The best foot pods are a great way to get more accurate feedback on your efforts. These devices are small sensors that fit into the laces of your running shoes and measure how far you have traveled based on foot strikes.
Some people prefer to run outdoors, but for those who prefer to exercise at home or in the gym, a treadmill is an excellent idea. However, this can become boring for you and result in a lack of motivation. Fortunately, there are products that can help you achieve your goals.
The foot pod offers running progress tracking. A foot pod always encourages athletes and fitness enthusiasts to keep improving their performance during Treadmill and Zwift running. Zwift is a popular application, especially for cyclists.
The best foot pods are also used as training devices for runners who do not want to be interrupted by music or GPS signals. The technology embedded in these devices is designed to provide the information needed to measure distance, speed, and pace without any additional accessories required!
A foot pod is a small device that you can attach to your shoes.
It works by measuring the amount of time it takes your feet to hit the ground, which then translates into speed. The foot pod also counts the number of times you take a step, which provides information about distance traveled. You can then upload that data to your computer or smartphone for future reference.
Latest Foot Pod Recommendations for Zwift Running & Treadmill
In this guide, we’ve rounded up the top ten options for Zwift foot pods as well as an overview of what makes each one unique. So no matter what your budget is or what features you’re looking for in a pod, there’s something here that will help take you from beginner to pro runner faster than ever before!
We are presenting some top and outlasting foot pods for Indoor and outdoor runs for Zwift and Treadmill.
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Who needs a Foot pod?
The foot pod is a small size device that you need to put on your shoes while running on the treadmill. This handy device helps you to know about the progress of your workout through the application. The major drawback of this device is that it is only compatible with selected Android devices and iOS devices.
2 Different Kinds of Foot Pods
There are actually two different kinds of foot pods: a heart rate monitor and a pedometer.
Heart rate monitors
Heart rate monitors are typically wireless and connect to your treadmill or stationary bike via Bluetooth. They send heartbeat information to your device, which then displays the information on the screen. This is helpful if you’re doing HIIT or sprint training and want to know how hard you’re really pushing yourself.
Pedometers
Pedometers can be worn on your ankle, wrist, or clipped onto your shirt. These track distance, means that they’re great for running if you don’t have GPS. If you’re running outside and want to make sure you cover a specific distance (say, five miles), it’s helpful to have a pedometer for accuracy.
How to Choose the Best Foot Pod for Treadmill or Zwift Running? Buying Guide
The most important things to consider before buying a foot pod are:-
1. Compatible with Zwift
The foot pod you are going to buy should be compatible with the Zwift. Before going for any of the products, check its features and compatibility, whether it is compatible with the app or not.
2. Output Data
Every foot pod has some specific output data that it provides, such as Speed, Cadence, Distance, etc. These are the metrics that you can choose from to analyze your performance in any workout.
3. Accuracy
The accuracy rate of the foot pod determines how much accurate your results will be. If you want accurate results during your workout, then upgrade yourself by purchasing a more accurate foot pod.
4. Foot Pod Type
There are two types of foot pods available in the market, i.e., Bluetooth and ANT+. You have to choose the type of foot pod according to your requirement and convenience because if you chose the wrong type, there’s no way back again.
Thinking About Foot Pod? 5 Reasons Why It's Time To Begin!
Running without the evaluation of your day to day performance evaluation is of no use. You need a record of your progress to justify that you’ve worked towards your success. Here are the five reasons why it’s time to begin Zwift running tracking using foot pod.
- Your physical fitness counts a lot, especially when it is the time of the Global COVID-19 pandemic.
- Running and sweating slows down your aging process.
- You need to have strong legs if you want to have good health. Thus running is the best option.
- Zwift provides many game-like features, turning the boring activity into a more mobile and social pursuit.
- In the span of COVID-19 global pandemics, it is of utmost necessity for us to prevent outdoor activities. But at the same time, it is the basic need to work for our physical fitness and interact with others. Thus Zwift is the best possible option.
1. Zwift Run Pod
The fastest way to get to Zwift is to get the best Zwift running foot pod. What you need is a Run Pod, a treadmill, a tablet, a smartphone, or another gaming gadget.
It has an updated firmware to improve the accuracy and durability of the link, tracks and transmits pace and cadence to move you across Zwift’s virtual worlds.
Run foot pod allows the running of a treadmill to be enjoyable, productive, and social. The Zwift Run Pod is designed for goal-oriented athletes at all levels. It comes in black color and weighs 0.01kg.
It has dimensions of 3.27 X 2.68 X 1.38 inches. One thing to keep in mind is that the Zwift calibration stores on the gaming system, so if those users still use the same machine to run Zwift, they would need to re-calibrate for each run.
