Wearable technology has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years and its popularity continues to grow. The need for activity tracking has surged over the past year especially, as many people have been confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown but still want to remain as active as possible.
Smart watches are a great way to track and deliver useful information straight to your wrist. Curious? Then follow on for Smart watch: 5 Reasons Why You Should Invest in One!
1. More than Just a Timepiece
Smart watches have a range of features and capabilities aside from just telling the time and in essence, they can be considered an extension of your smart phone. You can access information about the weather, date, news, physical activity and much more while also being able to receive and send messages.
These watches come with a whole host of fitness tracking features that can help you achieve your desired exercise goals. You can monitor things like the number of calories you’ve burned during the day, calories burned during exercise and steps you’ve walked to help build a picture of your regular physical activity.
Having this information so readily available can also act as motivation by giving you visual feedback cues on your progress, impelling and compelling you to do more, or better still, be consistent. So you see that you’re not competing against anyone, but yourself and your own performance!
3. A Multitude of Options
There is a common misconception that smart watches are too expensive however, this is not necessarily the case. Some smart watches are available for as little as £20 while still having heart-rate monitoring, calorie tracking, phone notification and sleep tracking functions.
Nevertheless, the more expensive smart watches tend to have more unique and refined features which may influence the amount of money you’d be willing to spend.
4. Life-Saving Technology
Some smart watches can also provide important bio-analytics regarding your blood oxygen and irregularities in heart rhythm (via ECG). Blood oxygen is a key indicator of overall health as it signifies how well your blood can carry oxygen.
Meanwhile, the detection of irregular heart rhythms could help indicate that you are showing signs of atrial fibrillation. Additionally, many smart watches offer the feature of ‘fall detection’ whereby the smart watch can alert emergency contacts/services if it detects a potentially dangerous fall which could be life-saving.
5. Reduces Smartphone Blue Light Screen Time
The ability to receive notifications and send replies via the smart watch means that you are less likely to interact with your phone.
At some point we’ve all been victim to apps such as Instagram and TikTok which are designed to draw you in and maintain engagement, leading to endless scrolling of the explore pages. Reducing this screen time will also reduce harmful exposure to blue light which can lead to headaches, migraines and mental fatigue.
As you can see, there are a whole host of benefits to having a smart watch and that list will continue to grow as technology develops and advances. Smart watches can be the perfect fitness companion to complement and support your goal of staying consistently active, for a healthier, and happier life.
The future of health and fitness could quite literally be on your wrist and if you are thinking of buying one it could well take your fitness journey to the next level which has perhaps eluded you so far. What do you think about smart watches? Let us know in the comments below, and join in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram!
