Never has so much been given to so many. Smart watches, smart phones, and smart apps produce reams of valuable intelligence. People have so much more data than ever before at their fingertips to use鈥攊f they are smart enough to understand it and agile enough, mentally and physically, to apply it.

This is especially true with heart rate data, which can now be read by myriad devices: straps, watches, earbuds, even rings. But what do those accumulated beats per minute really tell you and how should you react? Whole books have been written on the subject鈥攍ike the one we wrote: 鈥攂ut at a minimum, as soon as you strap on a new heart rate monitor, you need to understand some things about individual variability.

Irrational Numbers

In general, the reported numbers you see on a heart rate monitor (HRM) will be reliable, at least from a mechanical perspective, once you have followed the instructions for wearing and using your HRM. But too many people who have spent money on monitors stop using them and bury them in the back of their sock drawer.

Why? Because they are frustrated by irrational numbers that make them, for example, jog way too slow or run way too fast. After doing the math to determine their target heart rates for their exercise program,听or following the pre-programmed zones, users often find that the numbers don鈥檛 seem to make sense.

The Myth of a Universal Max

What鈥檚 the story? Let鈥檚 start with the math involved with determining target heart rates (THR). Most heart rate targets or zones are based on the generic guideline that you can predict your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Trust us when we say . The fact is, just like so many human characteristics such as height, eye color, and intelligence, individual maximum heart rates (MHR) are naturally spread across the standard distribution of a bell-shaped curve.

With MHR, there is a wide range from one end of the curve to the other even for people of the same age. On each of the plus and minus sides of the mean is a standard distribution of roughly 12 bpm. This distribution explains that only those at the mean can reliably predict MHR by using the age-adjusted formulas. Depending on where you fall on the curve, your MHR may surprisingly be as much as 36 bpm higher or lower what the formula predicts. Whatever number of beats your very own MHR is, any error is then obviously reflected in your workout鈥檚 target heart rates.

You might be asking, 鈥淗ow come the myth of 220-age is so widespread?鈥� It鈥檚 easy; it鈥檚 based on the fact that the average MHR of a brand-new baby, who has a heart the size of a walnut, is 220 bpm. And we know that as a person grows, the heart also grows.

At adulthood, the heart is about the size of the person鈥檚 fist. Naturally, it has more capacity for holding blood in its chambers. This means that more blood is pumped with each stroke (greater stroke volume), and hence, fewer beats are required at any given level of effort. By age 20, growth of the heart brings the average MHR down to about 200 (卤 5 bpm).

From here on the aging process causes a further decline at the convenient rate of about one beat per year. This explains the logic of the formula 220 minus age equals predicted MHR. But it is based on the average baby, and assumes the same starting point for everyone at birth.

The bottom line: You probably need a better way to determine your own maximal heart rate鈥攚hich has nothing to do with your fitness, but varies genetically, and has been unique since birth. The gold standard for finding your maximal听heart rate听is a treadmill stress test in a lab, where, after hooking you up to monitors, they gradually increase the speed and incline until you call uncle. Before you sign up for a graded, treadmill stress test, however, consider the following bit of reverse logic.

The Common Sense Effort Test

If you want to avoid the cost, time, pain, torture and agony of pushing yourself to a high risk, all-out, lung-searing maximal test, you can use Coach Benson鈥檚 low-rent, low-risk minimal stress test. It simply relies on the common sense of this truth: If the effort is easy and the pace is slow, your HR should be low. If not, your heart could be capable of beating faster or slower than average.

Begin your self test with the assumption that you have an average-size heart. Use the 220 minus your age formula to predict your MHR. Next calculate a target heart rate for the test by using the standard for the least amount of work and effort required for a conditioning response: 60% of MHR.

If you want to try the minimal test but have not been exercising, just try walking briskly. If you are in shape, start by jogging. In any case, if your HR accelerates quickly to your THR of 60%, forcing to you to slow down, get suspicious. If your brisk walk turns into a crawl, or your jog turns into a walk, you probably have a significantly higher than average MHR. If so, repeat the test, adding 12 beats to your target HR. If you’re still being forced into a pace that doesn’t feel like even the first level of easy exercise, keep repeating this no-sweat test until you feel that common sense rules.

On the other hand, you might find that you can鈥檛 walk fast enough and have to jog or even break into a run to elevate your HR to 60%. If your heart rate while jogging was so low that you had to break into a run to hit your target, be suspicious. If you feel like it will take a full speed sprint for a couple hundred yards just to hit 60%, stop immediately. Adjust your target down in 12 beat increments (up to as much as 36 bpm) until you feel that the test is more accurate than the age-adjusted prediction. Remember, we promised just a low-rent, low-risk minimal stress test, not an exhausting, smoke-coming-out-of-your lungs, maximal test.

Case Study

As an example, here is the older of your authors鈥� sample calculation: 220 bpm 鈭� 78 years old = 142 bpm x 60% = 85 bpm. This very low level of effort will normally result for him, a very, very slow jog that is an embarrassing picture of a tight, weak, mincing stride. In fact, he often hits 85 bpm during just an ambitious walk. It feels too slow to even be considered exercise.

So what might his real MHR be? He has also noticed that recent modest (but far from maximal) efforts have raised his HR to the mid 140s. He suspects a true MHR between 155 to 160 bpm, almost exactly one of those standard deviations. This would be an age-adjusted max that duplicates what real laboratory testing revealed about 50 years ago.

photo: 101 Degrees West

Perceived Effort Across Heart Rate Zones

The chart below has more extensive clues as further checkpoints to see if the ease or difficulty of a run matches up with your THR鈥檚.

Coach Benson鈥檚 Workouts and Perceived Effort Chart

听Patiently work on calculating your own personal THR鈥檚. If you are a frustrated early adaptor who gave up on the numbers, open up the sock drawer, unbury your monitor and try this no-sweat approach.听Your heart beats have to be as exceptionally smart as your watches and apps.

—

Excerpted and adapted from , December 2019, Human Kinetics.

The post How to Dial-In Your Personalized Heart Rate Zones appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Splits, cadence, power鈥攐h my!

With a proliferation of running data available at our fingertips, it鈥檚 easy to dive in deep. How fast was my first mile and my last? How does my stride length stack up to last week? How do I rank on that hilly segment?

This data may come from a GPS watch, a tracking app, or other wearable tech鈥攈eart rate monitors, shoe pods (or shoes with built-in chips), posture prompts, and power meters. The data is fascinating, really, especially when displayed in colorful graphs or promising injury prevention.

听Demand for tracking and data appears to be high. By some , the majority of runners track at least some of their run stats. Strava, an exercise-tracking app with a social component, has 49 million users around the world. But do these trackers and the data they produce really help runners and, if so, how?