If you’re using this to run on Zwift, it won’t work on smart TV alone, as smart TVs don’t have enough memory to run the program. You’re going to need Apple TV or a device and HDMI cable to connect to your TV.
2. Garmin Running Pod Dynamic
The Garmin Running Dynamics Pod is the best Garmin foot pod. It computes and sends 6 dynamic metrics to your compatible computer so that you can review your fitness with ease. Besides having an amazing battery life, it gives the facility of a replaceable battery. Moreover, the battery has a life of up to 1 year (assuming 1-hour daily use). Having the automation facility, it can automatically turn on and off. It has a small and compatible size.
It is less than 5 ounces, you’re going to forget it’s there once you wear it. The color in which it comes is a forced yellow color. It has dimensions of 1.5 X 0.8 X 0.9 inches and a battery life of some 8760 hours. Compatible devices link to the Garmin Connect Mobile app to synchronize your data and connect to others. Moreover, it is wireless.
The dynamic pod captures the same Running Cadence data captured by your foot pod along with several other metrics that can replace wearing an HRM strap. But you will still want to use the foot pod for measuring distance and speed indoors. Outdoors, the GPS will still more accurately measure distance than any foot pod. For outdoor running, you can also use an outdoor smartwatch.
3. Garmin Foot Pod
This Garmin foot pod is doing the great job for treadmill and Zwift runners. It gets attached to the shoes, being the best Bluetooth foot pod too. Foot pod transmits data on distance and speed to Garmin Forerunner 305 watch and Garmin fitness app on your phone efficiently. The color Garmin offers is black color and the package includes batteries as well. It has a dimension of 1 X 1 X 1 inch.
This small foot pod is small enough to clip to your shoelaces or slip into the midsole pocket of compatible shoes while Treadmill and Zwift running. It’s always ready to use and a small, replaceable watch battery will power the foot pod for a year of training. Unlike basic pedometers, this foot pod uses advanced MEMS inertial sensor technology.
This technology analyzes your movements and is sensitive to stride-length adjustments to achieve 98 percent speed and distance accuracy. Besides, this sensor measures the cadence to help you optimize your training.
It’s an ANT+ device and will work with any GPS watch that supports ANT+ foot pods. This requires one of several Garmin GPS watches to work, such as the 310xt, 910xt, etc. It is not a standalone device. I don’t know of any phone apps that can be used with it. Hence it is the best Garmin foot pod.
4. Polar Bluetooth Stride Sensor
Being one of the best Bluetooth foot pods, it includes smart features to track your speed and distance when combined with a Bluetooth Smart Ready System and a mobile training app, such as Polar Beat. Running watch is suitable for running on a treadmill, an indoor track, or a muddy trail. After your workout, view and check your running cadence and walking distance on polarpersonaltrainer.com, a free online training diary.
The lightweight, shock, and waterproof sensor fit on your shoelaces to handle even the most challenging runs. It is for women. You can use the sensor for walking, hiking, and running as long as you have a good connection to your mobile device and you have an app that works with the sensor. It is a sort of CR2025 that is available to radio shacks, staples, and pharmacies. The battery is 78 inches in diameter and 1 inch in thickness.
By the way, I use my HRM every day of the week and the battery lasts for around 14 weeks. It works with m400, only if it accepts smart BT accessories. So what is stopping you to buy one great foot pod for your Zwift running.
5. Wahoo RPM Cycling Cadence Sensor, Bluetooth/ANT+
Whenever you’ll search for the Bluetooth foot pod, you’ll come across the name of Wahoo. This foot pod tracks and captures real-time cycling speed on your bike computer or smartphone with compatible training apps. Lightweight and easy to install – NO MAGNETS. Attachments to the crank arm or shoe of your bike (mounts included).
Integrated with Bluetooth and ANT+, RPM sensors connect Wahoo, Polar, Garmin, and more to smartphones, tablets, and bike computers, proving to be the best Bluetooth foot pod. Record your workout data with the Wahoo Fitness app and upload data to your favorite training platform like Strava. A platform that is working with 50+ Smartphone applications, including Wahoo Fitness, Zwift, Trainerroad, Sufferfest, MapMyRide, Komoot, RideWithGPS, Cyclemeter, Peloton, Rouvy, Fulgaz, Kinomap.
It has dimensions of 6.5 X 4 X 0.5 inches with a weight of 0.01 kilograms. The Wahoo RPM Cadence Sensor is a wireless, magnetic, compact, frequency sensor. This simple and elegant, Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT+ assisted cadence sensor is easy to assemble, integrate to your iOS or Android device, and exhibits your coda data (through the free Wahoo Fitness App or other top cycling Apps such as Starve, Map My Ride, and Cyclometer). In regards, the RPM will connect to ANT+ facilitated bike devices.
