If you have made a New Year’s resolution to get fitter this year, then you might be considering the best ways to get to that goal – and luckily for you, there are plenty of innovative technologies that have been designed to help you.
Everything from workout trackers to apps, machinery and equipment are all available so you can choose the way you want to work out, how you want to do it, and where. You don’t have to be tied in to an expensive gum membership or hire a personal trainer when you can do it all from home with the help of some of the best tech.
It’s no surprise that you can find the best help for your fitness goals online – especially when you consider all the other things that you can get access to using the internet, everything from online casinos and gaming where you can get started here to professional qualifications, watching movies, and grocery shopping.
Let’s look at some of the best tech you could consider helping you reach your health goals this year.
Wearables
If you have an iPhone or a Samsung, chances are you already know about the range of wearables offered. The Apple Watch and the Galaxy Watch are obvious contenders as they are built to link to the OS of your device, but there are others out there.
Smartwatches are not just step trackers these days. Wearables like the Garmin Forerunner or a Fitbit can track things like your exercise (and even auto recognise some of the more common activities that you are completing), your heartrate, and your effort.
Choosing the right one for you depends on what you are looking for, but it will pay dividends when you are able to track your workouts, calorie consumption and sleep to build a picture of your health as well as your growth and development.
Scales
While it is common knowledge that the number on the scales is not an indicator of your overall health and fitness, for many people keeping an eye on what the scales say is important.
There are a range of so-called ‘smart’ scales that can link to your smartphone using Bluetooth, automatically collating your weight and other metrics so you can track your progress. Some of these can monitor things like body composition (fat percentage and water among others).
Cardio
One of the biggest brands in at-home cardio now is Peloton. Endorsed by many celebrities and fitness gurus, the Peloton offering includes a stationary bike, a treadmill, and a rowing machine -but it is the connected app that sells it for most people.
If you get a Peloton, you can buy access to their online community, full of energising workouts, live sessions, the opportunity for customised workouts that can also include strength and yoga routines.
Weights
In a similar vein to the Peloton comes the Tempo Studio. Essentially, this is an at-home weights system for strength training, and you buy the studio which comes with steel dumbbells and barbells in a freestanding frame with a tiny footprint. Included in this is a 42” touchscreen where your workouts will be shared so that you can follow along.
The Tempo Studio boasts that it is powered by AI in an app that offers real time guidance based on your effort as well as your fitness and health stats. It’s not a cheap way to get into health and fitness, but it is a top of the range, innovative system that could prove better value than a gym membership that you do not use.
Apps
Of course, there is a wealth of innovation and expertise available in your smartphone – it is a goldmine of apps that you can use to work towards your health and fitness goals.
Built-in native apps for Apple and Samsung are a good place to start, including space for you to log your meals and exercise, and often linking to other fitness apps and equipment to make tracking everything easier.
Nutrition
MyFitnessPal has long been a popular choice for logging food and drinks to ensure that you are getting the right balance of nutrition. The free app has barcode scanning and allows you to create recipes too. The paid-for plan adds things like macro counting which is preferred for those who are looking for muscle gain or just increasing protein intake, for example.
Workouts
No matter what your workout style, you will be able to find an app on your smartphone that can give you follow-along videos. Adriene, the famous YouTube yoga teacher, has an app if you want to get on the mat for your stretch and flexibility sessions. You can workout like Thor with the Centr app from Chris Hemsworth – while this is a paid app, there are some workouts you can follow for free.