Caveats and Concerns

First, know that many factors affect the accuracy of global positioning system () data, which running watches use to track distance and pace. Atmospheric conditions and tall buildings, for example, can make for messy, inaccurate tracks and splits. Other factors鈥攍ike where you wear a monitor or how much you sweat鈥攁ffect the accuracy of heart rate monitoring. So take that data with a grain of salt; focus on larger trends revealed by the data, not real-time numbers.

Second, some suggests that health and fitness tech鈥攊n particular those aimed at weight loss, body composition, or 鈥攎ay cause issues for runners, especially young ones. These issues may include guilt, reduced self-motivation, and feeling controlled by apps. It鈥檚 best that youth and adolescent runners focus on fueling and hydrating to support their bodies through both the extreme development they are undergoing and听their exercise and other activities. That means first disregarding calorie counters and specific diets. To dial in specifics, work with a registered dietician who specializes in sports and/or eating disorders, and ideally uses an Intuitive Eating approach.

Third, when it comes to form feedback and preventing injuries with wearable tech, suggests that there鈥檚 no 鈥減erfect鈥� form that guarantees you鈥檒l avoid injury. As Jonathan Beverly writes in , your body finds its own best way to run. Sure, there are factors you can and should work on to become more efficient, but within the context of your own unique biomechanics, mobility and fitness. Something beeping at you because your cadence is 160 steps per minute (instead of the oft-glorified 180 steps per minute) may not be helpful. Trying to bounce less because your watch says you have a high vertical oscillation is an exercise in frustration and likely to cause more hurt than harm.

Comparison to yourself (鈥淔astest time on this route!鈥�) or peers (鈥淥h, look, Suzy ran 7-minute pace for 8 miles!鈥�) can suck the joy out of running. Equally unenjoyable, an addiction to tech can kill motivation, and even derail a training session. For rigid or type-A types, it can become impossible to take an easy day with a blinking, beeping, talking device on your wrist or belt urging: 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to move!鈥� or to call a run 鈥渄one鈥� when your watch reads 鈥�3.87 miles.鈥� If you have run laps around a parking lot or up and down a block until the total ticked over to a round number, you know what I mean!

Such intense focus on data: distance, speed, and frequency, neglects an important part of the equation necessary for improved fitness and performance: rest. It鈥檚 in the negative space鈥攔ecovery鈥攖hat our bodies adapt and improve.

Harnessing the Tools

All that said, running stats allow athletes and coaches to analyze work completed. If you see patterns, you and your coach can adjust training accordingly. Zoom out and see a drastic increase in mileage logged over the past few months? Schedule a down week. Zoom in and see positive splits in every track workout? Practice starting harder sessions more conservatively.

Running tech then, is best used as a 鈥攋ust one of many in a runner鈥檚 arsenal. The importance and helpfulness of metrics increases for older, more experienced runners and those who run longer distances, as a tool to monitor their training load. For younger athletes, it鈥檚 essential to learn how to connect with the body. Consider your body鈥檚 feedback before connecting to a satellite in the sky.

Here鈥檚 what to tune into and how:

HEART RATE

Take your resting heart rate in the morning. After waking, lie in bed and take a few deep breaths. Find the pulse on the left side of your neck, next to your throat and adam鈥檚 apple. Count the beats for 60 seconds, or for 15 seconds and then multiply by 4. Record it for a week or two. If it spikes, be curious why: Are you sleeping well or enough? Are you stressed or feeling strong emotions? Are you overtraining? Are you in a specific phase in your menstrual cycle? If it鈥檚 unusually low, be curious why: Are you fueling and hydrating enough? Are you breathing?

You can also take your heart rate after intervals. Stand and count your pulse. (Or use a chest HR strap that connects to your watch or coach鈥檚 tech.) You might notice it starting to slow more quickly after hard bouts; this indicates you鈥檙e gaining fitness and may be able to shorten recovery time.

TIME ON FEET听

Track time on feet. When I started running in elementary school, I glanced at the grandfather clock at home, before darting out the door and up the canyon. Once finished, I鈥檇 race inside to see how far the minute and second hands had moved. A simple, non-GPS watch鈥攐r a coach with a stopwatch鈥攚orks just fine. GPS smart watches make it easy to add up weekly and monthly totals, but take care not to get too focussed on the pace.

PACE

For runners with experience, monitoring pace helps avoid straining and over-training, especially on tempos and long runs. But, wait! It鈥檚 far too easy to try to PR every mile, or decide you have to run at least a certain pace every time out, even when your body is telling you it wants to go slower today.

There are other elephants in this room: Countless online running calculators and books with impeccable pace charts! If you can鈥檛 resist Googling 鈥淗ow fast should I run my track workout?鈥� take what you find with another giant grain of salt.

Formulaic training is just that. It鈥檚 not that formulas are necessarily incorrect. The issue is that they鈥檙e standard calculations based on one or two inputs, like a time trial or race or lactate test鈥攋ust a snapshot in time.

Information, Not Judgment

From day to day, so many factors affect the stats we rack up. Sleep, stress, emotions, mental input and output鈥攖hey all influence not only how we feel but the metrics we 鈥減roduce鈥� based on imperfect鈥攅ven if potentially insightful鈥攖ech. Data should inform and affirm, not control and judge. It鈥檚 best to not get too attached but, rather, practice an intuitive, non-judgmental approach for assessing what鈥檚 what.

is a running coach, director of Boulder Mountain Warriors Youth Run Club, founder of The Melody Fairchild Girls Running Camp, and master鈥檚 athlete in Boulder, Colorado. Her first book, GIRLS RUNNING (VeloPress), co-authored with Elizabeth Carey, is forthcoming. is a freelance writer and running coach based in Seattle, Washington.

The post Running in Harmony: What Data Matters? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Garmin Vivo active 3 Music Smartwatch ($300)

Finally, a Garmin with its own SIM card. If you have a Verizon plan, you can ditch your phone without missing a thing. The Vivoactive has a heart-rate monitor, features run and ride tracking, and lets you send and receive text messages, play stored music, and make mobile payments, all from your wrist.

Polar Vantage V Fitness Watch ($500)

The Vantage V is a data lover鈥檚 high-end triathlon watch. Not only does it have an eye-poppingly bright and colorful display, but the heart-rate monitor uses both optical and skin-contact measurement for more accuracy. The built-in coaching feature will analyze your training levels and help determine when you should ramp up the load or take a rest day.

Under Armour Hovr Infinite Running Shoes ($120)

Smart kicks are here to stay. Just pair the Hovr Infinite with your phone via Bluetooth, and these trainers use UA鈥檚 MapMyRun app to deliver gait analysis and coaching to help correct and improve your form. You can also log your times and share them with friends.

Fitbit Inspire HR Fitness Tracker ($100)

Fitbit鈥檚 new band delivers an incredible set of features at an extremely approachable price. Not only does it offer 24/7 activity and sleep tracking, guided workouts, and VO2 max measurement, but it鈥檚 water-resistant enough for pool laps and has a thin touchscreen that minimizes bulk.

