Training for a major sports event is never easy, be it for the first 5km run or the fifth ultra-marathon, but Tinké is here to the rescue! Follow the journey of Chris Small and James Rotheram, two first-time Tinké users, as they make use of this nifty device to get their body prepared for their ascent up Mount Kinabalu.

Preparing for this big event should be no different from preparing for any other significant occasion in your life. Physical and mental preparation is important to ensure that you can perform at your peak during the event itself. The Tinké then helps keep track of your fitness and wellness levels, to ensure that you deliver your best performance.

Tinké interprets your fitness and stress indices through the measurement of your heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation and heart rate variability. The Zensorium application and dashboard then stores the readings and tracks the progress over time.

“James and I haven’t done some tracking in awhile, and he came up with this idea. And so, we’re going to climb Mount Kinabalu together,” said 28-year-old Chris Small.

“And the Tinké is good for that (Helping to prepare for the climb),” added 35-year-old James Rotheram.

Getting started, the duo decided to try out a hypoxia chamber to see how their body would fare under external conditions, similar to what they would face on their climb up Mount Kinabalu. After doing some simple exercises, Chris was shocked to see that his Vita reading was only 47/99.

“A sense of a reality check, I wasn’t as healthy as I thought I was,” said Chris.

The duo knew that they had to improve their health, fitness and stamina, and fast. As part of their preparation, both friends practiced yoga for mind and body relaxation, two weeks prior to the climb.

“Everywhere we’ve come on this project, everyone has said we need to improve our breathing. And yoga is really a good way of doing that,” mentioned James.

As a trial run, the duo trekked up Bukit Timah hill two days before their Mount Kinabalu climb.

On the day of the climb itself, while both James and Chris were satisfied with how they have progressed over the previous month, it remains uncertain if they would be able to complete the hike up Mount Kinabalu. Chris appeared fitter than James, and James was concerned if he would become a liability for Chris.

“I think now we are in a better place than we were before. We’ve spent two weeks of training, prepared all the gear that we need, we’ve done our yoga, we’ve worked on our breathing, and in relaxing ourselves and our bodies, and we’ve done a lot of physical training. I think after all that, we are more prepared than we initially were. On Tinké, my scores are pretty good,” said Chris.

“My score this morning wasn’t brilliant on Tinké, but that’s not telling how my body feels, but we need to get hiking to see how the body reacts,” remarked a concerned James.

While the ascend itself was a daunting experience, both friends pulled through and made it to the top, being possibly at the highest point one could ever be in South East Asia.

“This was tough. This was really tough. Am I built for it? Maybe now? But a month ago and doing our training? No. All this played a role and helped me get ready for this climb,” said Chris.

Using Tinké for a month, Chris and James were able to improve their Vita and Zen indices, to successfully conquer Mount Kinabalu. The journey itself will not be easy, but training with Tinké can make the process a whole lot simpler.

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Zensorium, the makers of Tinké and Being.