Wearable Technology: Take Your Workout Into the Future

Thanks to wearable technology, humans are more digitally connected to their health than ever before. Wearable technology for fitness includes electronic devices worn as an accessory like a watch, band, or ring that track fitness metrics such as heart rate, breathing, steps, sleep, and more.  

Let’s explore the most popular wearable technology to improve your fitness.  

Wearable Technology for Fitness  

Measuring and tracking your personal fitness is sophisticated. Wearable technology like watches, bands, and rings, allow you to access real-time health information like your heart rate, daily movement, breathing rate, sleep data, and temperature.  

Heart Rate Monitors 

Heart rate monitors were one of the first widely-available and most affordable pieces of wearable technology. In the past 20 years, heart rate monitors have been useful training tools for athletes and fitness enthusiasts.  

You can use a heart rate monitor to understand if you are working at the optimal exercise intensity during a workout to achieve your goals. A heart rate monitor can also give you objective feedback on how your fitness is improving over time, such as a decreased resting heart rate.  

Cost 

Most commercially-available chest straps for heart rate monitors cost between $30 and $90, depending on the brand.  

One prospective study found that despite the price difference, most heart rate monitor brands are relatively comparable. Though, nearly all heart rate monitor chest straps require a watch or device that connects to the chest strap which can cost considerably more.  

Smart Devices 

Smartwatches and bands combine the capabilities of a heart rate monitor and movement tracker into one device. You can use smartwatches, bands, and smartphones as movement trackers due to their built-in accelerometers. Additionally, these smart devices may have LED lights and sensors that measure heart rate.  

Using a smart device can help you better meet your fitness goals. One review of multiple studies looked at self-monitoring physical activity with the aid of a smart device. Participants that used smart devices had an 80% success rate in meeting physical activity goals. 

Smartwatches and bands can also be fitness accountability partners. You can set daily movement goals on your smartwatch and the watch can remind you to stretch your legs and encourage you to meet your daily movement goal.  

Cost 

Entry-level fitness trackers that connect to a phone or device are more affordable, starting around $30, while watches can cost several hundred dollars.  

Sleep Trackers 

Sleep is an undervalued influencer of health and fitness. It is estimated that less than half of Americans get enough sleep and we can’t expect to improve our fitness if we aren’t recovering properly at night.  

Smartphone apps detect sound and movement but can provide a macro-level assessment of total sleep. More detailed information provided from smartwatches and wearable jewelry such as rings that detect sleep can provide more detailed information on sleep cycles and measurements such as heart rate, breathing, and daily movement.  

Cost  

The cost range for sleep trackers varies greatly. You might be able to find a free app for smartphones or a smartwatch. Rings and other small devices that track sleep can cost up to $300.  

Future Wearable Technology: Continuous Glucose Monitors  

A CGM, or Continuous Glucose Monitor, was once exclusively used for people living with diabetes. Unlike a finger stick, a CGM is a small plastic medical device that you wear on your skin that provides real-time estimated blood glucose (sugar) levels.  

Fitness enthusiasts can use CGMs to integrate nutrition and fitness. CGMs provide feedback on how training and diet work in tandem as well as how sleep and stress affect blood sugar levels and performance.  

Cost 

CGMs are listed as a future trend because though they are now commercially available, they may be cost-prohibitive. CGMs cost at least $150 to $300 per month and require a physician’s prescription. As technology and insurance coverage increases for these medical devices, it is very likely they will become mainstream training tools.  

If you’ve been considering purchasing wearable fitness technology, there are plenty of options to choose from. Taking into account what the technology has to offer, whether it aligns with your health goals, and the cost are all important factors when deciding which one makes the most sense for your lifestyle.  

References: 

1. Pasadyn SR, Soudan M, Gillinov M, et al. Accuracy of commercially available heart rate monitors in athletes: a prospective study. Cardiovasc Diagn Ther. 2019;9(4):379-385. doi:10.21037/cdt.2019.06.05.

2. Page EJ, Massey AS, Prado-Romero PN, Albadawi S. The Use of Self-Monitoring and Technology to Increase Physical Activity: A Review of the Literature. Perspective Behav Sci. 2020;43(3):501-514. doi:10.1007/s40614-020-00260-0.

3. Robbins R, Seixas A, Masters LW, et al. Sleep tracking: A systematic review of the research using commercially available technology. Curr Sleep Med Rep. 2019;5(3):156-163. doi:10.1007/s40675-019-00150-1.