Suunto 3 Fitness Watch ($229)

If you鈥檙e in the market for a good middle-of-the-road workout watch, look no further than the Suunto 3 Fitness. There鈥檚 no built-in GPS, so it needs your phone for most activity tracking, but it does boast one of the best heart-rate monitors available, plus built-in coaching to help you manage stress and recovery. And like most watches from the Swedish company, it鈥檚 easy on the eyes.

Apple Watch Series 4 ($399)

Basically the best everyday smartwatch out there, the Series 4 is small, stylish, and extremely powerful, with a battery that (finally) lasts all day, a large screen, and the most accurate heart-rate monitoring on this page. Like the Fitbit, it鈥檚 water-resistant, so you can wear it in the pool.

The post The Best Wearable Tech of 2019 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Body

Designs that are slim are not only stylish, they鈥檙e practical, too鈥攍ess likely to catch on your sleeve or some other object. Ideally, you want a watch that鈥檚 fully waterproof, so you can jump in a river or pool without hesitation. This feature is becoming standard, but you can still expect it to add as much as $50 to the cost. A machined-metal body is stronger and will last longer than plastic, which in turn is lighter and often more comfortable to wear during peak activity.

Screen

For scratch resistance, sapphire-crystal displays can鈥檛 be beat: they鈥檙e far less susceptible to chips and cracks than standard glass. They come at a price, however, adding as much as $100 to the cost of a watch. While pixel density is important (the Apple Watch Series 4鈥檚 screen has 326 pixels per inch, while the Samsung Gear Sport鈥檚 has 424), it鈥檚 more critical that the display be big and bright, so it鈥檚 easy to read even when you鈥檙e bouncing around on a run. Brightness is measured in nits, and the more the better. Some watches, including Garmin鈥檚, have reflective screens that take advantage of ambient light. They aren鈥檛 as detailed, but they鈥檙e very readable.

Battery

You want as much battery life as you can get. That said, some watches are smarter than others about how they manage power. A full-on smartwatch, like Apple鈥檚 and Samsung鈥檚, typically gets only a day鈥檚 worth of battery life, though such devices tend to run more background operations. A watch should last weeks between charges if you鈥檙e using it only for basic stuff like step counting. Check how many hours it鈥檚 rated for in tracking mode. Most tap out after ten hours of GPS tracking, though some include less accurate modes that extend that to 24.

Wireless Connectivity

These days, Bluetooth is mandatory. It鈥檚 what enables the stats a watch tracks to get to the wearer鈥檚 phone and into the cloud. Every legitimate fitness watch has it, so if the one you鈥檙e considering doesn鈥檛, move along. Some watches now have slots for SIM cards, which give your watch 4G connectivity鈥攎eaning your data stays synced, and you can send and receive texts and even download music, all without needing to have your phone nearby. That SIM-card slot can add up to $100 to the price tag, though, and that doesn鈥檛 include the monthly fee you鈥檒l be paying for a data plan (typically $10 to $20).

Heart-Rate Monitoring

Wrist-based heart-rate monitors were once so inaccurate that they were little more than a novelty feature. That isn鈥檛 the case anymore. Not only are optical heart-rate monitors (which shine light through your skin to calculate blood flow) fairly standard on fitness watches, but they鈥檝e gotten a lot better. They still don鈥檛 have the accuracy of a chest strap, which reads the electrical impulses in your skin, but they鈥檙e getting closer with each generation. While most watches still use optical monitoring, some high-end models double up with optical and electrical.

Location Tracking

Simply put, you need GPS to accurately track your activities over distances, especially for running, hiking, and biking. Some cheaper watches are designed to pair with your phone and piggy颅back on its GPS rather than include antennas of their own. Don鈥檛 go this route. It forces you to carry your phone with you and typically isn鈥檛 as accurate. A watch with GPS is much more straightforward: it doesn鈥檛 require pairing and won鈥檛 drain your phone鈥檚 battery. High-end watches utilize both GPS and Glonass and are therefore more accurate, because that doubles the number of satellites they can use to pull positioning data.

Near-Field Communication

NFC chips haven鈥檛 become stan颅dard yet in fitness 颅watches, but you do see them in full-featured models from Apple and Garmin, as well as devices that use Google鈥檚 Wear OS. These chips allow you to make mobile payments directly from your watch, without requiring you to have your phone with you. It鈥檚 great for an emergency bottle of water or a snack at a convenience store, or even a taxi back home if you pull a hamstring or break a derailleur. Think of it as a bonus feature rather than a must-have.

Price

Cost is obviously a major factor in all consumer electronics, and with fitness watches there鈥檚 a wide range. Much of what you pay depends on what you want to track. You can get a decent running watch with GPS for under $200. At the other side of the price spectrum, a cutting-edge device that鈥檚 waterproof, has a sapphire-crystal display, and tracks every activity under the sun might run you north of $700. Whether it鈥檚 worth the cost depends on how important fitness data is to you and how precise you need that data to be.

The post How to Buy a Fitness Watch appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The latest fitness bands are smarter and svelter than ever

Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR ($280)

Finally, Suunto gives the people what they want at a price they can afford. This is a full-featured triathlon watch, but it also tracks some sports the others don鈥檛, like ice hockey. The Trainer Wrist HR crams in an optical heart-rate monitor, some decent smartwatch features (like call and message notification), and compatibility with power meters and other third-party sensors. There鈥檚 nothing on the market that even comes close, featurewise, for under $300.

Polar OH1 ($80)

Chest straps are uncomfortable and inconvenient, while wrist-based heart-rate monitors compromise on accuracy. The Polar OH1 achieves a happy medium between usability and wearability. It鈥檚 designed to be worn on the upper arm, and we found it to be nearly as precise as a chest strap without the girdle vibe. It uses Bluetooth 4.0 to pair with your devices, so it鈥檚 easy to get a reading on the fly.

Garmin Fenix 5S Plus ($800)

Here鈥檚 a familiar face. The Fenix 5X, released in 2017, was one of our favorite watches ever. The 5S Plus does everything its predecessor did and more鈥攊n a smaller, sleeker package. Not only can this GPS watch track just about every activity under the sun, but it also includes U.S. topo maps and can store up to 500 songs. Plus, you can purchase stuff when you鈥檙e out and about via Garmin Pay.

Whoop ($30 per month)

Yep, a subscription-only wearable. The monthly fee ($180 for 6 months) gets you the Whoop Strap 2.0, which measures heart-rate variability, skin temperature, and motion 100 times per second right from your wrist. Desktop and smartphone apps use that data to conduct detailed analysis of your exercise, sleep, and overall fitness level, and suggest recovery times.

Fitbit Versa ($200)

The company that took fitness trackers mainstream finally made a smartwatch that鈥檚 enjoyable to wear. The Versa is small and svelte, sitting nice and flat on your wrist. The lack of GPS is a bummer, but there鈥檚 a lot to love here, including the ability to store music and advanced features like menstrual-cycle tracking for women. The screen is bright, sharp, and easy to read.

