Fitness Gadgets

[Floyd Westwood]

My wife and I were given fitbit's as a gift. I instantly thought what a useless, crappy gadget these things are, but after a solid two weeks of daily use I'm now used to it. I'm still not exactly sure what the actual benefit of these things are. The biggest advantage I've become I aware of is that I have something attached to me like a prison bracelet that remembers everything I do and tells me how shit I am at the end of the week, so I have a mental reminder to get active and not eat bad food.

Obviously, all of the data retrieved is taken with a grain of salt and I consider it 'indication only', however the device has me led me to understand that I sleep terribly and don't exercise for long enough periods at a time.

Does anyone else use one? And what sort of advantages or disadvantages have you encountered?

[L33SH]

I have one, best thing about them is the vibrating alarm imo

[Floyd Westwood]

I have one, best thing about them is the vibrating alarm imo

oh yeah I tried that out this morning funnily enough. Much better than the earthquake like tone of the iPhone unleashes at 5am.

[Birds]

I find any and all fitness gadgets redundant. They are usually glorified pedometers and technology for the sake of technology. Okay, so it can sync your activity with your phone and tablet and you're all connected and shit - that's cool that it can do that - but so what? What's the end result here and does it really help you to achieve your goals over and above say, a $2 stopwatch or straight out dieting/exercising.

I feel like most people who buy these things think that it will help them to exercise more or give them an advantage when doing so. Instead you end up with people saying I did 20,000 steps today (like anyone else with an office job who runs errands). It's just another way out of good old fashioned hard work, not unlike buying a Wii Fit or some ab pro that does the sit-ups for you.

It's unbelievable how much these little things have taken off and all the companies jumping on board for the ride - probably the best example of trending I've seen in a long time, given only a few years ago we had wristwatch heart rate monitors (which *can* actually be useful during exercise) and garmin gps trackers and hardly anyone wanted a bar of that. Remember when those stupid power balance bands came out and everyone wanted the "cheap" / easy competitive advantage? Lulz were had.

I think that gadgetry *may* have it's place with the elite athlete and coach looking for proper biofeedback, but for the average person going for runs and heading to the gym it's a giant wank. Whatever does it for you though - if it actually makes you exercise then more power to you, but you shouldn't need a wristband to make you want to do that - if you do then the motivation simply won't last. If nothing else you've got a wrist worn alarm clock that the CIA can track you with.

[Munkyb0y]

agreed. fitness gadgets are just another distraction from actually doing some work towards your fitness.

[Floyd Westwood]

Woah steady on compadres. I wouldn't write them off totally.

I think there is absolutely a wank factor and unless you utilise them to their full potential, they are useless.

I would say it has acted as an incentive to run an extra km or do an extra set at the gym.

Is that benefit worth ~$180 and looking like a twat? Maybe.

[Trozzle]

I'm taking the middle ground in that I agree with Birds for the most part that they're just a gimmick that in no way actually assists you in exercising. A pedometer didn't make you get up and walk those 20,000 steps; you'd have done them anyway, only difference being that you didn't count them. Same calories burnt.....and like f**king hell they're worth the money. No way.

HOWEVER

Having used apps such as Strava for recording my pushbike rides, and an app called Jucy for recording my lifting sessions, I do find the information they present you VERY useful even though what you 'did' wouldn't have been any different whether you recorded it or not.

The advantage I find is mostly motivational, though it's also good to be able to look back through various logs and see exactly where you need to make changes/improvements to progress. I'm not sure of the entire range of Fitbit's features, though things like the apps I use let you know things like segment times so you can try to better it next time, and total combined weight lifted across all sets for a particular lift so you can always make sure you move more than last time

TL;DR - they have their place and advantages, but for the most part they're not really going to make or break anything....other than your wallet in a lot of cases.

FWIW Jucy cost me like US$1.99 after the free trial period, and Strava is free entirely.

[GTR-N1]

Skipping rope.

[triggerhappy]

The fitbit has a sleep quality thing doesnt it? That would be about the only thing i would want it for

[L33SH]

Yeah it tells you sleep info but many iPhone apps do the same thing

[Yo-Yo]

I get a knock to the ribs by an elbow if I snore too loudly so that's my indication of sleep quality

[-FIGJAM-]

i dislike the fitbit. The one with the heart rate monitor would be handy for the limited times that i do cardio, but that's about it.

