Staying fit has always presented a challenge for the average working adult, especially those with demanding careers or a family to raise. With the rise of smart tech and wearable devices, it has become easier to incorporate fitness, meal planning, and overall wellness into daily life. Here is a look at how smart tech is changing the way people stay fit no matter where and how they choose to do it.
Skip The Gym With Connected Workouts
If you feel like a fitness failure because you don’t make it to the gym often enough, you are not alone. Some 67% of gym members never use the facility they are signed up for and continue to pay for the privilege of being a member. The good news is that at-home workouts can be just as effective now as high-tech gym-based ones and also allow you the sense of community that group fitness classes offer. Workout apps make it possible to share your progress with friends and family members who want to encourage you. Some high-end smart workout devices, like the Peloton bike or the fitness Mirror, allow you to connect with others in your class and encourage them, even if they are across the world.
Encourage Whole Body Wellness
While being fit and staying in good shape might be your ultimate goal, encouraging whole body wellness is a great way to help yourself stay motivated and energetic enough to tackle your workouts. Smartwatches can track your sleep, heart rate, and level of physical activity to help you determine where you need help. Monitoring what you eat and how your body feels on a daily basis can help you identify foods that may be causing bloating, constipation, skin irritation, or other issues in the body. You can then try eliminating these foods from your diet to see if you feel better without them. Some 80% of people aged 11 to 30 suffer acne outbreaks according to the National Institutes of Health. Tracking your daily diet and making adjustments where needed can minimize or even stop these acne attacks from happening.
Start Small and Track Your Progress
Just because you can’t run out and complete a full workout on your first try doesn’t mean you should quit trying. You can begin with thirty minutes of moderate physical activity and work your way up to more. Though the recommendation from the US Department of Health and Human Services is 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity weekly, you can start slow and build up stamina. Use a step counter, smartwatch, or fitness app to track how much activity you’ve done and what impact that will have on your goals for your body.
Take the Guesswork Out of Losing Weight
If you are serious about losing weight, a smart scale will help you by giving you insight into more than just how much you weigh, which is a very limited amount of information. It will also calculate your body mass index (BMI) and the total percentage of body fat to help you see if you are making progress even if you hit a weight loss plateau. Most smart scales allow you to view a full report of this information to better determine how you need to adjust your diet or exercise plans to hit your weight loss goals.
Technology is now a part of every facet of our lives, and staying in shape is no different. Fitness is much easier to hack now that you have these tools at your disposal.