The post The Best Wearable Tech of 2019 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

When the question of how to use data to guide your training came up during last week, I dusted off a familiar bromide. The output from GPS watches, power meters, heart rate monitors, and other forms of modern wearable tech is great for describing your training, I said, but not so good for prescribing it. If your pace is quicker than usual or your heart rate is lower, that tells you you鈥檙e getting fitter, but it doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean you should, say, start training harder.

I figured that was a pretty deep and meaningful statement鈥攗ntil I got an email from a longtime journalistic and athletic mentor, , who won the Boston Marathon in 1968 and went on to edit Runner鈥檚 World for many years. He agreed with most of my points, he said. But he had a question:

What is all our new running data good for if we can鈥檛 prescribe?

I mean, if my 10×400 workout gets slower every week, my morning heart rate increases, my hours of sleep decrease, I can prescribe from this data: It鈥檚 time to take two weeks off.

But I could assess all the above in 1970 with a $7.99 Timex wristwatch with a sweep second hand. Have we made any advances in running and training data since then?

I鈥檝e been thinking about Amby鈥檚 question for a few days now, because it鈥檚 a big and controversial one. To some extent, I鈥檓 inclined to say that we haven鈥檛 actually made many significant practical advances in training data since 1970. Things like heart rate monitors and power meters may be helpful for beginning exercisers who haven鈥檛 yet internalized the feeling of different training zones. Elite athletes with high-tech monitoring and sophisticated scientific teams helping them interpret their data may be able to extract some useful insights. But is there any mass-market tool that offers useful and accessible training insights to enthusiastic but nonprofessional endurance athletes?

The most promising candidate I could come up with is heart rate variability (HRV), a formerly arcane measure of how regularly your heart beats that is now easily accessible to recreational athletes. If your heart is beating 60 times per minute, that doesn鈥檛 mean there鈥檚 exactly one second between each beat. Sometimes it鈥檚 0.99, sometimes it鈥檚 1.01, and so on. That variation in the interval between beats tells us something about balance between the sympathetic (鈥渇ight or flight鈥�) and parasympathetic (鈥渞est and recover鈥�) branches of your nervous system. In a nutshell, higher variability is a sign of parasympathetic drive, indicating that you鈥檙e more recovered, while lower variability corresponds to sympathetic drive, a sign that your body is still under stress. For a more detailed primer, check out from Marco Altini, who developed the HRV4Training app.

Over the past decade or so, HRV has emerged as a way of monitoring training and recovery status from day to day. It can be easily measured with a chest strap or wrist-based heart rate monitor or by using the camera on your phone with an appropriate app like . In theory, you wake up in the morning and your HRV indicates whether you鈥檙e ready to train harder, if you should maintain your current training level, or if you need to back off. In other words, HRV prescribes your training. But does it actually work?

As it happens, I was at a conference last year where Gr茅goire Millet, a French researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, offered a sneak peek at some results from a test of HRV-guided training with cross-country skiers from the French national team. That study has since been published in the and offers the most rigorous real-world test of the concept that I鈥檝e seen so far.

The protocol involved 18 skiers who took part in a 15-day training camp at the French national training center in Pr茅manon, sleeping in altitude chambers that simulated the thin air at 9,000 feet above sea level. Half of them followed a preassigned training plan designed by the national team coach, while the other half altered their training each day based on their morning HRV measures. Before and after the training camp, they did a VO2max test and a 10K roller-ski trial. (Another six athletes did the same training without sleeping in the altitude chambers, but we can ignore them for our purposes.)

To adjust their training, the skiers in Millet鈥檚 study followed these rules:

• If their HRV stayed the same or increased, they increased their training load; for example, by skiing longer that day.

• If their HRV decreased by more than 30 percent, they decreased their training load.

• If their HRV decreased two days in a row, they took a rest day.

In the end, the two groups ended up doing relatively similar overall training. On average, the skiers in the HRV group modified their training due to HRV readings an average of 3.3 times. But since the modifications could be either increases or decreases, they ended up with pretty much the same total training volume.

After two weeks of heavy training, the 鈥渘ormal鈥� group showed significant changes in their heart rate variability corresponding to increased 鈥渇ight or flight鈥� and reduced 鈥渞est and recover鈥� responses. These changes, the researchers suggest, would translate in the long term to an increased chance of overtraining or getting sick. The HRV-guided group, on the other hand, kept these parameters stable. It鈥檚 an intriguing finding, even if the benefits remain mostly hypothetical.

As for race performance, the picture is less encouraging. There was no difference in VO2max changes and little difference in final 10K roller-ski times. The abstract says that the HRV-guided group was the only one to 鈥渟ignificantly鈥� improve performance鈥攂ut their average improvement of 2.7 percent (p<0.05) is hardly different from the control group鈥檚 borderline-significant improvement of 2.5 percent (p=0.07). To be fair, it鈥檚 really hard to improve VO2max and race performance in athletes who are already elite, so finding a big difference after just two weeks was always going to be a stretch. There is , in nonathletes, that did find improvements in performance with a similar HRV-guided training protocol.

So, after all that, the verdict on HRV-guided training is鈥 big maybe? I would love to see more studies like this one, trying different training approaches and following athletes for a much longer period of time. But in the real world, I doubt the best approach is a rigid algorithm that says 鈥測ou must increase (or decrease) your training based on this morning鈥檚 HRV reading and nothing else.鈥� Instead, it鈥檚 one more piece of data that you incorporate into your decision-making process, alongside all your other objective data, subjective feelings, and accumulated experience. It鈥檚 a thumb on the scale, not a yes/no decision-maker.

Altini has a bunch of practical advice (for example, and ) on how to use HRV effectively. You should measure your HRV daily at the same time and under the same conditions (ideally right after you wake up, while lying down). Because day-to-day readings can fluctuate based on all sorts of life stresses (travel, sleep, work, etc.), watch for trends that deviate from longer-term averages (Altini鈥檚 app compares to a baseline from the previous 30 days) rather than overinterpreting a single reading. And perhaps most important: Start with a well-designed training plan. HRV data may suggest occasional deviations from that plan, but it鈥檚 not a replacement for it.

That鈥檚 a point echoed by elite triathlon scientist-coaches Dan Plews and Paul Laursen: 鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to imagine using HRV to change training on a daily basis (micro level) by itself, without other variables alongside it, and presently we wouldn鈥檛 recommend it,鈥� . 鈥淗owever, when you use it together with other subjective measures and within the context of the training plan, it鈥檚 extremely helpful, and takes much of the guesswork away during those heavy training periods when you鈥檙e questioning whether or not to adjust the load.鈥�

I鈥檝e spoken to a bunch of people who work with elite athletes who, like Millet, Plews, and Laursen, believe that HRV data adds real value. I鈥檝e also spoken with plenty who believe that while the underlying physiology may be sound, the inherent variability in daily HRV measurements makes it essentially useless for training prescription. In other words, it鈥檚 great to describe how the training has gone鈥攖o look back and, with hindsight, see exactly when things were clicking and where you went off the rails. But the evidence that you can really use it to alter your training in real time and measurably enhance performance is still thin at best.

