The quick answer here is NO! Technology can be great, however, don’t need technology to stay fit.
Technology has enabled us to do so many things that haven’t previously been possible, and who knows where it will take us next. Utilised in the correct way, technology gives us the capacity to do a lot more. We can now track our steps, monitor our heart rate, track our sleep and even program workouts! However, can we still achieve the same level of fitness without the need for technology?
The Right Information
With the plethora of websites, fitness blogs and youtube videos available to offer fitness advice, there’s no doubt technology can make us more informed. With it all being so easily accessed, and with no real cost, why wouldn’t you use it.
If you are simply scouring the internet looking for tips and advice on how to get, or stay fit, you should be careful what information you use. With so many websites out there, it can be easy to stumble across a website that has the wrong information. Do your research and don’t take the first thing you come across to be gospel! read a few different, trustworthy websites to make sure the information they’re giving out is correct.
Wearable Technology
Let’s move onto fitness trackers. Despite a recent decline in sales, three million were purchased in 2015 alone, showing just how popular they’ve become.
Wearable technology consists of items such as wrist watches like Apple, Fitbit, Garmin…etc. These watches can track your heart rate, your sleep, along with a number of other health trackers. They can be great to have, especially if you are looking to track your exercise out-put more closely.
Would I go for a run without a fitness watch? To be honest, probably not. More because i would want to be able to track my distance, speed, steps and heart rate while on my run so i can try to do better next time.
Of course, you can still go for a run, bike ride, swim…etc without the fuss of technology, it’s just not going to be as easy to track your progress. Without a tracker you could just keep running until your legs hurt, or you’ve had enough. You really don’t have to track every little thing you do. For some, it’s more about the freedom, getting away from technology and life in general. Having a bit of time just for you – so it really depends what you’re style of exercise is.
Fitness Gaming
Forget the logistics of fitness now, the most important thing about exercising is that it should be fun. For most of us though, the fun is difficult to find. So, to counter that, someone came up with the idea to incorporate the fun of games (video games to be exact) into the world of fitness.
The Wii Fit was the first real breakthrough in the fitness-gaming market, and it truly changed what it meant to keep fit. It chose to try to emulate reality by making you feel as though you were naturally exercising as normal as opposed to staying in your home, but ultimately there will always be differences between reality and video games.
So is reality even worth trying to emulate in this instance? The only advantage of playing a game to get fit over actually going for a run is it will often be more enjoyable to play a game – and also weather conditions will not affect you. However, we cannot use games to simply replace exercising in a traditional sense, nor do we need the technology of interactive fitness games to stay fit.
Luxury Is NOT A Necessity
Technology can definitely help you lose weight faster, keep track of your goals and give you a boost of motivation. However, it can be very costly to do it this way – with many of the new watches being over £200, and smart rings being even more than that.
If all the fitness watches and health tracking rings in the world were suddenly plucked away from us, the world would not descend into chaos. We would easily go back to fitness without the aid of technology. However, it would be very different if things like our precious smart phones were taken away from us – shudder to think!
What do you think? Do we need technology to stay fit?
Collaborative Post
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