Fitness trackers have been round ever since Thomas Jefferson began tinkering together with his watch with a purpose to depend his steps.1 Calorie-conscious Founding Fathers apart, wearables like Fitbit and Apple Watch have grow to be widespread equipment for a lot of exercisers within the final decade. Even for those who haven’t but bought a devoted health tracker, your cellphone might be counting your steps proper now.
Considering how ubiquitous wearables have grow to be, let’s take a more in-depth have a look at the health advantages of health trackers and the way these helpful gadgets can degree up your exercise routine.
#1 Maintaining Motivation to Exercise
While a few of us are hard-wired exercise machines that by no means miss a day on the fitness center, many others want that additional little bit of accountability to take care of a wholesome train schedule. A wearable health tracker may be like slightly coach that you just strap to your wrist, reminding you to stay to your health targets.
These bits of motivating information embrace:
- Monitoring your every day steps
- Tallying your energy burned
- Recording your exercise efficiency
Research has proven that motivation and accountability are essentially the most dependable advantages of utilizing a wearable health tracker.2
Whether you may have a morning or night exercise, ending any exercise is a rewarding expertise, however there’s one thing additional satisfying about attending to the top of a session (whether or not you’re exercising by yourself or joined group train courses) and having your health tracker inform you that you just simply beat your earlier finest tempo. Aside from motivation to succeed in your aim, the health tracker additionally helps reply the query, “How many reps ought to I do?”
#2 Keeping Track of Heart Rate
But whoa, speedster—decelerate there. Sometimes, striving to beat your finest can imply pushing your self past what’s wholesome. You additionally have to be aware of your coronary heart health. One of the opposite advantages of a health tracker is that you should utilize them as a coronary heart fee monitor. Your tracker will let for those who’re going too arduous—or not arduous sufficient.
Your wearable doubtless calculates this for you, however as a reminder, your most coronary heart fee is set by subtracting your age from 220.3 So, for instance, for those who’re 40 years outdated, your most coronary heart fee comes out to 180.
The fundamental pointers for a wholesome coronary heart fee throughout train are:
- Moderate depth: 50% – 70% of your most coronary heart fee.
- High depth: 70% – 85% of your most coronary heart fee.
As you method every exercise, do not forget that it’s essential to hearken to your physique. Fitness trackers are a useful gizmo, however you in the end have to evaluate what degree of train is protected and wholesome to your physique.
#3 Monitoring Sleep Schedules
Our health monitoring gadgets don’t cease working simply because we’re finished exercising. Wearable health trackers can be used to file our sleep schedules. Most gadgets do that by measuring numerous metrics like your coronary heart fee and motion throughout the evening. They can then assess whether or not or not we’re getting sufficient sleep—and whether or not or not that sleep is restful or fitful.
Paying consideration to your sleep habits is an usually neglected a part of a wholesome life-style. And for those who’re sporting a health tracker, it could even maintain you accountable if you creep off the bed for that midnight snack…
#4 Calorie Counting and Sticking with a Diet
All wearable health trackers—and even most telephones—supply calorie-counting applications that detect what number of energy you’re burning at any given second by monitoring your physique’s metrics. While it’s good to know what number of energy you’re incinerating throughout train, it’s equally helpful to know what number of energy you’re consuming—particularly if one in every of your health targets is to drop a few pounds.
Fitness trackers might help dieters log what they’re consuming. Many supply barcode scanners that may enter energy into your tracker instantly from a bundle’s health data.
Plus, don’t overlook about water! Fitness trackers can be used to log water consumption, ensuring exercisers keep hydrated. Remember, our wholesome hydration ranges are:4
- Around 92-124 oz per day
#5 Monitoring Medical Conditions
Fitness trackers may be about extra than simply beating your private excessive rating or counting energy. In reality, they’ll have a really actual influence on these with medical situations. Many health monitoring gadgets can:
- Send irregular heartbeat alerts to these with coronary heart situations (helpful for individuals monitoring their RPE vs heartrate)
- Monitor glucose ranges (when built-in with one other machine) for these with diabetes
- Send an alert for those who endure an accident whereas exercising
Stay Connected at Chuze Fitness
At Chuze, we consider that expertise generally is a useful gizmo to assist our train group get essentially the most out of their exercises. That’s why we’ve created the iChuze Fitness Experience. With a ton of digital courses out there—from cardio kickboxing to meditation—you possibly can customise your whole wellness expertise. Our dynamic platform even syncs together with your Apple Watch for enhanced health monitoring.
And don’t overlook concerning the Chuze app—your pocket-sized health pal. Because we now have totally different services in numerous states, it’s simple to search out “iChuze gyms close to me”. And to get you additional motivated to work out, we actually have a playlist you possibly can hearken to.
With slightly high-tech assist to trace our information, we Chuzers can deal with what actually issues: your physique, thoughts, and coronary heart.
Reviewed By:
Ani is the Vice President of Fitness at Chuze Fitness and oversees the group health and group coaching departments. She’s had a 25+ 12 months profession in membership administration, private coaching, group train and teacher coaching. Ani lives together with her husband and son in San Diego, CA and loves scorching yoga, snowboarding and all issues wellness.
Sources:
- Forbes. Thomas Jefferson Tracked His Steps Long Before The Apple Watch. https://www.forbes.com/websites/theodorecasey/2021/02/25/thomas-jefferson-tracked-his-steps-long-before-the-apple-watch/?sh=4b8b68a332e4
- The American Journal of Medicine. Is There a Benefit to Patients Using Wearable Devices Such as Fitbit or Health Apps on Mobiles? A Systematic Review. https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(19)30553-4/pdf
- Mayo Clinic. Exercise Intensity: How to Measure it. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/health/in-depth/exercise-intensity/art-20046887
- Mayo Clinic. Water: How a lot do you have to drink every single day? https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256#