Some equipment can pair with your device to help keep track of your routines. (Victoria Ashley, CMRU.ca)
Personal Trainer Encourages Clients to Invest in Tech
Chris Henderson has been a personal trainer for over 12 years. In this time, he has seen many fitness fads come and go. Henderson says that some of these fads leave lasting impressions on the fitness world, but nothing has changed the world of fitness quite like technology has. From fitbits, to fitness apps, technology is helping people bring their fitness to a new level. Lots of equipment even come with televisions built in so you never have to be bored while working out.
Chris Henderson, personal trainer at Bankers Hall Club Calgary. (Photo credit to, A Touch of Pink Photography)
Henderson says that his favorite piece of fitness technology would be the Apple Watch, “I carry, myself an Apple iWatch and I’m a huge fan of just tracking the process that-that works. It’s very easy, straightforward and actually does the job quite well”. One downside to these pieces of technology is that you do need to spend a lot of time personalizing them to fit your specific needs.
Henderson says that one of his favorite features that the Apple Watch has to offer is the sharing capabilities, “the Apple iWatch, for instance, has a sharing modality to it that I can just track all my clients. So if they have an Apple iWatch as well I can seamlessly track their exercise, cardiovascular etc. throughout the day. We can almost kind of challenge each other or even just have a challenge for them going forward and they know that I’m constantly looking at what’s going on”.
Listen to Henderson’s interview:
According to Mashable.com some of the top wearable technologies available today are;
- Moov Now, voted the best everyday tracker. With a battery life of six months you don’t have to worry about it dying while getting active. However, this device does not have GPS capabilities.
- Samsung Gear Sport, voted best for diet tracking. This wearable is waterproof and has GPS capabilities so it’s also great for outdoor activities such as hiking.
- Apple Watch Series 3, voted best fitness tracker/smartwatch combo. Although this wearable is known for being able to do it all the battery life is only 18 hours. That’s the shortest battery life of any wearable on the list.
Ex Athlete Turns to Fitness App for Guidance.
Emilie Medland-Märchen started skating when she was just three years old. It didn’t take long before she started figure skating, eventually evolving her career into competitive speed skating. “I was an athlete in the Olympic Oval speed skating program with the University of Calgary campus”. While training as an athlete Medland-Märchen found that she always had set goals in mind and found support in her coaches and teammates to help her achieve them.
Emilie Medland-Märchen training at the Olympic Oval. (Property of Emilie Medland-Märchen)
After leaving the world of competitive sports Medland-Märchen found it hard to find motivation to get to the gym,
“When I stopped doing competitive sports there were not a lot of options for me as an adult to get involved in recreational sports and like have that sense of community. I ended up not working out for a long time. It was about a year before I started to go back to it”.
Medland-Märchen said that part of the reason it took so long for her to start working out again was because she didn’t have the same support systems that she did when she was in sports. She said that she the found the guidance she craved from online tutorials and apps, “then I found that the option for me that sort of cured all of that was, actually, using online videos and online services to get some sort of guidance and coaching”.
Medland-Märchen uses online services to get workout tips, watch videos, receive nutrition advice and more. One of her favorite tools is an app called Burn App By Rebecca Louise. She says that the app motivates her to be active and keep to her nutrition plan but the best part is that her ‘trainer’ is available at anytime of day, in video form, when she needs some extra help.
Listen to Emilie Medland-Märchen’s story:
According to MedicalNewsToday some of the best fitness apps out there include;
- Yoga Studio. At $4.99 a month this is a bargain when compared to attending an actual yoga class. Yoga Studio has more than 70 ready-made yoga and meditation classes for everyone from beginners to advanced yogis.
- JEFIT: Workout Tracker Gym Log. Free for both Android and iPhone it’s said to be the go-to app for gym goers. JEFIT enables you to track your workout routines and your rest times. There’s even the option to log and graph all body measurements as you progress.
- Zombies, Run! Free for both Android and iPhone Zombies, Run! Pairs fitness with fun. Immerse yourself in a story where you are a runner en route to one of humanity’s last remaining outposts after the zombie apocalypse strikes. Collect supplies and rescue survivors along the way to gain extra points!
Here’s a quick look at the evolution of fitness technology;
Infographic of the timeline of fitness and technology, (Victoria Ashley, CMRU.ca)
