Nowadays it’s easier than ever to improve your health and fitness because you don’t have to do it alone. You can carry a personal trainer with you everywhere you go, right on your wrist, using handy fitness apps to set goals and reminders to keep you motivated and on track.
Here’s eight ways wearing a health and fitness focused smartwatch can help you improve your fitness.
Get stepping
We know you should aim for about 10,000 steps a day but did you know the average person only takes 4,000? Using the pedometer that is built into your watch can tell you how many steps you’ve taken, and how many more you need to do to reach your goal. It can encourage you to take the stairs or get off the bus a stop or two early. It all adds up. Your smartwatch will sit on your wrist and buzz to celebrate when you’ve hit that magic 10k.
You can’t go wrong with the Fitbit Versa for this feature.
Get the right amount of calories
Not only will your smartwatch tell you how many steps you’ve taken, but it’ll give you an accurate indication of how many calories you’ve burned in a training session and a day. If you’re keeping an eye on your calories, you’ll know exactly how many you have to play with. This is a blessing for those who like to monitor their intake for optimate dieting and training performance.
Keep track of your sleep
We also know that we need a decent night’s sleep to stay healthy. A smartwatch with a sensor that monitors your sleep can help. When paired with an app, downloaded right onto your smartwatch, it will check your movements in the night, analysing this as sleep-wake cycles to show if you if you were restful enough or not. Knowing this information can help you make better choices to improve your sleep quality. You’ll not only feel better but in the long run it can vastly improve your lifespan!
Check out some sleep tracker watches here.
Keep your heart healthy
Most smartwatches with fitness capabilities will offer a heart rate monitor. It can help you stay on track with your exercise and make sure you don’t over-train. It can help tell you where your workout sweet spot is. You can learn what pace you need to keep to ensure your heart rate is at the right place for your goal. Knowing your maximum heart rate will let you know how well your heart is dealing with the pace you’re currently at.
If you have a more advanced smartwatch, it might have an ECG sensor (electrocardiogram) to measure your heart’s electrical activity. It checks out the rhythm and might pick up potential heart diseases or irregular heartbeat. If you’re already aware of an issue, and ECG can help you stay on track of your heart’s health.
Monitor your temperature
Working out will affect your temperature in a few ways. The best thing you can do is try to keep it on a level. Being able to monitor your temperature means you can change your behaviour to make yourself not only comfortable but productive.
When you workout, your respiration process means you release energy in your muscles, which is why you heat up. Being able to maintain your body temperature means you can exercise in a safe way. Using your smartwatch to track what your temperature is means you can keep yourself at a healthy level.
The Garmin’s Forerunner 945 is a great one for this feature.
Never forget
Sitting down for too long is really bad for your health. Unfortunately, this is exactly what most jobs require of us these days. Moving around is often tricky. A smartwatch can monitor your sedentary time and send you a reminder to your wrist to let you know that it’s about time you got up for a stroll.
This is really motivational as it’s so easy to forget, especially if you’re in a desk job. It’ll help you increase your step count (and hit your goal). Also, getting away from your screen will give your eyes a well-needed break too. You only need a few minutes, but once you get back, you’ll feel like a new person.
Chase your personal best
Utilising the timer and stopwatch features on a smartwatch means you can set goals against yourself. Chase your own times! This is great for anyone into any sport that involves some kind of lap; running, jogging, cycling or swimming. It appeals to the competitor in you, even if it’s just you against yourself. You can look over your progress and visibly see your fitness improving over time.
Lose yourself in the music
Utilising the music function on your smartwatch has an indirect positive impact on your fitness by giving you something to focus on during your workouts. You’re able to tune into your new favourite crime podcast or stream music either through a wifi connection or play and control it from your built-in storage. All you need is a pair of wireless headphones. If your mind is taken off how gruelling the training session is, you’re more likely to hit a personal best.
Have a look at the Garmin range for this.
For women
Your smartwatch can be your new best friend. Using the dedicated app, your watch will track your menstrual cycles. You can find out when you’re next due and when your fertile window is approaching. You can monitor moods, cravings and a host of useful information to make sure you’re never caught off guard.
Check out the best Fitbit devices for women.
Better than your smartphone
You might be thinking that your smartphone can do all these things. You’d be right. Smartphones can use a fitness app, but a watch is right there on your wrist, using sensors to read your body to give far better accuracy. It’s also much more convenient when you’re active – just a flick of a wrist and you’ll get your information instantly. If you can’t bear to be away from social media, your smartwatch can deliver your notifications for you as well.
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Last Updated on June 3, 2021
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This is great but then I have questions
Do you store the music in the watch
Hi Sparkle! Some watches have built-in memory, whereas some are reliant on having your phone nearby. For example, we mentioned the Fitbit; you can download the Spotify app onto your Fitbit (I personally have the Versa 2) and control a playlist on your watch. Other smartwatches, like the Apple Watch, come with memory capacity to store your songs so all you need are Bluetooth headphones and you can play the music without your phone.