Here’s how you keep track of your physical activities – TechGirl

You may already know… The ten thousand steps you need to take according to your Apple Watch or Fitbit started with a marketing stunt. This was invented by a japanese watchmaker. Sure, it’s nice to move more a day, but you really don’t need to take those ten thousand steps. Do you exercise by cycling, swimming or playing a team sport? Then it’s certainly just as good. But how do you track these activities?

Football & Hockey

Of course, you can just wear your smartwatch during your team sport, but nowadays there are other options as well. Have you ever seen the male footballers on TV wearing a “sports bra”? You may have noticed it. These are special vests for heart rate sensors and GPS trackers. These vests have been the standard in professional football and professional hockey for a number of years, but more and more fans are also starting to buy these vests and trackers. Thanks to special algorithms and applications, the data is also accessible to hobbyists. Do you also want to track your performance on the pitch? For example, this GPS tracker is available for football: https://www.unisportstore.nl/v/playr-gps-football-tracking/

Bike

Cycling puts a lot of pressure on your endurance condition. This is why it is very useful to be able to train on your VO2max and heart rate zones. You can track your activities while cycling with a smartwatch such as the Garmin Forerunner 245. You don’t have to worry about a splash of rain with this smartwatch because you can even swim with it.

Additionally, there are also various apps that can track your cycling routes, such as Strava and Cyclemeter.

Winter sports

It might still be a little too cold for cycling sports, but it’s never too cold for winter sports To keep track of your winter sports activities, you can use a tracker in the sole of your shoe or use apps such as Skiline and iSki.

Swim

All previous sports can of course be tracked via apps, but what about swimming? You don’t put your phone in water that quickly. However, there are special sports watches for swimming, such as the Garmin Swim 2. However, nowadays you can already swim with quite a few sports watches, like the Apple Watch Series 2. Always check with your specs if this is actually possible!

Walk & run

Almost all smartphones already have a standard pedometer on the phone. For example, Apple keeps track of your activities through the health app. The accuracy of these steps on the phone is of course always less accurate than a sports watch, because unlike a sports watch you don’t always have it on your wrist.

To keep track of your activity while walking, an app on your phone is fine, but a sports watch is definitely better while running. The advantage of a sports watch is that it can also track your heart rate. When running, it is very useful to know your heart rate, so that you can establish a suitable training program according to the heart rate levels.

Swim

There are also new swimming techniques. For example, the New Zealand company icetronics has a swim tracker and real-time audio feedback system in one. You can just click the tracker on your swim cap and you’re done.

Do you have any additional tips? Share them in the comments!