by Kaetlin Zink
Whether you want to start being healthier by tracking your steps and calories, or wish to use the technology available to make the most out of your time working out, give these breakthroughs in wearable technology a try:
Smart Jewelry
Smart jewelry, including smartwatches, Fitbits, and heart rate monitors, are the ones we’re all familiar with. This technology has the ability to quantify your progress in numerical form, if that’s what you’re looking for. These can track things like distance of exercise, number of calories burned, active minutes, and the number of floors climbed. Some features of newer editions include monitoring heart rate and sleep cycles.
The Motiv Ring is more compact than smartwatches and heart rate monitors, but with an even higher capacity for tracking. It looks like a mini version of the Fitbit with a thin viewing screen in the center, except it’s customizable to fit snugly around your finger and can track exercise duration, active minutes, calories burned, sleep duration, activity types, activity intensity, steps, and resting heart rate. It’s even waterproof!
Smart Fabrics
Nadi X Smart Yoga Pants, created by Wearable X, appear to be regular yoga pants — except they’re totally not. Nadi X has built-in technology that gives off gentle vibrations to signify when a yoga pose should be corrected. When paired with the Nadi X app, this fancy technology can create results comparable to a corrective yoga instructor, except without the needed presence of one.
Tiny, sewn in multi-node touch sensors around the hip, knee, and ankle allow the leggings to connect to the Nadi X app via Bluetooth on your phone, while simultaneously communicating about alignment issues.
Once connected to the app, the wearer can choose multiple poses. The app will then break down the poses step-by-step through visual and audio cues, with accompanied vibrations from the leggings.
If you display improper form when doing the Downward-Facing Dog pose, for example, the app would inform you to raise your hips higher, while simultaneously giving off slight vibrations around the back and hip area for further emphasis. As you continue self-correcting, the leggings will slowly start vibrating less, until they eventually stop completely.
Physiclo is a company that makes shorts and leggings with smart technology. This smart fabric has built-in resistance panels to help tone muscles, enhance calorie burn, and maximize workout time. This unique resistance technology is designed with elastic bands and panels specifically placed to counteract target muscle groups, thus increasing the amount of work done with every step. Think of it as strapping on an extra weight around the ankles, except more comfortable and without the bulk.
Smart Eyewear
Level Smart Glasses, now available in select areas, are a great choice for those who wish to track their fitness level to some extent while utilizing an accessory you already wear every day. This fashionable pair of glasses wirelessly syncs to the mobile app automatically.
What makes Level’s Smart glasses so great is that they send all fitness info directly to your phone, rather than displaying it on the lens- like Intel’s Vaunt Glasses. It doesn’t track the more complicated things, such as heart rate, but it does measure the number of steps taken, the duration of the exercise, and the number of calories burned.
Because its capabilities are not as complex, all the necessary technology assembles nicely into just a single arm piece of the glasses, making it lightweight. The charging port is placed conveniently on the inside of the arm, so it remains concealed while wearing them. It even has a Find My Glasses feature should you lose them.
Whatever your reason for purchasing, these new developments in wearable technology are sure to boost health and fitness levels — and you deserve the best!
