Does A Fitness Tracker Really Work?
The introduction of technology in the fitness industry has allowed ease and better facilities in the fitness realm. Introduction of machines such as treadmills, ellipticals, and even fitness apps have changed the game of the fitness industry. One of such leading innovations in this industry has been the fitness tracker, but how effective are they really?
Technology has caused a major shift in the everyday lives of common citizens and industries. Modernization through technology can be seen everywhere in the 21st century. When one speaks about technological changes, many people are more aware of scientific-technological advances such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality or even virtual reality. For the latest Virtual Reality News, visit uptimevr.
Technology in the Fitness Industry
The introduction of technology in the fitness industry has allowed ease and better facilities in the fitness realm. Introduction of machines such as treadmills, ellipticals, and even fitness apps have changed the game of the fitness industry. One of such leading innovations in this industry has been the fitness tracker.
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What is a Fitness Tracker?
The fitness tracker is a tracking device which counts your daily activity such as your calories and heartrate while helping you monitor your daily activities in order to help you keep fit.
Fitness Trackers (or activity trackers as they’re also known) were earlier available only to athletes during the 1980s but have gained popularity and become available to general consumers by the early 2000s and fitness trackers have changed the game in the fitness industry.
With new technological innovations, its characteristics and abilities have also evolved with time. In the modern day, a fitness tracker can do many things, from its basic functions like tracking your heart rate and calories to navigating you to locations with built-in GPS. Besides, such trackers are also capable of playing music and performing many other complex fitness applications.
What one must appreciate about fitness trackers is its user-friendly interface and suitable features for the fitness enthusiasts. During the past few years with the growing awareness of fitness and health consciousness, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of fitness trackers not only by professional sportsmen and athletes but also by the normal consumers.
With this increased awareness, we can see even people who have busy schedules such as businessmen or who do not have time to go to gyms such as stay at home mothers use fitness trackers.
How does fitness tracker work?
While one is aware of the usefulness and convenience of a fitness tracker, one cannot help but wonder if the fitness tracker is actually helpful or if it actually has accuracy and utility.
When you come to think of it, a fitness tracker tracks all your activities throughout the day, giving you the exact number of steps or your heart rate, which makes it easy to question its accuracy.
More commonly, there are inbuilt trackers available even in cell phones that will allegedly count steps or even track your heart rate. But it becomes even more confusing when these alleged suggestions seem to work. For example, Heart rate tracking on such wristbands is done differently as compared to chest straps. These wrist bands track your heart rate by illuminating infrared lights which illuminates against your skin noting changes in the color of your blood. But this technology has been said to be far from perfect as there can be multiple factors causing changes in the color of blood hence giving inaccurate data.
Apparently, Apple has come up with another technology that they use in their apple watches called “photoplethysmography” or PPG. By emitting red and green light on the skin, and since the blood is red, it absorbs the green light so it flashes LED lights 100s of times per minute on the skin by which it can tell your heart rate per minute.
Other brands like Fitbit also use similar technology in their bands which uses the emission of LED lights on to the skin to determine the heartbeat rate.
But while these technologies may seem reliable as you wear the wristbands throughout the day, they do, however, have flaws.
It is crucial to wear the bands in a right may making sure that they touch your skin for the accurate results which may seem easy and simple, but doing so is not always guaranteed in many cases such as during heavy workout sessions like boxing or activities that move the band just enough to induce incorrect reading.
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Do fitness trackers really work?
As far as one is concerned, the tech related to the fitness industry has come far providing us with easy-to-use and reliable gadgets that one can wear daily and on-the-go. If the question here is if fitness trackers really work, the answer depends on factors both internal and external.
While internal factors include the functions and the reliability of your fitness tracker, the external factor includes its usage by the person using the fitness tracker.
Newer fitness enthusiasts or people with busy schedules buy and use fitness trackers to improve their health and fitness by completely relying on them.
Fitness trackers can further help such consumers by giving them information on the calories, steps count and their sleep schedule while helping them and motivating them to sleep better and walk more to increase their activity period.
While internal factors such as the functions of the fitness trackers also play an important role, as we have mentioned before, not all of the specifications are accurate to the point but the technical flaws are so minor that they may be overlooked.
There is no doubt that with newer technological innovations and discoveries, there soon will be better updates for a more accurate result, we must also know that the functions in these fitness trackers vary from model to model depending upon price points.
While one tracker may be basic, another one can be intricate. In the end, it all depends upon consumer discretion.
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