Sadly, you can't buy the motivation to get your butt in the gym. And fitness wearables alone won't make you healthier. But a great fitness tracker can help light a fire under your behind and motivate you 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 an athleisure line). We can thank the self-care revolution for this one. Actively monitoring your fitness, sleep, and overall health metrics isn't just for athletes or people training for marathons. 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 vegetables.
Whether you splurge on an Equinox membership or rely on home fitness and smart home gyms, the best fitness trackers do so much more than count steps and monitor your heart rate. The Apple Watch Series 10 lets you connect to a whole host of fitness apps, while also queuing up your Spotify workout playlist. Then there's the classic Fitbit, which keeps you focused on the most important metrics. And more recently, smart rings like the Samsung Galaxy Ring and Oura Ring give you round-the-clock health monitoring.
What do we love about fitness trackers?
We tested a lot of different wearables for this guide, and a lot of Mashable team members use these devices on a daily basis.
When it comes to exercise, we think they're the next best thing to having a personal trainer — they suggest workouts, track your heart rate, and let 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.
In our testing, we found that the best fitness trackers don't just track your workout, but also help you optimize the rest of your day. Trackers that monitor your sleep (sometimes going as deep as times spent in each stage of sleep), body temperature, and blood-oxygen levels offer deep insights into your health. They'll even give you a heads up if you've been exercising too hard.
So, which fitness trackers do we rely on in our daily lives? You'll find our favorites below, but you can also see how popular products like the Apple Watch Series 10, Oura Ring 4, and Fitbit Charge 6 compare to each other.
In addition to the authors listed above, Mashable contributors such as Sam Stone, Kimberly Gedeon, and Samantha Mangino tested fitness trackers for this guide.
