Wearable Fitness Devices: Pro's and Con's
Fitness devices are becoming ever more popular this year! Whether it be a watch, a bracelet or even a necklace, tracking movement has taken over the world!
Although the likes of smart watches and step trackers have been a fairly recent development in the fitness industry, the idea of monitoring your activity goes as far back as 1965. Dr Yoshiro Hatano, a Japanese professor, was the first to suggest that doing 10,000 steps a day is a way to combat obesity. This study was named “Manpo-kei”, which translates to “10,000 steps meter”. Since then, it has been widely known that 10,000 steps a day is a goal for most individuals looking to lose weight or improve their overall fitness.
Wearable fitness devices typically track your steps, as well as any other physical movement you do in a day. Some smarter devices can even monitor your sleep patterns and have text message systems. This is great for those who want to follow their movement and reach their fitness goals! There are various positives for owning a wearable fitness device:
- Motivation
For many, this is the main reason for purchasing a fitness device! Monitoring how much you move (or how little you move) can be great motivation to change up your workout regime or reach your goals. If your goal is to reach 10,000 steps a day, wearing a fitness device that tracks your steps is absolutely ideal.
- Progress
Noting how many calories you burnt during your spin class from one week to the next, for example, can be a great way to track your progress. Most wearable fitness devices will monitor your calories burnt and your heart rate during a workout. Being able to compare these can be an indication of your progress. A great example is for runners who are trying to reach a time goal for their regular 5k run!
- Overall health monitoring
As previously mentioned, fitness devices can provide more information than just your workouts. Being able to monitor your heart rate and sleep patterns might just help you to recognise a potential issue before you normally would! A great way to monitor your overall health is through having a Wellness Review with your Personal Trainer. Our Tanita machine can tell you in-depth statistics, such as your metabolic age and body fat percentage.
As with everything, there are some negatives attached to wearable fitness devices, such as smart watches. These include:
- Inaccurate results
The average level of accuracy for fitness devices can vary from individual to individual. The ‘calories burnt’ metric is based on an average for your height and weight, and therefore may likely be a general average rather than a specific result for you. This doesn’t render them useless, it just means that you need to take the results with a pinch of salt!
- Over-reliance on numbers
As many people wear their device every day, it has the potential to become addictive. Fixation can be focused on calories burnt, steps done or even just working out every day. It’s important to listen to your body and take rest days when needed. It’s even more important to ensure that you are not becoming obsessed with the statistics on your device. Having a break from the device can be helpful every now and then!
In conclusion, fitness devices can be such a useful tool to track your movement and can help you reach your goals! However, it’s important to have breaks and not become overly reliant on the stats. If you would like to book in for a Wellness Review, please email info@avenuetennis.co.uk or call 01634 386188.
