Remember those plastic pedometers that came free with a box of cereal? They’d clip onto your top and tick over every time you took a step. Sometimes they’d award you a few extra steps, other times they wouldn’t count them at all – surprise! They weren’t accurate. They weren’t waterproof. And they weren’t sturdy. Thankfully…science.
Check out this bad boy. Complete with analogue step counter and a reset button. Vintage.
Yep, pedometers have definitely evolved. These days if your Fitbit or Apple Watch gets your step count wrong, it’s probably broken. Because counting steps is THE most basic function of even the cheapest fitness watch on the market.
To prove our point, we’ve compiled a list of awesome features – new to our favourite wearable devices! You’re welcome!
1. Fitbit Charge 3 helps you annihilate your goals, you beast.
The new Fitbit lets you set yourself goals for up to 15 different exercises like biking, swimming, running, yoga etc. You might want to cycle 6km or burn 500 calories in one massive sweat sesh. Pop your goal into your Fitbit and it will buzz at you when the job’s done.
2. Fitbit Charge 3 has a sensor that measures your blood oxygen level.
Sleep apnoea is a condition in which your airways are repeatedly blocked while you sleep. During periods of apnoea you can stop breathing for up to a minute, meaning you take in less air and less oxygen is delivered to your body overall.
The thing is, people with sleep apnoea often don’t know they have it. They ‘sleep’ through anywhere up to 100 airway blockages night after night and wake up feeling exhausted each morning.
This is where Fitbit’s SpO2 sensor comes in. It uses red and infrared light to measure the level of oxygen in your blood and notifies you if it falls beneath 90%, because a blood oxygen level below 90% can indicate sleep aponea. AmaZZZing!
3. Apple Watch helps you relax.
Apple’s ‘breathe’ function takes you through guided meditation sessions throughout the day to help you lower your heart rate. When the animation pops up on your screen you stop, stay still, inhale as the animated flower blooms, and exhale as it deflates. At the end, you check your heart rate. Lower than when you started? Do a celebratory chicken dance.
4. Apple Watch gets to the heart of the matter.
How do we put this? We think yelling is best because this is sh*t hot. The latest Apple Watch enables you TO TAKE AN ELECTROCARDIOGRAM (ECG)!
An ECG measures the activity of your heart muscle – the way it squeezes and pumps. An abnormal reading can indicate heart disease. It’s the kinda stuff that nurses do in hospitals. The ECG feature is up and running in the US, but Aussies need to wait for health authorities to give it the go ahead before it’s activated.
***PZZZZT*** It’s looking like Apple’s 2020 Watch could include a built-in sleep tracker!
HeadUp helps you put years in your life AND life in your years.
We love health tech. But what’s the point of having buckets of data at your…wrist…if you don’t know what to do with it? Thankfully…HeadUp.
Our data scientists have created algorithms that sift through wearable device data to help you learn about AND improve your health. For example, we tell you your resting heart rate – and sure, so does your Fitbit – but we also calculate your risk for heart disease, tell you whether you need to bring it down, and how to bring it down.
But WAIT – did you know that your heart is affected by your mind? Some of our users tend to have an increased heart rate when they’re angry, while others remain calm as cucumbers in the midst of their emotional storms. We know this because HeadUp has a mood tracking feature. We collect mood data to help you learn more about your state of mind and how it affects other areas of your life.
We’re not just number crunchers, though. We go so much further than that. We gather up all your steps, good and bad days, heartbeats, kilos and zzz’s to tell you a story about your overall health. We empower you to refine the life you lead because at the end of the day, the aim of the game isn’t just to live longer, it’s to live better.
All the secrets to a healthier existence really are contained in YOUR data. We’ve just figured out where to look. And it’s not in a cereal box.