When the pressures of work and home responsibilities make it difficult to maintain your fitness goals, fitness and health tech can keep you motivated. Whether you’re just a little bit short of your weekly targets training for that 10K, or you’ve fallen out of steps with your daily step count, part of creating a long-lasting fitness routine is being able to evaluate your progress and adjust your goals as necessary. With data-driven fitness and health tech that is also easy to incorporate into your daily routines, you can work towards your goals more efficiently.
Stay motivated with fitness trackers
For a goal to withstand the test of time, it must balance ambition with practicality. Fitness trackers provide data about our regular activity levels, including the steps taken in distance and elevation as well as the calories burned. This information helps us set realistic goals. Thinking of walking 20K steps a day? Or climbing an elevation of twenty-five flights of stairs? Check your fitness tracker first for your average daily counts. Remember that a good goal should be easily incorporated in day-to-day activities. Aim for one that is around 20% above your daily average.
Once a realistic goal has been set, the next step is to break it down into measurable milestones. This is where a fitness tracker is most useful. By documenting activity and health levels, they motivate wellness seekers through turning goals into concrete finish lines. Misery loves company, but so does success. If you meet one small milestone, you know the rest is possible. The amount of information captured by fitness trackers also means that you can diversify goals to avoid boredom. Training for a triathlon but feeling tired of always trying to beat your record heart rate? Not to worry, use a fitness tracker to measure cardio endurance instead.
Connect with smart gym equipment
With more people working from home, going to the gym is feeling like the new version of heading into the office. Why go through the trouble of packing workout essentials and commuting to the fitness studio when you’ve already escaped the rush hour traffic to the office? Yet, some people are still reluctant to make this change out of fear that a home gym will feel boring and isolating. Smart gym equipment offers both diversity and connection.
This technology is smart because it is versatile. There is no need to purchase multiple sets of dumbbells, weight plates, and a squat rack when a smart gym works on strength, tone, resistance, and endurance at the same time. Forget about trying to book a HIIT workout while making room for cardio and circuit training in the same week at the local gym. Smart home gym equipment can help you accomplish all three without extra planning.
Most smart gym equipment also comes with built-in Bluetooth that allows you to download workout data and access coaching apps. Streaming live sessions and libraries of workout videos make it easy to build a fitness community that will hold you accountable. A healthy dose of fear for missing out on a workout session or falling behind your workout peers can be very motivating.
Recover with massagers
While a common sign of a quality workout is sore muscles, pain that is too intense can lead to demotivation. Even if you are someone who loves feeling the burn, a massager resets your muscles for your next push. The idea of “no pain, no gain” has persisted, but massagers are popularizing “less pain and more gains”. The trick to finding a suitable massager is choosing one with a range of modes and intensities.
A shiatsu chair massager is helpful for those who like to multitask. They allow you to relax your muscles while sitting in front of the TV or returning to work at your desk. Drawing from the traditional Japanese massage technique that focuses on pressure points throughout the body, the latest shiatsu chair massagers often come with different modes of intensity as well as heating functions to help with muscle soreness.
Percussive massagers are another popular choice. These handheld massagers use repeated vibrations to target sore muscles. They often come with different attachments—squared, triangular, circular—and intensities, giving users the option to personalize their massage experience. While massagers can feel quite relaxing, it is important to check with your doctor and listen to your body. Some percussive massagers also have a safety feature that automatically turns it off after a period of time to avoid dangers of overstimulating the muscles. Best Buy carries back, foot, and facial (yes, your eyes deserve TLC too) massagers.
Rest with sleep tech
We often think of fitness as taking actions—sweating it out on the treadmill, pumping iron at the bench—but the three Rs (rest, recovery, and rejuvenation) are just as important. A satisfying shut eye not only allows the body to recover from strenuous exercise, but it also gives the mind a much-needed break from the pressure of chasing goals.
Get a good night’s rest with sleep tech that creates a relaxing atmosphere. White noise machines are well known as an adult lullaby. But for those that want more options, Best Buy’s sleep therapy machines also include nature sounds and guided meditations. Be lured into a rejuvenating rest with sleep tech that has a long battery life.
Measure with smart scales
For those aiming to lose or gain weight, stepping on a traditional scale can be nerve-racking. The numbers stare back at you, begging for a judgement. But wellness experts have noted that weight is not the only measure of health and fitness.
A smart scale helps tip the balance away from this unhealthy, hyper focus on weight by providing other dimensions. Measurements of BMI, body fat, and water percentage provide a far more holistic view of fitness. Advanced smart scales can even calculate your caloric requirements while keeping a record of your body’s changing dimensions. Do not allow your fitness journey to be dictated by just one number. Stay motivated with a smart scale that encourages holistic wellness.
Ready for the next step?
So much of our exercise routines actually begins before we even start moving our bodies. The mental work of planning when to go for a run, deciding how often to do strength training, checking in with our bodies after a hard workout, and figuring out reasonable goals are all essential to developing a healthy and lasting fitness routine. By reducing these mental burdens, fitness and health tech makes keeping up with fitness goals easy and relaxing.
