The New Year is fresh—meaning you are still optimistic about actually keeping this year’s resolution. And if your goal is to get fit, then you are in luck. The latest batch of wearables, fitness trackers and virtual trainers from these five companies all offer that extra motivation you might need to stay on track.
SmartMat: Virtual Yoga Instructor
Yoga is known to lower stress, increase focus and improve posture, flexibility, mood, sleep and more. And now anyone can improve their technique at home with the SmartMat ($297). This responsive yoga mat calibrates to your body shape, size and personal limitations; detects when you’re out of alignment; and provides real-time feedback to correct the pose. It also syncs to iOS and Android devices to monitor your progress, and through the SmartMat Marketplace yogis can download new classes that the SmartMat can guide them through.
Jaybird: Spark of Activity
Jaybird’s Reign ($200) goes beyond just tracking movement with automated activity detection that will log your day’s actions into categories such as walking, running, biking, swimming, general and sport. Reign will also track your sleep patterns and learn how much sleep you need each night to be at your best the next day. Another unique feature: Go-Zone Heart Rate Variability monitoring, which tells you when your body wants to be active.
Sensogram: Listen To Your Body
To date, most fitness trackers on worn on the wrist, but Sensogram Technologies’ SensoTRACK fits snuggly in the ear right near the temporal artery to capture more accurate biometric readings. Like most wearables, the SensoTRACK measures heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and respiration rate, but it also senses your speed, activity level, geolocation, altitude, body posture, emotional state and more. And yes, the device can play your workout music while also supplying audio notifications about the workout such as heart rate and time elapsed. SensoTRACK is expected to be released in March.
Basis: 24/7 Heart Rate Tracking
The Basis Peak ($200) tracks heart rate a little differently than most wearables. This wrist-based optical blood flow engine shines a light into your bloodstream just below the skin’s surface, measures the reflection and uses an algorithm to turn the data into a continuous heart rate. The Peak also continuously monitors movement, perspiration and skin temperature to provide a better understanding of your workouts. And Peak offers a better look into your night’s sleep as it can automatically detect sleep cycles including REM, light and deep sleep.
PUSH: Optimizing Weight Training
This is not your average wearable. While most track steps, sleep, eating habits, etc., the PUSH Band ($189) offers scientifically-validated and actionable metrics for improving your weight training. The band records two key metrics. The first is Power, measured in watts, which offers users the ability to determine how hard they are truly working. The other is Velocity, which helps users take advantage of Velocity Based Training (VBT) to prevent from over or under training as well as optimize their training based on their goals. Finally, your Total Work (TW) is calculated to determine the amount you exerted yourself after each workout.
