Pear Sports Biofeedback Training System

I purchased this after seeing some videos on YouTube and doing some research; of course some of that was reading the reviews here. I can't say enough positives about it. I am used to heart rate based training, having used Polar products and others. I have always liked looking at my stats after the workout, BUT I needed something a little more immediate.Enter the Pear! After doing a workout to set it up, which was guided, I downloaded a free treadmill based workout and shazaam....I now had a little voice in my head to "help" guide me through the workout. It was love at first prompt. I was able to cruise through my treadmill exercise with better results than I was able to achieve on my own.Is the Pear for everybody? I don't know, but for somebody like myself, the voice in my ear gave me the extra motivation I needed to not only work harder but I also got the immediate feedback I needed to assist in accomplishing my goals.Some people are self-starters and know how to stay on track for a workout. I am not one of those people.The Pear has definitely been a game changer. Try it once and you'll wonder how you managed without it.

Believe me I have tried some of the best training gadgets out there Polar, Garmin and Moto activ and none of their devices set up as easy or completely as this Pear system. I love not having to wear a big watch device on my wrist and also having to scan through multiple menus to get the running stats I want. As I work out Pear tells me, at regular intervals, the stats I want or on demand at the push of a button. Training by heart rate zones? The heart rate zones are all figured out for you based on your current level of fitness after a brief fitness evaluation workout. Pear offers many free running programs, some strengthening and some cycling workouts. You can also choose to buy a plan from one of the well know running coaches. I am currently training for a half marathon with my favorite author and coach Matt Fitzgerald. The program talks you through you entire workout.The best part.... miss a planned workout --- move it to another day, skip over it or do a freestyle workout of your own ...no problem. No other system I have tried had this level of flexibility. Want music? Load it on your Ipod shuffle and plug it into the Pear and your coach and the music work seamlessly together. Nothing I have tried in ten years has even come close to the Pear system.

I have been using this product for the past couple of months. I must have used it for a total of around 20-25 times. Based on this experience, I decided it is time to post a review to help other shoppers/fitness enthusiast.Package:The package comes with several items: Square One device, Earphones, Heart rate monitor and strap, Foot pod, nylon gear bag, usb cable.Setup:This is fairly easy. Connect the square one device to your computer, download and install the pear software. You can choose from a variety of workouts (free and paid) from the Pear Sports website and then sync your Pear device to download those to your square one device.Wear the heart rate monitor and the foot pod. When you turn on the device, it detects the monitor and the foot pod AND then you are good to go. You can use the up/down arrows from the device to choose a workout.FLAWS:While the technology is unique and extremely useful, the product is full of flaws.1. Earphone incompatibility: I own a Bose sports earphones and they are way more comfortable than the earphones that come with Pear Sports. When I tried to use the Bose earphones with the square one device, the Square one device acted all crazy - it kept on giving out the stats nonstop. I ended up continuing to use the pear earphones.2. Earphones Quality: The sound level from the left earphone went louder and from the right earphone decreased. Happened a couple of times.3. Foot Pod detection: Several times when you turn on the Square one device, it doesn't detect the foot pod. You have to really shake your leg, may be even jump for it to be detected. Also, during the workout, sometimes the device would just not be able to locate the foot pod. This gets extremely annoying when you are in the middle of a run.4. Nylon Gear Bag: Too small. The heart rate monitor strap doesn't fit in the gear bag.5. BIGGEST FLAW: The Square One device -a) There is no way to know how much battery is still available.b) The device pauses randomly. So I have been using one of the programs a - 50 min workout. 10 min warmup. Then 90 seconds in Zone 5 followed by 150 sec in zone 1 for recovery. This zone 5- zone 1 intervals continue 8 times before a final cool down for another 10 min or so. Normally, the device (recorded instructor voice) asks to run in zone 5 for 90 seconds and at the end of it asks to slow down. I am running with an all-out pace waiting for the instructor asking to slow down --- but it wasnt to be. The device goes into a coma so to say. After running into this issue a couple of times, I noticed that it automatically pauses. And you can resume by hitting the play button - only for it to happen again in the next cycle. I resynced the device but to no avail.c) The device is made out of plastic. While the blue color looks cool, it has a cheap plastic feel to it. There's always a fear that if you accidently drop it, it might crack.d) Compatible with iPod shuffle. I tend to listen to online music. So I ended up getting an extension cord that I use to connect my iphone and the square one device.Maintenance:1. You will need to regularly wash the heart monitor strap.2. Need to sync your device once every week or so by manually connecting to the computer. No Bluetooth sync support.While the technology is unique and am yet to find another product which offers these features, the overall product quality is just about average.

I needed a motivation and the Pear caught my attention. After the first day of use, I am questioning the hardware/software longevity of the Pear.The unit is well designed and the iPod shuffle integration is nice. However, the right side of the earphones came broken and was useless. The battery charge indicator percentage does go any higher than about 82%. Then I download the zero to run program, upload it and put it to use. The first 4 minutes, the trainer was speaking to me. Then silence. I played with all the buttons but all I get is "workout paused" or "workout resumed". So I figured I will just complete 30 minutes and see what happens. I plug the unit to my Mac after the workout and all it shows was the time duration of my exercise. It did not record any other information. I am not sure what I did wrong. The unit does not come with any detailed instruction manual so you kind of have to figure things out yourself.The website is well designed and has good selection of trainings (free and paid). Also this seems like it's geared more towards runners training for marathon/triathlon, etc. However, it is still useful for others. Also everything you sync, hundreds of audio/other files are installed/removed. While it does not take that long, I can't imagine this is good for the device.Overall, if it works, it is a good motivational device but somewhat pricey. Hopefully the replacement I will get has no issues.