WalkStyles DashTrak Pedometer

WalkStyles Journal and Personal Goals

A printed Wellness Journal is available, but with a web site subscription you may keep your journal online.

After uploading your DashTrak data, you can update your daily Physical Worksheet and your daily Mental Worksheet. You can set personal goals for each day (choosing daily or checking off which days of the week for that goal) or pick some common ones from a list. Then you will be prompted to check whether you completed that goal on the days you specified.

You can add a note to both the physical and mental goals each day for your online journal. The Physical journal entry page shows daily health, nutrition and fitness tips. Then Mental journal entry page shows tips for purpose, abundance, productivity, relationships and creativity.

WalkStyles Community Features

While you view each day the progress of the entire WalkStyles community, you do not have access to a general community bulletin board. If you know of somebody else with a DashTrak and a WalkStyles subscription and their screen name, you can invite them to be a WalkBuddy.

You can also create a personal walking club with its own bulletin board and group statistics.

Optional Heart Rate Monitor

The heart rate monitor strap is a $40 option. Once you put on the heart monitor strap, your heart rate is transmitted wirelessly to the DashTrak and you can view your beats per minute and percent of maximum heart rate. When you log a Step Event, your heart rate is tracked throughout and an average heart rate for the duration is computed. Your heart rate is charted on your Step Event graph when you upload your data. I found this to be less convenient than a heart rate monitor with a wristwatch display, as it is more difficult to check your DashTrak pedometer - you must open the case and view it at waist level or remove it from your waistband. It also lacks many of the heart zone training alerts and features of many heart rate monitors. But for checking less often and for having a nice all-in-one graph of your exercise workout, it is a good choice.

Technical Support

I had one glitch with my DashTrak in its first week of use - the pedometer simply lost all settings and reset itself and refused to synchronize with the web site. I called and emailed customer support and got a response and solution the same day, with offer to replace the unit if the problem recurred.

Bottom Line: Comparison with SportBrain

I have been a SportBrain user for 18 months and very pleased with using a pedometer that uploads to a web site. The DashTrak has features I prefer to the SportBrain but also features I don't like as well.
1. Walking Workouts: SportBrain automatically logs continuous walking sessions, with DashTrak you must start and stop the logging. This has both advantages and disadvantages either way, but I am an automatic kind of gal and prefer not to have to remember to punch the menu buttons myself.
2. Battery and Recharging: The SportBrain's battery lasts 3-9 months, while you must recharge your DashTrak most every day. It is not difficult to recharge as you can just leave it plugged into your computer after uploading the data - which is what I do with the SportBrain anyway. But if traveling to a country with a different voltage and where you don't have a computer to plug into, it would be a problem.
3. Heart Rate Monitoring: I like being able to track my heart rate with the DashTrak and upload all data in one place. SportBrain only has this feature with its original unit - one that has no visual readout. The DashTrak wins handily with this feature.

Last Updated: 11/20/05