The foot pod is lightweight and very sleek in design that’s why it will not create any disturbance on Treadmill run.
It works with indoor trainers who have real bicycles attached to the trainer unit. It’s going to ignore any magnets, I’m sure because they’re not magnetic. Works pretty with spin bikes, too. It’s an encased recumbent bike that’s a problem, and I refuse to give it up! If you have connectivity issues, first be cognizant that Bluetooth only pairs with a single item at a time will need to forget partnering, encrypt Bluetooth, or power down a recently paired network to communicate to a new one.
6. COROS Performance Optimization Device
Another high performance foot pod, which provides sophisticated Treadmill and Zwift running statistics like Form Power, Ground Time, L/R Balance, Stride Height, Stride Ratio, Grip Strength, and Cadence.
It can be integrated with COROS watches/COROS app with the new upgrades from V4.0. Running Efficacy & Running Hypothesis Testing was removed from the comment analysis. V2.30 or newer watch firmware is needed when mixing with your COROS Copter. It weighs around 19 g. The awesome battery is also one of the finest features, hence a life which is about 1 year (2 hours per day)
The key to efficiency is the COROS POD is easy to use, shake it to initiate, pair it with your watch or the Chemical precipitation app, and attach it diagonally to your torso in the core of your back. Also referred to as vertical perturbation, stride height legislation how high your body lifts out of the ground during your jogging stride. It is a stride foot pod and great investment in your Zwift running.
Why is this important? While it is important to ensure that you push off the ground, you would also like to make sure that more of your fuel is used to move forward instead of up in the air. Too big or too small may state areas for improvement – let’s find your happy medium.
The Stride Ratio is your Pace Height separated by the Lung Capacity. Let’s find the perfect ratio to make sure you’re not jumping up and down or going to compete for a long jump. The ideal Stance Ratio ensures that you use your body’s energy to drive you forward as effectively as possible. We would all love to have a price per share split between our left legs and our riding legs, but for a variety of reasons, this is less common than you would think. Knowing which side of the body you tend to prefer can help you identify potential injury problems before they eventuate and can help fix your running technique.
7. Suunto Foot POD Mini
Another top-rated, still best zwift running foot pod. The respective foot pod measures both outdoor, indoor distance and time. The battery capacity is 400 hours. Waterproof: 10m/333ft. ANT disturbance-transmission. Interchangeable battery for the user. Produces the greatest Ambit2, Suunto Ambit2 R, Suunto Ambit2 S, Sunnto Quest, M5, Remit. It comes in an oval shape.
Quantify and tally speed and location information while walking, running, or jogging. Measures both interior and exterior speed and distance. Waterproof up to 30m to protect against the elements. ANT-transmission is free of disruption. User removable battery with battery capacity up to 400 hours. It weighs 9.0g. It has dimensions of 6.5 X 4.25 X 1 inch. The trait of being unisex, helps it stand out as one of the best running foot pods. It’s lap calculations that are transported to your watch in real-time w/what Suunto calls Suunto ANT.
Foot pod will make you feel applause when receiving real time Treadmill data.
I used it asynchronously with w/a Gps tracker (phone app) and it tapes the same length even If I’m walking or running, but I’ve not bought a GPS watch yet. The Navigation watch should have an ANT+, which is the intensity used by the POD. This should be paired as long so it’s the same frequency.
8. Lumo Running Pod
Who’s the Lumo Run for? Lumo Run is for you, from beginner to elite. One of the best foot pods for treadmill running. A beginner seeking to get inspired and informed on how to run the best direction; an experienced runner looking to run faster and further while reducing the risk of injury; a triathlon or hardcore marathoner looking to exfoliate crucial minutes off your PR and win the very next competitors. It’s Lumo Run for you.
Better Form, Better Statistics the most of your every mile with Lumo Run, a reformist running sensor, and a free app (iOS/iPhone only) confluence to track, analyze, and focus on improving your appreciation of how you’re moving so you can move quicker and further. When you’re operating your phone, get authentic, in-run, aural, and motivational player development for instant improvement.
Receive personalized experiences for strength training and drills (revealed in the video) based on your data between each run.
See a rigorous post-run overview for each run, albeit with an analysis of your form and actual quality. Foot pod Track trends and progress with pairwise testing. You get the potential to leave without your phone (after an initial 10-minute assessment run that requires your phone to be on). Then it installs object detection post-run to information relating to run overview and actionable insights (excluding GPS, pace, and distance data).
These features make this foot pod a quite decent pick for treadmill running.
9. Nike+ Stand Alone Sensor Kit
Another best BlueTooth foot pod is Nike+. Compliant with Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later, with Windows XP or Internet Explorer (SP2) Home or Professional.
