Fitness Trackers: What is your ‘wearable’?
Fitness Trackers: What is your ‘wearable’?
I’ve never been particularly drawn to fitness trackers. Even when I was a competitive cyclist, I didn’t eagerly gravitate towards heart rate monitors. I knew what my resting heart rate was and that was generally good enough for me. I exercise for the love of movement.
Despite my reticence, I recently decided to research ‘wearables’, considering the possibility of including them as a package to my clients – and prospective clients- at Beyond Fitness. Having had several conversations with people who wear them, one of the things I have come to realize is that the devices have a psychological flare of encouragement and reward. This is what interests me. Something that will hold my clients accountable, change habits, and record progress.
After having spent many hours researching the many ‘wearables’ out there, I have landed on the Whoop. You may ask, why? How does it rate over Apple, Garmin, Fitbit, etc.? I’m not an expert, clearly, and what draws one person to a particular wearable is purely subjective. For me, I like the Whoop for these reasons:
It’s attractive. It’s lightweight, super comfortable (even to sleep in) and the material absorbs sweat.
It has an extensive sleep tracking system that is designed just for you. It tracks your profile and daily routines and tells you how much sleep you need and how to achieve it. This not only appeals to me because I am an insomniac, but because of my experience with sleep deprivation I know how the lack of it impairs my memory and affects my mood. Sleep is necessary for both physical and mental recovery.
It tracks and informs. Unlike other wearables I researched, the Whoop not only tracks your fitness activity, calories burned, heart rate, etc., but it takes that information and tells you what to change and how to improve. It tells you when you need to stop and rest for example. It is uniquely designed to help you improve your performance, recovery, and sleep.
It makes no sound. The Whoop does not beep and buzz incessantly distracting me from whatever it is I am trying to focus on. It is simply a band that collects and stores data that I can look at when and if I choose to.
Owning the Whoop is buying into a membership. The strap itself is very inexpensive; unlike many of the other higher quality wearables that cost upwards of $500 – it is simply a monthly subscription that can be cancelled at any time. You can track for a few months, learn what you need to and cancel whenever you want. I am in the early stages of building a wearable offering at Beyond Fitness that will include the Whoop. Check it out and stay tuned!
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