Different wearables track different measurements. The more serious exerciser often does many different movements including running, cycling, pushing, pulling, swinging, throwing, jumping, squating, lunging, lifting, balancing and stabilizing. Trying to use a single wearable to provide accurate and relevant feedback on all these movements is almost impossible. However all of them create a physiological challenge to the body so you can measure the effects of all these acitivities by measuring your physiological response to these challenges through your heart rate response!
There are two key types of heart rate monitors: wrist-worn and chest stap and they function very differently. Wrist monitors use a flashing light that tracks blood flow and uses an algorithm to estimate heart rate. They are really only accurate for activities like cycling, walking, or running. With activities that involve clenching of the fist or non-rhythmic arm movement wrist monitors are not at all accurate.
The second type of heart rate monitor involves the use of a chest strap with built in electrodes that measure the electrical wave of depolirization that occurs to tell your heart to beat along with a transmitter that can store and/or send the signal to a cell phone, watch or other device which displays your heart rate in real time. These types of monitors are highly accurate under virtually all exercise conditions and in fact use the same technology as an electrocardiogram used by physicians everywhere to monitor your heart rate and health of the heart in general.
So for the more serious gym goer wrist worn monitors are not a great choice and the way to go is with a high quality chest strap type monitor. There are many excellent choices including Wahoo Fitness, Polar, Garmin, MyZone and several others.
What about step counters?
If all you want to do is track walking these are not a bad choice but they are completely inneffective at tracking any other type of exercise because they usually track movement of the arm or leg. So for many movements such as push-ups or pullups they are useless. They also tend to lump many movements with very different levels of difficulty into the same category. For example they do not differentiate between doing a squat versus doing a squat jump or squatting with 200lbs vs a bodyweight squat.
What about devices that track your pace or speed?
These are great for cyclists or runners but for most in gym workouts these are not relevant measures that provide any useful information.
How about cadence or power tracking?
Cadence and power are great metrics for cyclists to track and build programming around but for just about any other activity they are not relevant!
So for all the following reasons a chest strap heart rate monitor is the best overall wearable for more serious exercisers.
For gym based systems such as Fitmetrix that use a group heart rate display while in the gym:
They facilitate goal setting and focus
The on screen display helps to keep you motivated and allows you to compare yourself to others.
They provide a social platform
Perhaps most importantly these types of systems provide a point system that allows you to monitor exercise effort and compare to others in a way that allows highly fit and less fit people to be able to compete and compare their individual efforts.
Fitmetrix allows the use of chest strap or armband monitors as appropriate for individual users and their goals.
So if you are a more serious exerciser remember that wrist trackers like Fitbit are not set-up to provide you the feedback you need during all types of movements. By using a chest strap monitor you can get relavant feedback and data through all activies from cycling and rock climbing to kettlebells and ballroom dance! By providing the ability to measure and track your physiological response to virtually any type of exercise you can track your progress overtime!
No comments:
Post a Comment