Which brings me back to Amby鈥檚 initial question: Have we gained anything since 1970? In the recent round of interviews marking the 50th anniversary of his Boston win, someone asked Amby about the most significant new technological changes since his heyday. His answer? 鈥淪ocks that wick sweat.鈥� (For me, it was moisture-wicking tech T-shirts that rocked my world in the mid-1990s.) As prosaic as it sounds, it鈥檒l take some doing to surpass those innovations鈥攂ut HRV seems worth watching.

My new book, , with a foreword by Malcolm Gladwell, is now available. For more, join me on and , and sign up for the Sweat Science .

The post How Heart Rate Variability Tells You When to Hammer appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Most fitness trackers are nothing but glorified step counters. They set an arbitrary goal, and when you鈥檝e taken enough steps to meet it, you are proclaimed healthy. This is dumb. Different steps require different amounts of energy, depending on incline and altitude, as well as the height, weight, and age of the person stepping, and many other factors. Heart data is a far better indicator of your health and exercise levels, and there鈥檚 finally a wearable鈥攁nd a metric鈥攖hat puts it first.

The is the first wearable to use the proprietary Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) score. Strap the Slice onto your wrist, where it monitors your heart rate during rest and activity, and then applies a proprietary algorithm to generate your PAI score. I鈥檓 normally against a company using confusing metrics to evaluate fitness (remember the seemingly pointless NikeFuel?), but PAI is built around some serious science.

When developing the PAI system, Mio used data from the , an exhaustive project by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology that collected physical activity and health outcomes data from more than 45,000 participants over 25 years. Based on a retroactive analysis of that data using the PAI algorithm, Mio found that men with a PAI score of 100 or more had a 17 percent reduced risk of cardiovascular disease mortality. Women had a 23 percent reduced risk. Those are big numbers, and the study found that it held true across all age groups and in participants known to be at risk.

So, you want to hit a PAI score of 100, and you can do that any way you want: running, biking, working out at the gym, doing yoga, or dancing. It doesn鈥檛 matter, because the Slice cares how hard your heart is working, not whether you鈥檙e taking steps. If your exercise routine isn鈥檛 getting you to 100, then you know you need to push harder or add something new.

The band is also well designed. It looks like a Fitbit Charge but with a smoother, more polished appeal. It doesn鈥檛 get caught on sleeves and has an easy-to-read display. It鈥檚 also waterproof to 100 feet (though the company says you can鈥檛 read your heart rate while swimming) and tracks your sleep automatically. You can use the button to scroll through the time, PAI score, current heart rate, steps taken, calories, distance, and sleep data. The Slice is on sale now for $130 and works with iOS and Android. Mio will also launch a PAI app for the Apple Watch in the months to come.

The post A New Fitness Tracker That Actually Uses Science appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Colorado-based triathlon coach Alan Couzens has a love-hate relationship with the rise of heart-rate variability tracking, or the ability to measure the variation between one鈥檚 heart beats. HRV unlocks high-level information about how well an athlete is recovering, as well as how ready they might be for their next big workout. But the problem is, while the tech to measure HRV has gotten simple and inexpensive鈥攁n app linked to your phone鈥檚 camera or a heart rate chest strap is all you need鈥攁nalyzing the data is still complicated and requires patience and understanding.

More than 50 years ago, scientists discovered that the more variation in听the time between someone鈥檚 heartbeats, the healthier the听heart is. More variability indicates听your heart is reacting well to the second-by-second changes in your body, such as the peaks and valleys听in oxygen when you inhale and exhale. 鈥淎nother way to look at it is that HRV is a good indicator of whether your central nervous system is in a fight or flight mode [low variation] or a rest and repair mode [high variation],鈥� says Couzens.

Over the last 20 years, elite trainers have begun to use this data to measure how well their athletes recover听from big workouts. We all have fluctuations in our HRV, but consistent readings of high variation are a strong indication of good recovery and the heart鈥檚 readiness to take on another training block. Yet until recently, tracking HRV required complex, expensive equipment听and was often only used by pro or Olympic-level endurance athletes. Now, there are dozens of HRV-specific apps on the market (the function has been added to many fitness and sleep wearables) and they have become a popular tool for endurance athletes who are hoping to quantify recovery. 听
听听
Of course, the problem with selling a complex medical system that for decades was only used by trained professionals in a lab setting is that things get oversimplified quickly. 鈥淭he strength of the technology is its sensitivity. But if you don鈥檛 have a deep understanding of it, it鈥檚 hard to get a sense of where you stand relative to the norm,鈥� says Couzens. 鈥淚 see a lot of athletes using the info before they鈥檝e established a baseline. Knowing your own patterns and baseline is how you will know which is correct.鈥�

Most HRV apps, like or , take your pulse via your phone鈥檚 camera or heart rate chest strap and spit out a score between one and 100, with most readings falling somewhere between 50 and 100. And while HRV is highly individual, scores near 50 indicate less variation and some fatigue, says Couzens. But this has led many amateur athletes to see high numbers as good and low ones as bad. But in reality, for an athletic application, it鈥檚 not necessarily how high or low your number is that's revealing鈥攊t鈥檚 the consistency of your particular HRV score over several days or听even weeks. This is because your personalized score is actually based on some fairly complex algorithms, and, unlike something like resting heart rate, understanding your HRV norm听is what听turns the tech into a tool for determining how well you鈥檝e recovered from your last session, and thus how intense your next session should be.

We asked Couzens to give us a basic rundown of things to look out for when measuring your own HRV:听

