There seems to be a new wearable fitness band or tech coming out every week with what the company claim is more accurate data and algorithms on how you can track your sleep, daily calorie intake or see how many steps we are taking on a week to week basis.
The first question is do we really need wearable tech and if so how can we use it to personally make our lives healthier and assist us in our health and fitness goals. A recent report published by markets and markets highlighted that the mHealth Solutions Market is growing and is set to be worth 59.15 Billion USD by 2020. Technology in the sector is improving year on year so now is the time to truly understand how we the consumer can adopt it into our every day lives
Below we will go into three different tech solutions that are helping us stay healthier and becoming more self-aware.
Track your steps. The obvious first piece is the new funky looking wrist bands that track your daily steps. You have the Fitbit family fighting it out against the Polar loop and of course the Jawbone which was a favourite a couple of years ago. Why you should use it? How to get more from your stepper. Nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is everywhere in the fitness world at the moment and the research clearly shows how increasing your day to day NEAT is a huge benefit in fat loss or then maintaining your weight management. Having all this data means nothing if you don’t know how to really use it. Instead of setting a daily goal look at how your activity levels are on a week to week basis. That way you can look at increasing your activity on days that you were stuck in the office and couldn’t get out. A good target to head towards is 70,000 steps per week.
Heart Rate Really Does Matter. We cracked heart rate monitoring many years ago and at a strength and conditioning level is used to easily identify how his or her athletes are performing on and off the field. Why you should use it? How to get more from your HR Monitor? Similar to as mentioned with the athletic performance angle heart rate monitoring is a great way to see how your day to day fitness levels are changing. Using a heart rate monitor is also a great tool for you to start adding heart rate variability which has been shown many times to help with increasing health. If you have jumped on bandwagon of HIIT training in recent years then adding a heart rate monitor into your workout is even better at ensuring you are definitely getting the heart rate variability into your weekly workout regime. Ensure your other training days are having a different effect on your heart rate.
Sensible About Sleep. The importance of sleep is unfortunately not highlighted enough in the health and fitness world. However sleep is crucial to every health and fitness goal whether it runs a marathon, drop a dress size or increase muscle mass. Why you should use it? How to get more from your sleep monitoring. The body loves to sleep and for the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on recovery how you can track your sleep to ensure you are getting enough sleep to recover properly from your workouts and start the next day and next session in the right way. If you’re not keen on wearing a wearable when you sleep then there are a few apps on your smartphone such as the sleep cycle (pop it by your pillow). I always recommend clients that struggle to sleep to work up top a goal of 8 hours per night. If you are struggling to make this happen then similar to step counter I mentioned earlier look at having a sleep goal over a weekly basis.
Overall Health is here to stay so educating yourself on how to get the best out of it is something that is going to not only increase your health but also save you money.
