and take my chances.

For those who believe that they can only get an effective workout outdoors, here’s something that will trick you into getting in shape without hitting the front door. What we have here is basically a fancy treadmill with a curved VR display on top.

It’s a great distraction from your workout, but imagine the video game possibilities. You could actually run around while fragging people. Better yet, jog around the halls of the Starship enterprise or on Mars. Doctor Who fans could pretend that they are being chased by Daleks. Oh yes. It has the potential to get everyone exercising. Especially nerds. At last nerds will be fit and rule the world.

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a real fitness craze happening thanks in part to Wii Fit. Toshiba wants to do their part as well. The Toshiba Sportio is a new addition for Japanese carrier KDDi. Ironically, the phone is a fatty, but helps you stay fit with motion sensors counting the calories burned during a workout.

It also takes advantage of GPS to lay out your jogging route. It will stream music to compatible Bluetooth headphones with the ‘BEAT RUN’ function, which adjusts the tempo to you as you feel the burn. The Sportio sports a 2.2 inch TFT 240 x 320 screen, 2 Megapixel camera, GPS and 1 Seg Tuner. You’ll have your choice of five colors: orange, white, black, red and green.

Obviously the Wii Fit will be one of the best sellers for Nintendo this summer, and the concept of fun exercise is very appealing to large mammals. It’s appealing to Atari too. Atari is releasing their own version of a fitness game called Family Trainer. In Atari’s version, you don’t use a step-on board like Wii Fit, the Family Trainer uses a floor mat similar to the DDR pad.(Is this thing going to slide and hurt people?)

Family Trainer features several virtual outdoor challenges like river rafting, log jumping, etc. Atari has plans to release Family Trainer in Europe this September. No information on pricing, but expect it to be comparable to Wii Fit.