Fitness trackers are everywhere. Like many fitness items they come with pros and cons. Find out how they can help, where they fall short, and which ones will serve you best.
Fitness Tracker Pros
They Get You Moving
Many people, especially in cities, get into the steps function on fitness trackers. When you see that you are only a thousand steps from hitting your 10,000 mark you are much more likely to walk home instead of taking the bus or subway. Those in suburbs or rural areas may be more inclined to head out for a walk or bike ride at the end of the day. Further, many trackers give an alert if you have been sedentary for too long. This can remind the wearer to get up from time to time to stretch out and move around.
You Get Some Baseline Data
If you are at the beginning of a journey to get back into shape, some simple data can be a huge help. A fitness tracker with a heart rate monitor shows you things like your resting or average heart rate over time. As you carry out your exercise regimen, you can see how those numbers change and thereby get a direct sense of your progress. GPS tracking can likewise help you monitor the distance of your walks, runs, or cycling, which can be used to help you design a good progressive plan for yourself. Finally, many will give you a read out that shows what you’ve done over weeks and months, which let’s you see if you are sticking to your routine. Don’t underestimate the value of this—one of the most common mistakes that exercisers make is not having enough, or adequate ways to track what they’ve been doing and how they can improve.
Fitness Tracker Cons
They Are Not Necessarily Accurate
The team over at reviews.com did an extensive review of eighty-seven different fitness trackers and concluded that accuracy was a problem. They found that the devices were particularly inexact when it comes to heart rate. All devices tested were regularly off by more than ten beats per minute, which is a lot when it comes to measuring your fitness. The good news is, the average user can still follow the long-term trends, which may be useful even if they aren’t perfectly accurate.
There Is A Bit Of A Drop Off Rate
One of the biggest problems with trackers is that people often begin very enthusiastically but then drop off after the initial novelty has passed. This goes back to the idea of having appropriate goals to measure. For example, if you are hoping that extra walking will lead to significant weight loss, you may be disappointed because weight loss is overwhelmingly influenced by diet, not exercise. To avoid this trap, understand more about health goals, such as the fact that movement is good for your body in a number of ways other than shedding pounds. Then use your tracker to help you target them.
The Key To Fitness Is Not In The Details, It’s The Big Picture
Fitness trends towards more information, more precise data, and new tricks all the time. However, the new science, information, and technology often has less value for the average exerciser than it would for a professional athlete. While athletes can benefit from details that may get them an extra one or two percent out of their performance, the general exerciser is simply not operating at the upper limits of their abilities. Hyper-detailed information in that context can sometimes be more of a distraction than help. Remember, if you happen to be an average Joe or Jane, to keep your eye on the big picture.
The Full Review
If you are considering trying out a fitness tracker then definitely head over to the extensive review at reviews.com! They’ve done an amazing job of going over the uses of trackers as well as comparing the different pros and cons so that you can make the best choice for your needs.