1. Build a baseline: 鈥淭he most important thing is to identify your personal norm, which can only be determined by spending a month or so being consistent with the readings,鈥� says Couzens. 鈥淒ue to the sensitivity of the metric, it鈥檚 fairly important that you鈥檙e always capturing the data in a similar context, like in bed right after you wake up. Within a couple of weeks, you鈥檒l start to see patterns, but over a month you鈥檒l get even better data鈥攁verages are really important because of how much these numbers can bounce around.鈥�
2. Know your numbers: 鈥淗igher is not always better, and your number does not always correlate with fitness,鈥� says Couzens. 鈥淚 have some very good athletes who, for whatever reason, have really low baselines, meaning their hearts tend to have low variability. Once you know your general high numbers and general low numbers, those are the ones to pay attention to; how close your number is to your personal baseline is a better indicator of readiness to train than a high number. If you take arbitrary values and start comparing yourself with other athletes, you鈥檙e missing out on the most valuable data.鈥�
3. Don鈥檛 be fooled by false spikes: 鈥淗ard training often drives an athlete鈥檚 heart rate variability really low and then way up the minute we stop and our body rallies,鈥� says Couzens. 鈥淏ut you may still feel really tired鈥攍isten to your body so that you鈥檙e following patterns, not one-off readings.鈥�
4. Use your number to plan workouts: Athletes reported their best training sessions when their HRV number was on the high side of their normal, according to Couzens. For example, if the athlete鈥檚 average was 50, she would likely see her best training while in the 55-60 range. This zone is a good indication that your heart is working to its full capacity and you're听thus likely to recovery from hard work quickly.
5. Always check HRV before HIIT: 鈥淭he most important thing your HRV number can help determine is the intensity of your next workout,鈥� says Couzens. 鈥淭here are that athletes who do HIIT work when their HRV is high-to-normal get a significantly better training response鈥攁s measured by performance and recovery鈥攖han when it鈥檚 low. Likewise, if your morning number is significantly above or below your personal baseline, that鈥檚 a good indication that it鈥檚 not the best day to do a hard set or interval work because the body won鈥檛 be able to recover well.鈥�
6. Take HRV tracking a step further with training apps: 鈥淭raining apps and websites like Training Peaks are actually now talking with some of these HRV apps,鈥� says Couzens. 鈥淭raining Peaks, in particular, has always had what they call a performance management chart, which basically tracks your long-term chronic training load with your acute training load. Now, you can actually compare your HRV numbers alongside this data. If you physically feel like you are in a hole because of all the recent training you鈥檝e done and you can see what your HRV score was during that period, you鈥檒l know when to back off in the future. That鈥檚 pretty powerful information.鈥�
7. Number鈥檚 off? Do something about it: 鈥淵ou actually have the power to change your HRV. Often, very easy training will bring it closer to your baseline, as will non-training activities like going for a hike.”听

The post What Is Heart Rate Variability and How Can It Make Me a Better Athlete? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Way back in 1965, cardiologists first noticed that as a person鈥檚 health deteriorates, the tiny fluctuations between their heartbeats become more uniform, like a metronome. 鈥淛ust before you have a heart attack, there is zero variation,鈥� says Lindsay Thornton, a sport psychophysiologist at the United States Olympic Committee. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just boom, boom, boom. Perfect regularity.鈥� On the flip side, a healthy heart beats with great variety.

That measurement, called heart-rate variability (HRV), 鈥渋s an easy and simple reading of a person鈥檚 overall health,鈥� says Thornton. In fact, elite coaches have long used the metric to determine if athletes have recovered enough from a tough training session to go hard again.听

Until recently, tracking HRV required high-end machines found only in a physiology lab or a hospital鈥檚 cardiology wing. But a new wave of apps allow you to record your HRV from home. Which is good news for amateurs who are just as likely as elites to equate rest with laziness, then train hard when they should be taking the day off, resulting in chronic fatigue, injury, or worse: by some estimates, up to 60 percent of athletes suffer from overtraining.听

To track your HRV, you鈥檒l need a finger sensor or a heart-rate strap like the ($80), which connects with your smartphone, and an app like (Android and ; $10).听

Start by testing every day for two weeks to establish a baseline. Control for variables by taking your HRV at the same time each morning, before getting out of bed. The apps deliver a score from 1 to 100. If your result is on the low end鈥攕ay, less than 60鈥攖ake it easy; your nervous system, which controls your heart rate, hasn鈥檛 recovered. A score closer to 100 means you鈥檙e in a state of homeostasis and鈥攍ucky you鈥攜ou鈥檙e ready for some grueling hill repeats.

Four Things Every Athlete Should Know About Their Heart

Higher fitness levels mean fewer beats. A strong heart can push more blood per beat than a weak one. Adult males have an average resting heart rate of about 70 beats per minute, while an elite athlete鈥檚 heart rate can drop as low as 30. (Cyclist Miguel Indurain鈥檚 was 28 during his Tour de France wins.) A slower heart rate can also reduce risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

Dehydration elevates your heart rate. Your heart pumps oxygenated blood around your body during exercise. When you鈥檙e dehydrated, your circulatory system has less fluid volume, causing your heart to work harder. Be sure to drink whenever you鈥檙e thirsty during races or training.

Endurance exercise isn鈥檛 bad for your heart. 鈥淎 lot of this comes down to genetics, but exercise actually helps maintain elasticity in the heart, which is a very good thing to take into your later years,鈥� says Dr. Bruce Andrea, who runs the in Colorado.听

Your heart, like your other muscles, needs a break. It鈥檚 essential to have hard days and easy days, hard weeks and easy weeks, and hard months and easy months. Play the long game and take real time off each season.听

The post Is Your Heart Healthy? Ask Your Phone appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

After two months testing 16 different fitness trackers, I鈥檓 sitting on the sofa watching Game of Thrones, jiggling my wrist to push the step count on my Garmin Forerunner smartwatch to the 20,000 mark.

I am a shallow, petty man.

A local 10K in the morning, some yard work in the afternoon, and the constant motion that comes with being the father of an infant brought me to 19,841. Even though I鈥檝e already determined step counts to be a pointless metric for athletes, I鈥檓 too obsessive-compulsive to just leave it at that. Yet, walking around the block to reach a specific count of an imprecise measure of an activity I don鈥檛 even care about seems less honest than just lying to the Garmin. Better to deceive the watch than myself. So I sit there waving my arm back and forth while Jon Snow strikes an uneasy alliance with the Wildling leader.

It鈥檚 no secret that fitness trackers are a mess of a success story. Manufacturers shipped 9.7 million of them in 2013, a number expected to hit 135 million by 2018. The proliferation of wearables . We鈥檇 run faster and sleep better, get injured less and lose weight. The problem, of course, is that change is hard. While wearables have undoubtedly helped spur millions of people to be more active, the effect for many can be temporary. Indeed, a report last year from consulting firm Endeavour Partners found that more than half of the people who buy fitness trackers . A third do so within six months.听

鈥淲hat鈥檚 the common experience for individuals? They get a fitness tracker, and it sparks them to start walking,鈥� says John Bartholomew, a professor of health education at the University of Texas at Austin, who specializes in exercise psychology. 鈥淪o they walk three miles in the morning, and that gets them 4,000 steps. Over the course of a day, maybe they get another 3,000 and do an extra walk to get to 10,000. After a couple of weeks it鈥檚, 鈥業 do my walk in the morning, and then I go about my day and I hit my goal.鈥� The novelty of the information is removed. The step count is no longer useful. And that鈥檚 why people set these devices down.鈥�

But that鈥檚 a sweeping generalization, data averaged out across the masses. Move a couple of standard deviations away from the center of the bell curve鈥攐ut toward the motivated fitness junkies who wake up at 5 a.m. for pre-office workouts鈥攁nd things look different. I started using a bike computer to track speed and mileage 25 years ago and have been getting real-time performance data like power and heart rate for more than a decade. As both an athlete and a tech journalist, I wanted to know how wearables were evolving for more specialized users: those of us accustomed to, say, comparing steady-state power output on Strava. The masses can have鈥攁nd abandon鈥攖heir Jawbone Ups. What鈥檚 out there for us?

