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Take A Step Into The Wide World Of Wearables

Tracking steps, sleep and heart rate, oh my! Today’s technology in the wearable fitness arena is really quite impressive. There are gadgets and gismos that track just about anything.  Not only are some of these items really sophisticated technology wise, they are fashionably sophisticated, too. Plus, it doesn’t matter if you’re a newbie or a seasoned pro—there is something out there for everyone.

When I started looking up information on fitness wearables, I was overwhelmed with where to start and with how many devices were out there. I can definitely say with confidence, as this craze continues, there will only more wearable fitness gurus waiting to enter the market.
During my research I stumbled upon the Live Science website which was very helpful and quite frankly had done all of the work for me. They wrote two articles on this topic.  In one article, they put together this handy, dandy flow chart based on price (low- under $75; middle - $76-$130; high - $130 and up).  But, if you’re not just interested in price alone, don’t fear because they had a second article highlighting research they conducted when testing and scoring each device with a ranking from 0 to 20 stars.

The researchers took into consideration the areas of enjoyment, value of information, user friendliness, design/comfort and, as mentioned, price. The research team wore each device for about a week.  They wore these devices while exercising, eating, sleeping, running 5Ks, working, and hanging around the house.

Who stood out?  TomTom Cardio was tops. It received 16 out of 20 stars.  It scored high in all the categories (enjoyment, value of information, user friendliness & design/comfort).  Basically, it’s designed for runners, but it’s easy to use as it has a single large button to scroll through data, a GPS, a heart rate monitor, and you can wear it while swimming. The down side, it’s about $270 and it doesn’t track sleep, which is a really hot feature these days. The Bowflex Boost was at the bottom of the barrel with 10 out of 20 stars.  It didn’t score well in enjoyment, value of information or user friendliness. It did score well in design/comfort and price at $49.95.

So, if you’re thinking the New Year is going to bring you a new fondness for the wearable fitness world, I’d suggest you take a deeper look into the Live Science research and decide for yourself which will be the right device to suit your needs. Check out these links: Choosing a Fitness Tracker and Best Fitness Trackers.  Happy hunting!

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