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Gymboss Review - Interval Timer and Stop Watch
Whether you are following the 12 week boxing training plan, or just using boxing in your own workouts, you'll quickly discover that being able to accurately time your rounds and rest intervals is absolutely essential. The Gymboss Interval Timer and Stop Watch could be the answer you are looking for.
About two weeks ago, Jake from Gymboss contacted me to see if I'd like to try out a Gymboss and report about it on How to Box. After laying the ground rules, that I will say exactly what I think, good or bad, one quickly showed up in the mail, I clipped it on and for the last two weeks I've been giving it a thorough beating...I mean testing.
First - The Description
Physically, the Gymboss Interval Timer is 5.5cm long x 4.5cm wide x 2.3cm thick (including the clip). It is made out of a lightweight plastic which feels kind of cheap, but unless you are smashing it into the floor, works just fine.
As you can see in the pictures below, it has a large screen, that is easy to read (although you won't be looking at it much other than to program it). It is powered by 1 x AAA battery. Battery life seems to be decent. I'll have to report back on actual duration, but it has been through 2 weeks of regular workouts (1-2 per day, 10-12 rounds, plus running) and it is still going strong.
It currently comes in 3 colors - Silver, Hot Pink Soft Coat, or Slate.
It has three buttons that are used to program it and operate it. I'll cover the programming a bit more below, but it was very easy to follow the included instructions and I had it up and running in about 2 minutes. It is water and shock resistant and comes with a 1 year 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
It attaches to your clothing via a standard spring loaded clip. If you have a pager, it is identical and in fact the whole unit actually resembles a pager, only slightly smaller than the one I have to carry around and lighter as well.
What Can You Make It Do?
As you can read on the back of the package, with the Gymboss you can:
- Set one or two different time intervals from 2 seconds to 100 minutes
- Auto keep repeating through the intervals
- Acts manually as countdown timer
- Set alarms by beep, vibration, or both
- Set alarm duration of 1, 5, or 10 seconds
- Use as a stop watch
What's Good About It?
Gymboss Helpful Tips
As far as round timers go, the Gymboss is a simple product that does what it promises to do and nothing more. It is not loaded with features, trying to be a hundred things in one. It tells you how long to work and how long to rest and does that extremely well. You setup the timer for your workout, turn it on and let it direct what you do. The ability to set two timers in the unit means one interval timer tracks your work duration, the other tracks your rest interval. You don't need anything more for a boxing workout.
The Gymboss is light. So light in fact that in the beginning I was constantly checking to make sure it was still clipped to my shorts. You really don't know it is there until it starts vibrating or beeping telling you to do something.
This also lends testament to the strength of the clip. It kept the Gymboss securely in place through every punch, bounce, situp, pushup, squat, etc... Yes, it actually stayed put - everytime. I've been fighting lately trying to find a good set of headphones that will stay in my ears while I workout, so it would have been absolutely frustrating to have another piece of kit that is supposed to make my workouts better and more enjoyable falling off every couple of minutes. I'm happy to say, it didn't.
The Gymboss has the perfect set of notification options. It either beeps (high or low), vibrates, or both, telling you when it is time to start, stop, or switch from one thing to another. I tried all three and then settled on a low beep with vibrate to notify me. You can increase the number of beeps from 1 to 5 or 10 and apparently the volume or pitch - although I didn't notice a difference between a high beep and a low beep in either volume or pitch. I do a lot of work one on one with people and having an audible beep works great in that type of setting (or even a group setting) while the vibrate option is good for those training times when you don't necessarily want people looking at you wondering why you sound like you're going to explode.
Gymboss Programming
I was quite impressed with the ease of programming. I got a little concerned when Jake told me I could watch videos on Youtube that would step me through how to program the Gymboss, but can honestly say I didn't need to go that route and simply relied on the 4 x 6 page of instructions that came with the unit. It was well written, short, and to the point and I didn't get lost once. As I mentioned, got the hang of it in about 2 minutes and pretty sure anyone else could do the same. That said, if you are having trouble, they've put videos on Youtube that can walk you through it. :)
Now I don't know for sure if the speed with which my Gymboss arrived for review is indicative of an actual order or if the customer service I received via email from Jake is the standard, but I can say mine showed up about a day after I emailed Jake and every question I had during the testing was responded to promptly and with a solution or suggestion to my questions. I believe you can tell a lot about a product by the dedication of its company, so they have my thumbs up in this regard.
Last thing I want to mention on the good side is the Gymboss website itself. It clearly shows you how their product is useful for various sports including boxing, mma, running and even provides Tabata routines. If you have some time, visit their site for some good training ideas.
What I Think Needs Improvement
I mentioned this as a good point, but I also need to mention it as an area for improvement. I said the Gymboss is an Interval timer and it does that extremely well without any extra bells and whistles. Well, for boxers, I hope future versions of the Gymboss can include one more feature, and that is a 10 second warning notification.
Jake was great at telling me how I could achieve the same effect - basically set one timer for 10 seconds and the other for duration of the round, but that means manually resetting/starting the timer every round rather than letting it do its auto round thing. Plus, the 10 second notification, should be a different sound (like hitting the ring or clapping). I've always been a big proponent of training to the same conditions as you find in the ring, so more you can mimic the ring environment, the better you will be conditioned come fight day.
I also mentioned above that the unit feels cheap. I'm assuming it was purposely done this way to keep production costs down and the weight very light. I'm fairly certain that throwing the unit on the floor once or twice would crack it's outer shell. I didn't try it, so maybe I'm wrong. Don't know why you would want to do that anyways, but accidents happen. Good news is that the unit isn't expensive, so if the inevitable happens, you're not out hundreds of dollars. Plus, it comes with a one year 100% satisfaction guarantee. I don't believe the overall feel of the Gymboss should deter you from trying it. Perhaps the soft coat (hot pink version) feels differently - not sure, didn't see it - not that I'd wear it to the gym anyways.
Maybe I'm tone deaf or something, but there are two beep notifiactions in the unit - a high beep and a low beep. Whether that refers to pitch or volume, I'm not sure, but I really can't tell the difference between the two. Really didn't matter- a beep is a beep, but if they're supposed to be different, as far as I can tell, they aren't.
I have two purely cosmetic concerns. I'm not a big fan of silver, hot pink, or slate. I'd like to see Gymboss make a black model and get rid of the giant embossed GYMBOSS.COM that is below the screen. It's a cheap looking font that makes the unit look even cheaper and reminds me of those really crappy MP3 players you can buy in bargain shops. Nobody is going to be able to see that when I'm bouncing around, so the advertising value really isn't there and it bugs me when I buy a product and then have to flaunt where it came from without any choice in the matter. Just a personal pet peeve.
In Summary
Overall, I like the Gymboss and recommend you buy one if you're looking for a round timer. It does what it says it will do and has not shown any signs of problems. Granted, I've only used it for a short time and perhaps others out there can comment on it's long term capabilities. Even the few points for improvement I raised really aren't show stoppers. I'm sure someone loves hot pink and is happy they make one it that color. To each his own. The Gymboss is a good addition to any gym bag and will definitely take the headache out of interval training of any sort. If you want to be freed from computer based round timers for your workouts, the Gymboss Interval Timer and Stop Watch is your ticket.
