Fitness Trackers: The Next Level of Exercise

Authors:

Erin Jones, Graduate Student

Michael J. Bradley, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Department of Recreation and Park Administration

Eastern Kentucky University

www.recreation.eku.edu

Fitness Trackers: The Next Level of
Exercise

            In
the world of fitness and recreation, fitness trackers are all the rage at the
moment. Consumers are always looking for ways to be hip and cool as well as
find ways to become and stay fit. It can an added bonus that these devices also
have the potential to help keep them motivated. Many consumers lack intrinsic
motivation when it comes to working out and making healthy life choices. Many
Americans are told by a doctor to lose weight, some want to become more fit for
themselves and for their family and others have worked out in the past and have
just lost their way. By adding a form of extrinsic motivation by the means of a
fitness tracker, the consumer now has a way to help them stay motivated.

            Since
the late 2000’s when fitness trackers first entered
the scene, they have been wildly popular. Initially, when fitness trackers were
new, you had one option. The first option was produced by Nike and Apple. After
that, Fitbit, Garmin, Jawbone, Apple, etc. entered the scene. In today’s world,
consumers have a myriad of options when it comes to fitness trackers. Some are
watches, some are in a ring that you wear, some strap onto your shoe, some on a
necklace, some strap onto the female bra and there are those in the form of a
pedometer. At any rate, consumers have plenty of options to choose from. This
gives consumers the ability to process what they specifically will be using the
fitness tracker for and decide which one would be best for them to purchase.  Some fitness trackers just count steps. Some
trackers allow you to also monitor and track other activities, other than
walking. Examples could be swimming, attending group exercise classes, running
or rowing. Many fitness trackers in today’s world also have a heart rate sensor
built into the watch. Knowing your heart rate is a great way to know if the
workout that you are doing is as effective as it could be. By having the
convenience of the heart rate monitor in the fitness tracker, that tracker could
appeal to more consumers. GPS has also become an important part of fitness
trackers. Many fitness enthusiasts enjoy running, walking, biking, etc and
those consumers want to know where they traveled as well as keep track of
popular routes that they often take. 
Many fitness trackers also have blue tooth options which allows the
consumer to view text messages and other alerts from their phone while they are
working out. All of these things add to the hip things that consumers look for
in a fitness trackers. The more options that a fitness tracker has, the more
popular it will be with consumers.

            Health
and Fitness can be very scary to many people. If one is a natural intrinsic
motivator, then they know the importance of health and fitness and find ways
within to schedule working out into their busy schedule. If someone does not
have intrinsic motivation and struggles with starting and maintaining exercise,
then in order to be successful, they will need a form of external motivation.
Fitness trackers are a great way to accomplish this goal. A large portion of
fitness trackers will buzz or alert you in some way if the consumer has not
walked enough steps in an allotted amount of time. This is a great tool for the
consumer that has a desk job and has difficulty moving. By the watch alerting
someone to move, that person can get up at least once an hour to get up and
move around and get their blood flowing. Consumers also find it very motivating
the get awards and prizes from the fitness tracker when they meet their goal.
It is important that the consumer feels successful in order for them to
continue on their fitness journey and by achieving awards, this is a great for
the consumer to continue to push themselves to reach the next goal. Many
fitness trackers also connect with other nutrition applications such as My
Fitness Pal. By logging both the workout and nutrition aspect of the consumers
regimen, the consumer is more likely to stay on track and see results faster
than as opposed to just working out and eating better.

            Fitness
and health are very important aspects of someone’s
life. In today’s society, consumers are often over scheduled with work, family,
school, volunteering, etc. Working out and eating well are two things that very
easy to put off to the side and not participate in. Fitness trackers are the
rage now because they help provide external motivation to consumers and help
keep them healthy and moving.

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#footrace #15k #halfmarathon #marathon #100k #runner #exercise #fitness #health
#workout #workingout