The Samsung Galaxy S5is being released for spring and one of the key features is the new and improved S Health app. This powerful health management system signals that Samsung is positioning itself as a key players in the fitness tracking market.

Here’s how S Health app can help you get  in shape and on the road to a healthy lifestyle, just in time for summer.

Stronger connections

The S Health app was originally launched in North America with . The updated version offers even more personal tracking  of vital stats to turn the S5 into a very plugged in health-management smartphone. Samsung has kept the popular S Health‘s diet and body weight tracker as well as the blood pressure, glucose levels and weight tracking.

Added to Galaxy S5’s built-in Heart Rate Sensor is a synch-up feature. It takes a reading from your  finger and communicates it to S Health to show how your ticker is performing. Samsung is really pushing this new fingerprint reading sensor thereby taking on its chief rival in the smartphone market.

The S Health app is also a bit of a motivational coach linking to the Galaxy S5‘s built in pedometer to track the number of steps you walk or run. You can find out quickly if you have left the couch potato zone or not. The S Health also shows your comfort level based on temperature and humidity so you can determine just how much pain you are in while working out. And if you decide to opt out of exercising that day altogether you have S Health pulling up caloric intake from its database of common food items to make you feel really guilty.

Wearable fitness tracking

S Health also syncs up to the wearable Gear Fit smartwatches to share fitness tracking and health monitoring. One of their biggest selling features are interchangeable bands so you can make a fashion statement while working out.

The Gear Fit bracelet is the simplest of the wearable devices with a flexible OLED screen that displays your tracking results when you cycle, hike, walk or run.

The improved Gear Fit 2 device has been redesigned with a metal watch body and camera. It allows you to quickly change your exercise mode and watch your calorie burn for more comprehensive tracking.

The Gear 2 Neo now has a plastic body and no camera making it a lighter device.

Both have longer battery life, are more slender with more functions so feel more like a watch.

Getting the S Health app to work with the Galaxy S5 superstar and its trio of wearable Gear Fit devices signals Samsung is positioning itself strongly in fitness-tracking market.

It will interesting to see what happens when other fitness tracking apps get on board and start flooding the market with their versions.

Shelagh McNally
I’ve been covering technology since 1992 and I’ve seen a lot of technology come and go. I enjoy following the trends, spotting the winners and losers and teaching consumers how to get the best products and services for their needs. My work has been published in the National Post, Reader's Digest.com, Yahoo, Miami Herald and other North American publications and websites.