Posted on April 30, 2015 by Kate Halsall
Whether you run with your Smart phone, use My Fitness Pal or other apps to record food and activity levels, or wear a heart rate monitor; around 18% of us are now wearing some sort of fitness technology. Whether it’s to track our sleep, number of steps, or number of calories we have consumed AND expended; the ease at which we can now record and review our personal lifestyle data is just one of the benefits of wearable fitness technology.
So without being an actual gadget review, but if you were in two minds about whether you want to invest in a new toy, here’s some of the other benefits of wearable tech:
Awards!
If you’re motivated by reaching goals and setting specific achievements, wearable technology will celebrate these with you. Whether it’s medals, flashing lights, social media updates, or a little vibration on your wrist (oo er) these little devices and their associated software will keep you (and potentially others!) up to date with your progress.
Sleep Tracking!
There are a number of sleep monitoring apps on smart phones or fitness tracking wristbands which analyse our sleeping habits. It goes without saying that the better nights sleep we have, the better our productivity. To get an idea of how sleep apps work, here’s one of Lucy’s previous blogs: http://www.m8north.co.uk/blog/sleep-app-best/
Idle Alarms!
If you have read any of my previous blogs, you’ll know I’m a big fan of not sitting on your backside for hours a day. Our current lifestyles mean that on average we sit for 10 hours a day. Wearable technology has alarms which will vibrate if you are sedentary for a set period of time – so they remind you to get up and have a break. It’s about encouraging movement!
Consistent Activity!
If you’re just starting to get fit, or are coming back to fitness, these pieces of kit remind you of two key things – move more, eat less. They track activity and calories on a daily basis so they encourage you to be consistent with what you are doing. I have a friend who sets hers up to monitor how many floors she does a day and if she hasn’t reached her goal by the end of the day, she takes to her stairs!
More articles on the subject:
http://blog.zesty.co.uk/the-quantified-self-analysing-your-physical-and-cognitive-health/
http://www.lifefitness.com/blog/posts/wearable-tech-in-the-fitness-industry-its-all-about-what-you-wear.html?countryKey=emea.gb
http://www.benefitspro.com/2014/04/24/fitness-trackers-work-best-with-incentives
http://fitknitchick.com/2015/03/03/the-dark-side-of-wearable-fitness-trackers/