The trend for fitness bracelets: essential outfit or fashionable toy?

Over the past few years, the use of modern gadgets during workouts has become a trend. Almost everyone who actively monitors health and does sports has special applications on their phone that track nutrition or remind them of the insufficient amount of water drunk per day. One of the most popular gadgets in this area has become a fitness bracelet. We tell you what it is, what functions it performs and whether the fashion accessory will be useful in everything.

What is a fitness bracelet and why do you need it?

To a person who has not delved into the topic enough, it may seem that fitness bracelets (or fitness watches) are needed only for professional athletes who need to constantly check the condition of the body during physical exertion. Or people who simply try to lead a healthy lifestyle, running in the morning or swimming in the pool. But they aren’t.

Fitness bracelets are designed to monitor the state of the body and measure its indicators: pulse, pressure, oxygen content in the blood, etc. That is, it makes sense to buy a gadget for anyone who wants to know more about their body. The functionality of the watch allows you to improve the quality of life, as it will constantly monitor your condition and inform you if it detects any problem.

The bracelet has a lot of functions indeed, from the heart rate measurement we mentioned, to a calorie counter and GPS system. Models in the market of gadgets is also enough, so everyone will be able to find a fitness assistant to his liking.

Features of fitness bracelets: how to choose?

To begin with, it is worth thinking: what exactly do you need a bracelet for? From this will depend on what criteria to choose. In order to simply monitor the state of health, a tricked-out gadget with a huge number of functions will not be needed. It will be enough to buy an inexpensive model that measures heart rate, blood pressure and the number of steps traveled. But for professional sports, other functions may be useful.

Here are a few criteria by which you should choose a fitness bracelet.

• Variety of functions: a gadget with a minimal set of settings or multifunctional bracelet, for example, with a “smart” alarm clock, calorie counter and GPS system.
• Communication with your phone will be a nice addition, so that you can transfer data from the bracelet to your smartphone at any time.
• Waterproof so that you can go swimming and track your workout progress.
• A good battery and convenient charging. It is important that the bracelet holds a charge for a long time and charges quickly.
• Additional features: music, phone notifications, etc.

Is the accessory always useful?

Probably not always. It is a technical device like a phone or computer, which at any moment can fail. Moreover, many doctors, athletes and just people leading a healthy lifestyle are ardent opponents of “smart” assistants because of their inaccuracies in their work. Of course, in more expensive models, errors in measuring pulse or pressure are much less frequent, but still they cannot be excluded.

Most complaints are about inaccuracies in measuring the number of steps, pulse, pressure and all other indicators that the device should read automatically. That heart rate is too fast for a person who is in a calm state, that the distance of running is not fully displayed on the device – such errors in bracelets, although rare, but there are.

Some people express dissatisfaction with the “smart” alarm clock. The watch should wake you up at the supposedly most correct moment of the light phase of sleep. That is, the bracelet, relying on accelerometer readings, tracks the activity of your body in sleep. But very often the device wakes you up not because you are in a light sleep phase, but because of the slightest movement of the body. For example, if you simply roll over to the other side. Experienced users say that no accessory can keep the correct sleep mode for you.

Highlight and many more disadvantages of fitness aides: completely unnecessary functions, rapid consumption of charge, pseudo-freedom from the smartphone. But, of course, each model is individual and has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Your fitness assistant or a fashion accessory?

Nowadays, every third person wears a fitness watch. Recently, they are just a fashion accessory. Still, there is no denying that gadgets can be extremely useful. They provide a lot of opportunities to keep a person healthy and improve the quality of life.

Despite some disadvantages of fitness bracelets, there are far fewer opponents than supporters. Therefore, if you want to know more about your body and take care of your well-being, you should definitely think about buying this unusual assistant.