I spent months working my way through fitness trackers built into watches, bracelets, belt clips, apparel, and jewelry. (See here.) I didn鈥檛 start a new training routine or pick up any new sports; I didn鈥檛 change my bedtime or set weight goals. I incorporated these gadgets into my life, not vice versa, and then watched what happened. Eventually, I settled on a few that made me not just a fitter athlete but also a more effective worker and a better husband and father.听

And I have the data to back that up.

The classic feedback loop for behavior change is: act, measure, learn, modify. If you鈥檝e ever housebroken a dog you鈥檝e done this, and you know how important it is to provide feedback immediately following an action if change is going to happen. You also know that there鈥檚 no point in continuing to offer it once Biscuit has learned to do her business outside.

For activity trackers to spur change, they need to be part of an effective feedback loop, and they need to continue offering novel information. Data telling you what you performed鈥攁 workout or a certain number of steps鈥攊s not novel. Data telling you how you performed鈥攕peed, heart rate, power鈥攊s. A lot of wearables, including most step counters and sleep trackers, fulfill only the measure step. As a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association , 鈥淭he gap between recording information and changing behavior is substantial 鈥� and while these devices are increasing in popularity, little evidence suggests that they are bridging that gap.鈥澨�

Critics of fitness trackers鈥�and there are many鈥攆ault them for not operating more like medical devices. They want their wrist straps to give them their resting heart rate and also tell them that their LDL cholesterol is too high and to prescribe statins and a meal plan. In March, Wired ran a story titled 鈥�.鈥� It argued that fitness trackers mainly measure problems without offering solutions.

Here鈥檚 the thing: in a lot of cases, the problem isn鈥檛 that fitness trackers don鈥檛 offer advice; it鈥檚 that they鈥檙e actually prohibited from doing so.

The FDA defines a medical device as a product that is 鈥渋ntended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or is intended to affect the structure or function of the body.鈥� These devices are subject to onerous regulations and approval processes. Given our understanding about the roles that exercise and healthy lifestyles play in disease prevention, apps and wearables designed to measure and promote exercise butt right up against those regulations.听

Earlier this year, the FDA meant to help clarify things. While apps and products that help people record workouts or make decisions about health and wellness could meet the definition of a medical device, the FDA says it will 鈥渆xercise enforcement discretion,鈥� meaning they鈥檙e mostly cool鈥攆or now. But the agency says it will look much more closely at products that use 鈥渂uilt-in features such as light, vibrations, camera, or other similar sources to perform medical device functions.鈥澨�

In other words, as soon as a company starts pulling data from a sophisticated piece of hardware that reads physiological markers like blood pressure and oxygen levels, regulators might get involved. That means engineers are doing far less with wearables than they could be.

鈥淲e know there鈥檚 a lot more potential,鈥� says Alex Frommeyer, founder of , an electric toothbrush that pairs with an app to measure and promote dental hygiene (and is regulated as a medical device). 鈥淚f the regulatory environment was completely different in how you could look at the prescriptive and diagnostic side of the world, we could have considered investing more deeply in those technologies.鈥�

For now, the available fitness trackers can measure and nudge, and that鈥檚 about it. But if you鈥檙e already motivated, that鈥檚 plenty, especially if the data you鈥檙e recording remains novel and engaging.听

鈥淔rom an athlete鈥檚 perspective, you are somewhat variable in terms of both your workouts and how you respond to them,鈥� Bartholomew says. 鈥淵our heart rate鈥檚 not always going to be the same, for example. Tracking for athletes continues to give interesting information in a way that tracking for the general population does not.鈥�

Moments after I set out for a seven-mile evening run, a woman鈥檚 voice, calm and Siri-like, interrupts the Japandroids song blasting in my Jaybird headphones: 鈥淵ou are averaging 156 steps per minute. You should be averaging at least 162.鈥� Over the next hour, she鈥檒l continue to check in with cadence numbers as well as mile splits and reminders to keep my back straight and to strike the ground with good form. 鈥淭ry shortening your stride,鈥� she suggests.

The voice is from my app. The company, which launched last year on Kickstarter, also has free apps for cycling, swimming, and the gym. The 1.5-inch puck strapped to my right ankle, which pairs with all the Moov apps, collects data on cadence, range of motion, stride length, and impact. Once I end my workout, I can view all this in the app鈥檚 graphical report, with a table of my splits and with charts showing metrics for performance and form down to degrees in my range of motion and the G-forces of my foot strikes. The watch on my wrist does the same stuff, but the Moov鈥檚 in-ear reminders have me hooked. The 920 is there for post-workout analysis and听trends鈥攕omething Garmin presents better than any other company in this space.

In the swimming pool, the two devices switch roles. The 920, with its huge display and broad capabilities around timed intervals and customized workouts, provides in-the-moment feedback. The Moov sits quietly on my opposite wrist until I get back within range of the Swim app running on my iPhone. It grabs the data from the puck and gives me an in-depth look at my workout, not just total distance and times for every lap, but also time and distance per stroke, fastest splits, and longest uninterrupted swim.

Crucially, Moov also explains what the numbers mean and what I should be shooting for. My 2.26 seconds per stroke is well off the 1.5 to 1.7 seconds that the app says strong distance swimmers average. So I start focusing on my arm turnover. Within three weeks, I鈥檓 down to 2.12 seconds and I鈥檓 getting a bit more distance with each stroke. I am objectively a better swimmer.

These devices are measuring the same things myriad other trackers do鈥攎otion, distance, speed. At this point in our technological history, the trick isn鈥檛 gathering metrics; it鈥檚 presenting them. Garmin and Moov package tens of thousands of data points in a way that鈥檚 both understandable and addictive. Proof? Moov says greater than 75 percent of those who bought the device are still using it more than a year in.

鈥淚ntrinsic motivation is based on enjoyment,鈥� Bartholomew says. 鈥淟earning about yourself and testing yourself and demonstrating competence are inherently enjoyable. So from an intrinsic-motivation perspective, you need to keep learning. As long as you鈥檙e getting useful information, you鈥檒l continue to track.鈥澨�

And some companies are finally delivering on that promise.听

Moov and Garmin are the pinnacle of this first wave of fitness trackers. The next generation is something else entirely. The tech startup has come out with compression shirts and shorts embedded with sensors that provide feedback that even the best personal trainers can鈥檛 match.听

The garments send the data to a smartphone app that displays it as a real-time heat map on an anatomical diagram. Set your phone in front of the squat rack and you can see how well you鈥檙e using the target muscles, if you鈥檙e engaging them with the right intensity, and where you have imbalances.

