Does it make sense to invest in a fitness watch?

Over the past few years, I have become addicted to my fitness watch. The current iteration of my digital, wrist-borne overlord is a Garmin Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar. The make and model of the particular watch is not really important here, as there are a plethora of fitness watch options out there. There are also rings that can track some of the same data, and it is probably more accurate to refer to all of these devices as “smart lifestyle devices” rather than simply “fitness watches.” The real question is, do I actually need one? Does it add anything to my understanding of my lifestyle, fitness regime, or overall health? For me, the answer is generally, yes.

The website DC Rainmaker provides the most in-depth reviews I’ve seen on the various Garmin Fenix watches. However, if you are not quite ready to dig that deep yet, I provide here the primary data sets tracked by the watch, and what they offer me as far as understanding my overall fitness level, and – to a lesser degree – lifestyle and health choices.

Besides typical functions like tracking daily steps taken, or allowing for manual tracking of hydration per day, the ability to track heart rate is the key feature of all these devices that allows them to extrapolate most other important data. Thus the watch can assess calories burned each day, stress level, heart rate variability, duration and quality of sleep, and the “quality” of my workouts. For the latter, the watch not only records a workout’s type, duration, reps, weight, and/or distance, but also whether that workout was anaerobic or aerobic in nature (or somewhere in between). For me, that is a huge benefit because I like to have a healthy mix of workouts, hitting strength, cardio health, and all the rest.

The watch also uses fitness data collected over time to calculate VO2 Max, overall training progress, and training “status.” I can look back at the previous month of data via the Garmin app that links to my watch, and see how many miles I ran, how many strength sessions I completed, and my overall “training load” for that time period. A graphical representation of the intensity and frequency of my workouts is provided, showing also how they fit into my normal fitness pattern.

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Over this past Christmas, for example, the watch told me my training load was “low,” and that I was in a “recovery” status. That made sense because I was traveling and generally being lazy (or “resting,” as it is also known). After Christmas, however, I got back to hitting it hard in my workouts and I am currently sitting at an “optimal” and “productive” training load, per the watch.

Would I know all of this without the benefit of the device? Yes, probably, even if only in an intuitive way I would generally know that I was working out less and needed to get back to it. The watch takes that intuition and quantifies it, showing me exactly what I might need in terms of more anaerobic work, for example, or conversely, more high aerobic workouts.

While offering these quantifiable measurements of both current and historical fitness trends, the watch is also doing something more critical: it is motivating me. That might seem weird to hear, or might indicate some kind of personality flaw on my part, but it is undeniable that the watch pushes me to get better sleep, to drink more water, to work out longer, and in more varied ways, to take rest days, and to be more attuned to my fitness in general. That is the real benefit of the device – and also its curse.

This is because, at times, it can feel like the device is dictating my life choices. On a number of occasions, as a result of prodding from my watch, I have thought to myself, “I need to sleep more;” or, “I need to hydrate more;” or, “I need to run more miles this week.” Do I always listen to the watch? Of course not. But it acts as a useful reminder of the ways I can improve my overall health and fitness. It acts as an inner conscience that is constantly judging me from the comfort of my wrist, nudging me in the direction of healthier choices. And this is where the real benefit of the fitness watch lies.

Feature Image: Airman Katiha Falcon, 649th Munitions Squadron, wears a smartwatch Dec. 3, 2020, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. (U.S. Air Force photo by Cynthia Griggs)

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