These on the other hand look interesting:

https://www.atlaswearables.com/

https://www.gymwatch.com/

And if this means that i never have to cook again, ill take 10

http://www.naturalmachines.com/

[Floyd Westwood]

Fit bit ultimately does the same thing. Unless you forget how many reps you've done, they are not to dissimilar.

I've come to see the benefits of these things. Perhaps because I got mine as a gift i don't have to weigh up the cost benefit as much.

The heart rate monitor is great for a bit of extra accuracy in calorie burn.

Like all of these devices, the most taxing element is entering your diet intake. It's a critical condition of assessing total health if you're looking at making diet/exercise changes.

Edited February 3, 2015 by Floyd Westwood

[Birds]

i dislike the fitbit. The one with the heart rate monitor would be handy for the limited times that i do cardio, but that's about it.

These on the other hand look interesting:

https://www.atlaswearables.com/

https://www.gymwatch.com/

And if this means that i never have to cook again, ill take 10

http://www.naturalmachines.com/

All of this is, again, technology for the sake of technology. Cool concept and what fitbit and co will eventually evolve into...but do we really need a watch to count how many reps we pushed out...if so, you're missing the mental edge that comes from knowing how many reps you've done and how fat off a pb you are. It also wouldn't track form for both arms during a bench press, for example. I could think of a hundred other faults in relying on such technology. Pointless analysis in a society obsessed with facts and figures instead of trusting our senses which are yet to be rivaled for efficacy. Utter waste of time.

And that food printer sounds make believe...fresh ingredients? Except that 3D printing takes hours and hours even for simple things.

/rant

[-FIGJAM-]

All of this is, again, technology for the sake of technology. Cool concept and what fitbit and co will eventually evolve into...but do we really need a watch to count how many reps we pushed out...if so, you're missing the mental edge that comes from knowing how many reps you've done and how fat off a pb you are. It also wouldn't track form for both arms during a bench press, for example. I could think of a hundred other faults in relying on such technology. Pointless analysis in a society obsessed with facts and figures instead of trusting our senses which are yet to be rivaled for efficacy. Utter waste of time.

And that food printer sounds make believe...fresh ingredients? Except that 3D printing takes hours and hours even for simple things.

/rant

One of the gadgets u can buy more sensors to track stuff for.

The foodini will be good in a few years imo

[Trozzle]

All of this is, again, technology for the sake of technology. Cool concept and what fitbit and co will eventually evolve into...but do we really need a watch to count how many reps we pushed out...if so, you're missing the mental edge that comes from knowing how many reps you've done and how fat off a pb you are. It also wouldn't track form for both arms during a bench press, for example. I could think of a hundred other faults in relying on such technology. Pointless analysis in a society obsessed with facts and figures instead of trusting our senses which are yet to be rivaled for efficacy. Utter waste of time.

And that food printer sounds make believe...fresh ingredients? Except that 3D printing takes hours and hours even for simple things.

/rant

In bold. I think you're taking far too much of a blanket approach to this concept. Do you not use a notepad or some other method to record your workouts? How do you truly know you've bettered your last session for any given lift? Surely you don't rely on remembering "Ok, when I last did deadlifts 5 days ago, my sets were: warmup, 140kg x8/8/7/6/5, 130kg x6/5/4, 100kg x8/8/5"

I only need to think of one fault in NOT using something - you're relying on your memory to be accurate. Sure, it's not necessary, but back to the concept of lifting MORE - it just makes it easy to ensure you do lift more than last time. Even if only 1 rep overall. Considering the app I use Jucy takes all of 30 seconds to compile a workout before I start, then maybe another 5 seconds after each set to note the weight and reps.....I'd rather "rely" on technology than my f**ked out useless memory lol

[Birds]

Actually I seriously do just remember what I did last time lol. It doesn't take much practice, but it's probably easy for me because I only do 4 exercises and 4-7 sets for each including warmup.

[-FIGJAM-]

wonder if they can track time under tension

[Birds]

Even if they could, or they could do all sorts of wondrous things...I bring it back to my argument that the average athlete will see little benefit from the feedback. There's so much more middle ground to be made up from the lift/eat/rest categories before anyone would need to touch one to improve their training.

[L33SH]

Actually I seriously do just remember what I did last time lol. It doesn't take much practice, but it's probably easy for me because I only do 4 exercises and 4-7 sets for each including warmup.

I remember for you...