Unfortunately, you can't buy the motivation to get your butt in the gym (or to do any kind of exercise). But, you can buy a great fitness tracker to help light a fire under your ass to take more than 500 steps in a day. And hey, that's not nothing!
The conversation around fitness has changed quite a bit over the past few years (as made clear by Every Fashion Brand Ever releasing a line of matching leggings and sports bras). We can thank the self-care revolution for this one. Actively monitoring your fitness progression isn't just for athletes or people training for their hometown's 5K. It's a building block of wellness that people are baking into their daily groove, just like keeping up with a skincare routine or eating your vegetables.
Ever since the pandemic closed most gyms for an extended period of time, home fitness and smart home gyms are having a moment — and we don't think they're going anywhere, even though it's safe to fight with sweaty strangers over the last elliptical again.
Fitness trackers fit really nicely into this widening self-made fitness market, which is one of the main reasons they've become so popular. Yes, they're a cool gadget, but beyond building up your tech arsenal, fitness trackers can help people find their way into self-care and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Here are just some of the features that a good fitness tracker can offer you:
Workout tracking
GPS tracking
Virtual rewards for staying active
Sleep tracking
Recovery suggestions
Mindfulness apps
Heart rate monitoring
Menstrual cycle tracking (which may be problematic in certain cases)
Body temperature measurements
Blood oxygen monitoring
Fall detection
Phone calls and notifications from your wrist
Tap-to-pay
Access to music
When it comes to exercise, they're the next best thing to having a trainer — suggesting workouts, watching your heart get stronger, and letting you know when it's time for a breather — all on your own time. Whether your preferred form of exercise is the gym, a long run, a few laps in the pool, a 10-minute workout on YouTube, or a casual walk around the neighborhood, it'll be there to record all of your PRs and motivate you with new challenges.
It's not just the time that you're sweating that matters: Restorative exercises and recovery are just as imperative to keep an eye on. At-home yoga could be therapeutic on your days off from HIIT, with meditation sprinkled in to keep stress or anxiety from eating at your will to get off the couch. A great fitness tracker can help with both of these things, as well as lay out a recovery plan when your body needs to rest — a constant reminder to love yourself just as hard as you push yourself.
This type of mindfulness isn't always easy, and the best fitness trackers are the ones that will keep you in check throughout your workout as well as the rest of your day. Casual activity tracking, trackers that monitor your sleep (sometimes going as deep as times spent in each stage of sleep), heart rate, body temperature, and blood-oxygen levels can provide insight into how much energy you can put toward a workout on a given day. They'll also give you a head's up if you've been exercising too hard — all of which can aid in optimal performance and overall health.
