Let's face it, fitness is our everything when it comes to wearable devices. We have written enough stories, uncovered an extensive number of analytical reports and conducted many negotiations with companies to find out that we need to use wearable device technology to always be in shape. This is reminiscent of a driving force for people who are ready to open their wallets to buy a new “smart” watch or fitness tracker.

In parallel with other members of the Wareable team, I am in a very privileged position to review most fitness trackers and other wearable devices. Some are just great, but most are extraordinary. Not many have survived our rigorous review process to be on the list of those gadgets that will be worn for a long time.

There are devices that are designed for different levels of fitness. Some are aimed at motivating you to take a walk to the store, instead of traveling by car. The goal of others is those lovers who already go to the gym several days a week to get rid of the "beer" belly.

I would say that I belong to this category. I like to run, and I do not pay attention to the cold, if you need to run a few miles. In addition, I pay an expensive gym membership. Although many wearable devices are designed for treadmills, for weight control or for the pool

 
Most often, friends ask me a question about what is the difference between different wearable fitness devices when they are used during exercises to reduce weight. What makes people do more and what motivates when the feeling of fatigue is already at the limit? So I tried to step back and think about how the fitness trackers, smart watches and running watches that I used encouraged me to go to the gym. Overall, everything was great.


I see myself as a sane person. I do not look like the guy from the photo above. But I would like to lose some weight to run faster. We are not talking about changes before and after, as in the popular online advertising. Enough to help me achieve my goal.

The Jawbone UP2b fitness tracker that I wore the longest comes to mind right away . I did not even part with him in the shower, neglecting the fact that Jawbone does not recommend doing this. It didn’t matter to me that there was no screen in the device. I needed a restrained, pretty gadget that would let me know that I had been in a passive state for a long time.

In the hall, he usually gently and purposefully informed me that I had already achieved my goal in steps. Same story with Fitbit or recent Blaze. Only this time I was able to see my results. From the point of view of psychology, it seems to me that this was necessary. A message that my goal has been achieved and information about what else I have done is a bonus. But did some fitness tracker manage to motivate me to go the extra mile on the treadmill? Probably no.

This feature is still a hoax with a focus on sports watches. In most cases, these were TomTom Spark. One of our favorites is a swimming tracker, this watch is created, first of all and most of all, for running. But it turned out that it is extremely simple to use distance and speed monitoring in them. Using information about the heartbeat allowed me to run better compared to the previous time. The tracker provides the necessary motivation. In addition, there are devices that are different from Jawbone or Fitbit and which do not need to be removed when you are going to swim.

Indeed, I began to understand the difference only in training. There were countless times when I was offered tempting methods of personal training with free classes, in the hope of receiving money from me on a more regular basis. Yes, I’m sure that over time they would help me tighten my form, but I wanted to train on my own terms.

Wearable technology ultimately helped me achieve the result. I’m talking about devices like Moov and muscle gain like GymWatch and Atlas Wristband. None of these devices offers the perfect solution, but they managed to push me out of my comfort zone and made me think about how to put in order my workout or even short-term workouts that would help me to get benefits after a good gym class.

What did I understand when putting wearable devices into the gym? First of all, there is no single ideal device for everything. It just doesn’t exist yet and I’m not sure what it will ever be. At least not in the near future. This means for some that the only solution is to invest in several gadgets. What I know for sure is that if you have a fitness tracker, smart watches for sports, or something from smart clothes, this is already a positive start. I know that I feel left out without current information, and I'm not sure that I can go back, at a time when all this was not there.