I and A Mag Jan20

Start a New Year’s Revolution
High-tech ways to keep your New Year’s resolutions
The decorations are down, the gyms are going to be packed
for the next few weeks and many of us have vowed to sort
ourselves out. We’re going to get fitter, happier and more
productive – and technology can help.
One way technology can help is by making fitness more
fun. For example, instead of a pricey gym subscription,
why not buy yourself an e-bike? While some electric bikes
are incredibly expensive, prices are falling fast: for example,
Halfords sells a number of electric bikes for less than £600
and one is just £479. By comparison, a year’s membership of
a very well-known gym chain is £672.
Whether you’re cycling down the streets, pounding the
pavements or hitting the gym, it’s useful to track your
progress to help with your motivation. There are tons of apps
for everything, from recording the calories you consume
to giving you challenging workouts. Some are incredibly
focused, such as Seven: it gives you workouts you can do in
just seven minutes.
Phones can track your movements through the day but if
you really want to track your progress, a fitness tracker or a
smartwatch can give you all kinds of information about what
your body’s doing.
The big daddy of the fitness tracking world is the Apple
Watch, which comes in two flavours: the Series 3, which starts
at £199, and the Series 5, which starts at £399. The series 4
was discontinued last year. If you have an iPhone, they’re the
best smart watches you can buy.
If you don’t have an iPhone or just don’t need a £400 Apple
Watch, there are plenty of other options. Samsung makes a
range of Galaxy Active watches from around £200 up that
work really well with Android phones, and it also makes a
simple fitness tracker called the Galaxy Fit. That’s currently
£89.
Fitbit has the £199 Versa 2 smartwatch and a range of fitness
trackers including the £119 Charge 3 and the £69 Ace 2 for
children. Garmin has fitness-focused smartwatches at all price
points plus the cute and sub-£100 Vivosmart 4 trackers, and
firms such as Huawei offer budget bargains such as the £59
Band 3 Pro.
Every device is different, of course, but the main difference
between a smartwatch and a fitness tracker is apps.
Smartwatches generally have them and fitness trackers
generally don’t.
Not all fitness technology goes on your wrist. Smart scales
have become even smarter recently and many of them now
connect to the health app on your phone, so you can see
changes to your body composition and your weight over time.
If you don’t feel like dropping £130-plus on a Nokia / Withings
smart scale, the budget technology brand Eufy makes some
really nice smart ones for much less: its Bluetooth-connected
smart scales are currently £39.99 and work brilliantly.
Images: top left clockwise - Assist electric bike from
Halfords, Samsung Galaxy Fit tracker, Garmin Vivoactive
tracker, Apple Watch Series 5.
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