Place the Nike+ Sensor under your left Nike+ ready shoe socket and begin moving to toggle it with your Nike+ Sport Watch GPS, iPhone 3GS, or other Nike+ biometric scanners. Assess your pace, width, elapsed time, and calorie expenditure. But it’s not compliant with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus.
The Nike+ Sensor allows us to track your time, distance, pace, and much more while you’re running. It uploads your run data to Nikeplus.com, the highest running club in the world. Here you can maintain your headway, join challenges, overlay your runs, and communicate with your friends. Nike+ Sensor makes run traceability easy. The Nike+ Sensor makes it easier to manage your time, distance, pace, and more while you’re running. Subsequently, upload your run data to Nikeplus.com, the largest running club in the world. Here you can measure your progress, join obstacles, map your runs and connect with your friends.
How it works?
Immediately place the Nike+ sensor under your left Nike+ ready shoe socket and start running to sync it with your Nike+ SportWatch GPS, iPhone 3GS, or another Nike+ GPS tracker. The method detects your speed, distance, time that elapses, and calorie expenditure. This message is relayed to your device for responses in real-time while you train.
What else do you need?
A couple of ready-made Nike+ shoes.
Therefore, this Nike+ foot pod sensor is great way to store your Zwift running stats on the cloud. This’ll help you to evaluate, compare and analyze your performance for a long time.
10. POLAR S1 Foot Pod
When it comes to the best running foot pods for a treadmill, how can we forget POLAR S1 Foot Pod? It provides correct readings of speed and distance. It is secure and easy to wear, worn at the top of the shoe. Also, it is waterproof up to 2 meters-perfect for running through puddles and wet weather. Have compatibility with the versions Polar S625X, S725X, RS200, and RS400. It has up to 20 hours of battery life; uses a single AAA battery.
With the Polar S1 Foot Pod, you can track your speed, distance, pace, and average speed with a compatible Polar heart rate check (HRM). The Polar S1 incorporates inertial technology and DSP (digital signal processing) to provide accurate speed/speed and distance data. It’s worn on top of your shoe and provides outstanding water resistance. It is compatible with the models Polar S625X, S725X, RS200, and RS400. It comes with a special holder fork. Have ideal dimensions of 3.85 X 6.9 X 1.9 inches with a weight of 6.72 ounces.
This product may expose you to chemicals, including TDI, that can cause cancer and birth defects, or other reproductive harm in the state of California. The foot pod of S1 would not be compatible with the Zwift application. Instead, one would need a Bluetooth streak sensor enabled. Moreover, it is compatible with the RS200. Although being the best Zwift running foot pod, this one should be used carefully.
Foot Pods to Get the Most out of Your Zwift Running
If you want to get Zwift and Treadmill foot pod for running tracking, there are few ways to go about it.
Characteristics to be Considered
The number one and easiest way is to get into it is to have a foot pod that measures every single foot stride, the speed, the distance, and the cadence that you are running. Then it calculates that into a running pace, communicating that with Zwift. It then propels you forward at a faster, slower rate and displays your cadence on Zwift running.
Zwift Treadmill
The other alternative is the Zwift compatible treadmill. But most people are using foot pods. Zwift themselves have been testing running pods, not Zwift running pods. In fact, other pods as well and they always have an updated list of Zwift compatible running pods.
Zwift Run Pod
There are a lot of running pods, but as far as Zwift running is considered, it is the best possible option, in the long run, to get Zwift supported run pod. The most common one is Zwift run pod, which costs only 30 bucks.
Stryd Running Foot Pod
Zwift themselves recommend Stryd running foot pods. But it is the most expensive, somewhere around 200$. It does yet measure a lot more metrics. As far as Stryd is considered, it is best among all the GPS watches. It gives much more functionalities than any other running pod. Thus providing you the most comprehensive history of your runs. Hence one of the best Bluetooth foot pods, weighing only 10 grams. Stryd also has a Zwift live version on it, thus it is a small pod with never-ending packages. Moreover, it doesn’t need a battery replacement, that is why it is this much light. It has a charging dock that it sits on to recharge.
Budget based Foot Pod Pick
So those are the two key ones, budget-based, basic full-featured pods. You can pull out very accurate, and lots of training data from it. Now there are some other options to consider.
Polar and Garmin Foot pods
Polar Bluetooth stride sensor ranges somewhere between 80-124 dollars. But it is kinda tough. Still a little bit less featured than Stryd. It measures speed, cadence, stride, length, and distance. Connects via Bluetooth although it is the largest of all sensors. It is a little bit bulkier, besides, it requires a replacement in the battery. The thing about it is not rated as that much accurate. It requires frequent calibrations. The last one is Garmin’s foot pod quite durable and long-lasting for any kind of running activity like treadmill, other indoor and outdoor runnings.
These were few things to keep in consideration while choosing a foot pod!