Fitness Tech: Helpful Partner or Needless Distraction?

If you’ve made any effort to improve your fitness and overall health in recent years, I’d be very surprised if some amount of tech hasn’t been involved in your journey.

All manner of health-related metrics, from calorie burn to steps and resting heart rate, can be tracked by a variety of gadgets and devices.

Apps are available not only to provide data from your latest activities but also to share this with your followers. After all, if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen.

But is all this tracking and data necessary? Does it actually make any difference to our health and fitness? And should we really be defined by specific numerical targets? As someone who is still a bit guilty of checking my step count a little too regularly throughout the day, I delve into whether fitness tech culture has become toxic.

Why Have We Become Obsessed With Fitness Tech?

Firstly, I must declare that I am by no means an athlete, and I’m guessing that many of you reading this aren’t either. If you do happen to compete in elite sport, then feel free to continue reading, but I must state that this doesn’t really apply to you.

Technology certainly has its place in the upper echelons of sport, where the margins are so fine that data proves invaluable in ensuring athletes are in prime condition when both training and competing.

On the other hand, for those who sink 6 pints of Stella on a Friday night before waking up and doing the parkrun the next morning, fitness tech is possibly less imperative, but the thing is, you wouldn’t think so. Everyone now seems to be tech-obsessed when it comes to fitness, which begs the question, why?

Clever Marketing

Yes, the evil marketers have been at it again. The smart fitness industry was worth 64.60 billion USD in 2023 and is estimated to be worth 137.33 billion USD by 2030, according to research here.

You can’t watch TV these days without being bombarded with adverts for fitness-related tech. From Peloton bikes to Garmin watches to Whoop straps, the choices are endless.

The latest upgrades entice you with the newest features, promising even more tracking potential, even when you know you don’t look at half the data on your current model anyway. It is very much a vicious cycle, and the fitness tech companies know this all too well.

FOMO

If virtually everyone you know is tracking their calories, steps, activities, macros, resting heart rate, and god only knows what else, then it’s only natural to think that you should be doing the same.

There are entire communities on apps like Strava where people can connect, spy on, and compare. Just to keep up appearances, we end up doing silly things like shuttle runs outside our house at the end of a run, just to make the distance up to 5k.

The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is therefore too much for many of us, and it results in us spending money on products and investing time in apps that we don’t really need. This leads us to our next question: Is all this fitness tech really necessary?

Is All This Fitness Tech Really Necessary?

There is an argument that a certain amount of tracking can help you to remain accountable. Instead of simply relying on guesswork, specific data enables you to identify areas for improvement and set new targets in the future.

I suppose the key thing is not to forget the reasons you began your health and fitness journey in the first place. The term ‘enjoy the process’ is said quite a lot these days, but it can be rather difficult to do just that when every activity, meal and sleep is under tech scrutiny.

My advice would be to use the tech for sure, but don’t be completely ruled by it. For example, you know that a walk in nature will make you feel better regardless of the step count, and likewise, a good night’s sleep will leave you feeling refreshed and energised. You therefore don’t always need an app to tell you something your body already knows.