In a technological era, everything is monitored these days, at times too much. Looking at the world through a huge window as opposed to a peep hole has its downsides, but when it comes to self-monitoring it has more upside than down.
Knowing your body is important. And knowing where your body is at, can give you a better picture of where it needs to be and if you are going in the right direction to get there. Wearable technology such as Apple Watches, Fit-Bits, pedometers, and other devices allow the user to have a good grasp on their body and performance.
This wearable is used inside and outside the gym. If you are trying to see how many calories you burned during your workout or how many steps you took at work yesterday, wearable technology is a pretty awesome asset. A downside to this kind of technology can be sometimes looking too much into what is shown. There are certain things that may be shown that do not tell the whole story of one’s activity level. For instance, you may have had a “step goal” of 10,000 steps but only hit 7500. However, this was because you had an amazing workout that did not involve a lot of stepping and you spent 2 hours working out. Wearable technology is a tool for good health and fit living, but it is not the “be-all-tell-all” of your accomplishments, as many treat them to be.
Some pretty cool benefits to owning some wearable technology is:
- Encouraging self-monitoring and personal responsibility.
Having access to personal health data allows you to take health into your own hands. Metrics that have historically been inaccessible to members outside of the medical community can now be delivered to your mobile device.
- Creating awareness about your operating levels.
With the ability to self-monitor health metrics, users can understand how their daily activities are affecting their bodies.
- Monitoring your heart rate
Most fitness trackers are able to measure heart rate and, while that is a helpful metric to an extent, some devices allow you to measure resting heart rate. Resting heart rate is awesome to be aware of as it monitors how your lifestyle is affecting your baseline heart health.
- Understanding your health compared to averages
Having an already established data base of what is healthy and what is not, some wearable technology is able to see macro trends and averages of people’s health across a number of demographics.
- Tracking activities
Activity tracking is available in many wearables these days. This is great to see how certain activities you do in your every day life stack up against each other, so the ones that burn the most calories or give you the best workout are focused on more than the ones that do not.