At in Los Angeles鈥攁 gym with numerous pro-athlete clients, including about 30 NFL players鈥攖rainers use Athos to gauge users鈥� initial form and guide their workouts. 鈥淚 get to see which muscles are firing and in what order,鈥� says trainer Gabe Rangel. 鈥淚f I see that the left hamstring is firing and the right isn鈥檛, I know something鈥檚 wrong. If we鈥檙e doing sprints and I don鈥檛 see glutes firing, I know they鈥檙e not getting full extension.鈥�

As I push my way through a heavy set of squats, the eight sensors on the shorts immediately pick up on the weakness in my left hip that a physical therapist diagnosed a couple of years ago. The heat map shows left and right firing at different times and intensities. I press a button on the screen after my set and the app displays muscle-effort data for my glutes, hamstrings, and inner and outer quads. All the numbers are lower for my left side, save for the inner quad, which was doing almost 50 percent more work than my right inner quad, presumably to compensate for the imbalance.听

For my next set, I reduce the weight and watch, in real time, as my focus on form slightly evens things out: another smart feedback loop leading to real change; no need for a visit to my PT.

The Athos app can also play back entire workouts, which is helpful for things like running and cycling.听

Still, as much as I appreciate what Athos offers, I use it only once a week or so, to check in on my form. Even the 920 and Moov come out only when it鈥檚 time to train. After exhaustive testing, the only tracker I wear daily has nothing to do with athletic performance at all. At least on the surface. It鈥檚 called Spire, and it was based on research at Stanford University. It clips inside the waistband of my pants and monitors the rise and fall of my abdomen to record breathing patterns.

Spire uses this data to gauge whether I鈥檓 stressed, focused, or relaxed鈥攕tates that it displays on a smartphone app. I can set goals鈥攖hree hours of focus per day, two hours relaxed鈥攁nd the app shows progress on an elegant clover-shaped graph. Customized alarms notify me when I鈥檝e been tense for five minutes or after a calm streak of at least three minutes has ended.

Additionally, once every day or two, I plug in my headphones and choose a Calm, Focus, Energize, or Meditate session. The app then walks me through a few minutes of breathing exercises geared toward putting myself in those states. As I follow the commands for inhales and exhales, I can watch the oscillating line on my screen鈥攎y breathing pattern鈥攂ecome deeper and more rhythmic.听

鈥淭his is one of the few actionable things you can do,鈥� says cofounder and CEO Jonathan Palley. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 really consciously change heart rate. What you can do, though, is take a few relaxing breaths. A long exhale isn鈥檛 something you do when you鈥檙e in danger. It triggers your mind to think, OK, if I have time to slowly breathe out, then nothing is going to attack me right now.鈥澨�

Being relaxed has a tangible effect on your performance. Athletes with high stress levels are more likely to get sick or injured. In 2012, Bartholomew and a co-researcher at the Yale Stress Center found that after a hard workout. They recommend that 鈥渁thletes and others undergoing bouts of strenuous exercise should undertake strategies to obviate the negative effects of chronic mental stress.鈥�

Spire can tell you you鈥檙e stressed before you鈥檙e even aware of it yourself. 鈥淓ighty-four percent of the time,鈥� Palley says, 鈥渨hen Spire surfaces that someone is becoming stressed, the user鈥檚 breathing pattern will change within 90 seconds.鈥� Another feedback loop in action.听

Contrary to criticism that mobile technology takes users out of the moment, Spire has taught me to be more connected鈥攖o listen to my breathing for a sense of how I鈥檓 reacting to things and to use that knowledge to be more present in what I do at work, at home, and while training. My wife noticed enough of a change that she鈥檚 getting one for herself. I鈥檓 certainly no Zen monk, but I鈥檓 better than I was.听

I started with 16 fitness trackers and worked my way down to four. That means I abandoned 75 percent of the ones I tested, all within just a few weeks. That鈥檚 an awful return. But the four I didn鈥檛 discard have become part of my regular routine鈥攐ne that is now healthier and more productive. So is this product category failing or succeeding?听

Both. Understanding why makes all the difference.

Three key mistakes have hurt people鈥檚 relationships with fitness trackers. The first is a tendency to lump them all together. An entry-level pedometer is not the same as an Apple Watch with optical heart-rate detection, and that Apple Watch is not the same as a Garmin Forerunner 920XT that can record swim workouts, analyze running form, and estimate V02 max. Just because a basic step tracker doesn鈥檛 change things doesn鈥檛 mean the entire category is without merit.

鈥淭he idea that a single wearable is for everyone is wrong,鈥� Palley says. 鈥淭hese are specific tools designed to help you do something better that鈥檚 both very personal and very diverse.鈥�

Second, from the consumer perspective, the focus on hardware is misguided. People buy a tracker, then build their goals around what it can measure. The trick is to start with what you want to accomplish, determine which data best reflect it, then find the hardware and apps that deliver that data. Goals, data, technology, in that order.

The third mistake is the most important: a failure on the part of both buyers and manufacturers to understand feedback loops and the psychology of behavior change. The data must be novel and relevant, but also presented in a way that encourages and measures transformation.听

鈥淭he big challenge with apps or fitness-tracker technology is that, in general terms, they鈥檙e asking a huge percentage of their customers to do a new behavior,鈥� says Beam founder Frommeyer. 鈥淪o the premise is, you have to wear something new, every day鈥攁 physical change to your appearance. And after you make that change, you have to adjust your behavior.鈥�

A few months ago, the Apple Watch entered this space with huge expectations. It鈥檚 a watch鈥攁nd an elegant one at that鈥攕o for most people it doesn鈥檛 require a change in appearance. But the only attractions for me lie in the productivity features鈥攖hings like texting, screening calls, and checking my schedule from my wrist. Those ultimately weren鈥檛 enough to keep me coming back. (And I鈥檓 an Apple guy: iPhone, iPad, two MacBook Pros, and two Apple TVs.) In terms of fitness tracking, the Apple Watch is all steps and daily goals. Even the standalone exercise app measures workouts only in terms of time, distance, heart rate, and calories. It鈥檚 a diary, not a coach.听

That was the takeaway for most of the wearables I tested. Of the trackers I started with, only the Garmin, Moov, Spire, and Athos shorts have hooked me with their data while asking nothing new of me. I simply go about my workouts or my daily routines as I normally would, except with continuous opportunities to adjust and improve. It鈥檚 not about hitting huge 24-hour goals built around arbitrary metrics. It鈥檚 about thinking, from moment to moment, how I can train and live a bit better.听

That gap the JAMA researchers found between recording information and changing behavior hasn鈥檛 closed, but it鈥檚 starting to narrow.

What fitness tracker should you buy?听We reviewed 16 of the best on the market.

Read more:听What it will take for fitness trackers to finally become indispensable.

John Bradley () is a former 国产吃瓜黑料 senior editor. Currently he鈥檚 the editor in chief of VeloNews.

The post A Months-Long Journey in Search of the Ultimate Fitness Tracker appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.