Watches & Trackers: The Best Choices In High Tech Fitness Gear

Keep­ing fit today is about so much more than sim­ply hit­ting the gym two or three times a week, slog­ging through an aer­o­bic work­out and lift­ing weights for 20 min­utes to sculpt your biceps. That kind of fit­ness train­ing is just so 20^th cen­tu­ry, don’t you agree? Today, get­ting and stay­ing fit is much more than an activ­i­ty you do on the side; it is an inte­gral part of your life. You include your work­outs in all aspects of your every­day rou­tine by count­ing how many steps you take each day, keep­ing an eye on your heart rate and bone den­si­ty, and by track­ing how many calo­ries you con­sume in a 24 hour period. Fit­ness is no longer some­thing we do in the hours after work; it is a vital part of life you treat holis­ti­cal­ly by incor­po­rat­ing your rou­tines into each and every part of your life. Thanks to advances in tech­nol­o­gy, one of the most impor­tant ele­ments of a com­plete fit­ness rou­tine is a sports watch or fit­ness tracker. These devices can con­tribute enor­mous­ly to the pic­ture of your over­all health and well­ness, as well as give you a com­plete pic­ture of how you’re far­ing aer­o­bi­cal­ly every day.  They also analyse how well and how long you’re sleep­ing at night. Those fac­tors are cru­cial pieces of your fit­ness puz­zle, and if you haven’t invest­ed in one yet, it’s the time! But which one? We’ve got some great sug­ges­tions for you on that score, so think about your needs, the designs you like, and how much you’re will­ing to spend. (All our options are avail­able on Ama­zon, so access­ing your favourite won’t be a problem). Before we get to those options, let us explain the dif­fer­ences between the two devices. In real­i­ty, there are very few, but nonethe­less, you should be aware of them before decid­ing which one is right for you. Fit­ness track­ers do just that: they track your fit­ness his­to­ry, count your steps and record your heart rate and sleep. But because they are a (rel­a­tive­ly) new tech­nol­o­gy, a huge advance from the days of pedome­ters (remem­ber those?) they don’t offer quite as much – yet – as sports watch­es do. For exam­ple, they aren’t avail­able yet in a ful­ly water­proof mod­el, so if swim­ming is your pas­sion, you’ve got to look elsewhere. And they are avail­able in as many dif­fer­ent designs and colours, so if appear­ance mat­ters to you as much as func­tion, maybe a sports watch equipped with lots of fit­ness apps is the way to go. But fit­ness track­er tech­nol­o­gy is devel­op­ing rapid­ly, and soon every­thing avail­able on a sports watch will be avail­able on a tracker. If the econ­o­my is a fac­tor for you, a fit­ness track­er is def­i­nite­ly worth con­sid­er­ing, as they are usu­al­ly less expen­sive than sports watch­es, which may offer a vast array of set­tings and apps, but ones you may not need or use. In that case, why pay for extras that will, metaphor­i­cal­ly speak­ing, gath­er dust and sit idle? And now let’s car­ry on to those options we mentioned:

Sports Watches:

1- Apple Watch Series 5, 6 and Watch SE:

These watch­es are raved about by users and indus­try experts alike, but it goes with­out say­ing that you must have an iPhone for compatibility. The Apple Series 5 is one of the most pop­u­lar sports watch­es on the mar­ket and offers every­thing from sleep analy­sis to a heart rate mon­i­tor that comes with an elec­tro­car­dio­gram that’s been giv­en the nod by the FDA.                                                                                                               This device even alerts you when your envi­ron­men­t’s noise is get­ting so loud it could dam­age your hearing. The mod­el 5 sports watch comes with an enor­mous num­ber of apps, so whether you’re a run­ner, a pow­er walk­er or just a mom on the go try­ing to track her steps each day, this watch is a ter­rif­ic choice! And if you’re not sleep­ing well, it will let you know it!

2- Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2:

For all Android users out there, the Active 2 is an excel­lent choice that is com­pat­i­ble with your phone’s oper­at­ing system. Although it comes with an EEG sen­sor built-in, the research on this at Sam­sung is still under­way, and the mon­i­tor isn’t on yet. But as soon as that step is com­plete, Sam­sung will acti­vate the sen­sor, and it will be func­tion­al on your watch.

This watch comes with plen­ty of apps, and of course, it tracks your heart rate, steps and sleep patterns.

Fitness Trackers:

1- Fitbit Charge 4:

For those who are a bit less com­fort­able with daz­zling tech­nol­o­gy and being swamped with data, a Fit­bit is a great choice. The screen is easy to read, and the strap is com­fort­able to wear not only while work­ing out but all day. This track­er even prompts you to get off your couch and walk anoth­er mile if you haven’t met your dai­ly fit­ness goals. It also tracks heart rate, sleep pat­terns (REM and reg­u­lar), pulse, and length of every work­out you do. And it’s eco­nom­i­cal, one of the best prices on the market.

Con­sumers con­tin­u­al­ly give Fit­bit good reviews for ease of use, screen clar­i­ty, and oth­er func­tions, so if you’re look­ing for a basic track­er with­out too many bells and whis­tles, a Fit­bit is a sol­id choice.

3- Garmin Instinct Solar:

This track­er has won much praise from users and indus­try crit­ics alike for its solar-pow­ered, bat­tery-life-extend­ing fea­ture that lets you count on your track­er sur­viv­ing in almost any out­door condition. That’s a great fea­ture for work­out war­rior types, so if you’re a hard­core fit­ness fanat­ic, this Garmin is a great option to con­sid­er. It has all the usu­al fea­tures – it mea­sures your steps, sleep pat­terns, and of course, exer­tion lev­els dur­ing your workouts.

It nudges you if you’re slack­ing off and alerts you when calls, emails, and texts come into your phone. One more new and great fea­ture is that this tracks your blood oxy­gen lev­els while you sleep, one more piece of vital infor­ma­tion in your over­all health profile. 

Wrapping Up!

This is a brief roundup of some of the most pop­u­lar, high-tech fit­ness track­ers and sports watch­es on the mar­ket today, but of course, there are many oth­er items from which to choose. We want­ed to give you an idea of what’s avail­able, and you can now research these and oth­ers, either online or at your favourite sport­ing goods retail store. Wear­ing one of these devices allows you to get a much more com­plete look at your fit­ness pro­file, as well as your “inner” fit­ness (like your rest­ing heart rate) and sleep habits. Those, too, are impor­tant com­po­nents of your over­all health, and tech­nol­o­gy now gives you the data you need to ful­ly under­stand how you’re doing on the path to wellness. Set­ting fit­ness goals and exer­cis­ing dai­ly, watch­ing your calo­rie and car­bo­hy­drate intake, and get­ting enough rest are the three pil­lars of vital­i­ty and health. And all the infor­ma­tion you need on those pil­lars can now be attained by glanc­ing down at your wrist – isn’t tech­nol­o­gy wonderful?!