Greetings all…
In our last episode, I gave a brief background on what started my journey of fitness tracking and, furthermore, quantifying the fitness data (and lifestyle I was creating) – starting with the Nike+ Fitness app/Nike Sport Kit on the iPod nano, to the app on the iPhone (Nike Fuel) to the Apple Watch after a long hiatus of running with the app.
It’s been seven weeks (actually in two days it will be) that I’ve had the Apple Watch. I’ve done a lot of research on how it tracks fitness, even down to its sensor and accelerometer technology. Though I haven’t gone as far as comparing it to Fitbit, Garmin, etc, I like it – probably because I’ve been in the Apple ecosystem since 1989, and they’ve always had a certain type of “magic” about how they seamlessly engage the public and the technology of their products.
What I find interesting, is the concept of the Activity rings and how they motivate you to stay activity. Now, everyone’s different and gets motivated differently. For many, the concept of closing rings is just that, a goal to do everyday. For me, because of my goals, I don’t have a concern about weight loss in terms of caloric burns (I’d actually like to put on a few pounds at 180 and 5’10”). For a good explanation of how the Activity rings work, see this article.
Back to the motivation. It’s a simple concept, but effective. Challenges with others don’t really interest me as much as challenging myself to push further. The concept of the Activity rings do this perfectly for me. If anything, in the least, it causes me to get that 30 mins of exercise in everyday, first for the physical benefit, but secondly (of course) to “close that green exercise ring” – LOL. The Move ring always follows close behind. The Stand ring is interesting. While it’s nice to close, I simply see it as a reminder for those who are sedentary (purposely or not) to stand up, and move around for a minute to advance the ring. After achieving 12 stand goals (at least) within 12 hours, the ring closes. Being sedentary is definitely not an issue for me, so…. The choices of workouts (standard and the 50+ others that can be used after you Save Workout) are great. I’ve seen that the Nike Fuel Band has a total of 88 choices of activities it measures and Polar has at least twice that amount.
All and all, I like the fitness motivational aspects that Apple has designed into the watch – they work great for the journey I’m on. While the app doesn’t allow for the same type of multiuser challenges that, say FitBit, is popular for, the upcoming Watch OS4 update will add some very nice fitness features. If you can keep a secret (and I know you can), I’m involved in a software app development project that hopefully will bring the type of social fitness challenges mentioned above, to the Watch such that it can work in a multiplatform environment (Android, Apple, etc).
Thanks for the read. Until tthen…take care.
Mr. Fresh
