Fitness Toolkit: Technology

Digitalization is all around us and its reach will only continue expanding over coming years. Our quest for fitness is no exception to this global digitalization trend.  

We need to be careful though. In many areas of life, the undisputed efficiency gains from digitalization are cancelled out by increased cost, complexity and overwhelm. 

So, today we’ll look at ways to digitalize our fitness in a very simple way at little or no cost.

Fitness app

There are countless fitness apps out there, but, if you just want to get some idea of whether you’re moving enough, Google Fit is my top pick. It’s also completely free. 

There are three main reasons for my Google Fit preference:

  1. Automation. Many apps require you to manually start any exercise. Google fit automatically detects when you walk, run or cycle, so you don’t need to log anything. 
  2. Simple metrics. Google Fit gives you two main metrics in one nice graphic: Move Minutes and Heart Points. These two metrics are all that’s needed to gauge whether you’re moving enough. 
  3. Integration. For those who want to take their fitness up a notch, Google Fit can integrate with the other options we’ll discuss below. 

Another useful Google Fit integration is with Sleep Cycle. If you use the free version of Sleep Cycle that does not allow you to see long-term trends, this is a good way to visualize your long-term sleep patterns. 

Fitness watch or band

I’ve recently started using a Xiaomi Mi Band 4 – a fitness band that offers a lot of features for a low price.

One annoyance is that the integration with Google Fit is not so good with the default Mi Fit app. Luckily there is an alternative: Mi Band Notify & Fitness. To get the Google Fit integration, you have to pay a tiny amount (something like $3). 

Features of the Mi Band 4 I use regularly include:

  • Integration with Google Fit. This is very useful to automatically track any activities where I don’t have my phone on me.
  • Heart rate monitor. When activating continuous heart rate monitoring, you get heart rate statistics for any automatically tracked activity. This helps Google Fit better calculate your Heart Points. You also get a daily estimate of resting heart rate. 
  • Sleep analysis. The default Mi Fit app gives an interesting sleep score that sometimes differs quite a lot from Sleep Cycle. I’ll compare them over the course of the year to see which is best.  
  • Inactivity monitor. This is a useful feature that makes the band vibrate if you’ve been sitting for too long.
  • Phone-finding feature. If you can’t find your phone, the Mi Band can be used to make your phone ring so that you can easily find it. 
  • Weather. You can get a quick glance at the weather for today and the next couple of days, which is quite an important feature for Norway. 
  • Usual watch features. The Mi Band also serves as a standard digital watch with features like stopwatch, timer and alarm.  

Although I don’t train with music, the Mi Band can also control music on your phone. 

This is huge value for the low price of this device. It also has industry leading battery life, even with continuous heart rate monitoring activated. 

If you’re a more serious athlete, consider purchasing a top-range product from Polar or Garmin, but all this will really give you for the 5x higher price is better access to Strava’s (paid) heart-rate analytics (see below). 

GPS fitness app

Strava and other fitness tracker apps (e.g. Runkeeper and Endomondo) are targeted at more serious athletes, regularly covering longer distances running, riding, skiing. etc. 

When seen as an addition to Google Fit, Strava offers just one key benefit: the motivation of comparing your segment times against other Strava users. 

I have to admit, this pure ego-driven comparison can be embarrassingly motivating, naturally driving you to greater levels of fitness. 

One annoying thing is that Strava only integrates with expensive fitness trackers and not with the Mi Band discussed above. This can be overcome with another $3 upgrade in the Mi Band Notify & Fitness app.

In my case, this was not useful because the Mi Band GPS does not work well in the mountains where I ski. I think running or cycling in town should be fine though. I’ll try that when rollerblading in the summer.

Also keep in mind that Strava’s heart rate analytics is a paid option. This extra detail will only be useful for serious athletes looking for that tiny competitive edge.  

For the rest of us, the good thing is that Strava can sync directly with Google Fit. However, earning Heart Points for your Strava exercise requires heart rate data, so you must have a heart rate tracker like the Mi Band synced to Google Fit.  

In summary

This post became quite a lot longer than expected and my Mi Band 4 just buzzed, telling me I’ve been sitting for too long. But here’s the summarized version:

For people who only want to see if they move enough, simply install Google Fit on your phone. As long as you keep your phone on you, this will give you a very nice overview and some good motivation to move more. 

A budget fitness band like the Mi Band 4 can be interesting if you can see yourself using most of the features outlined above. More pricey fitness watches are only recommended for serious athletes. 

Strava is a great companion for people who regularly run, ride, ski, etc. It’s segment comparison feature is an awesome motivator and, with a heart-rate monitor, you can sync well to Google Fit.

Serious athletes can get more metrics through the paid version of Strava, preferably paired with a more expensive fitness watch supported by Strava.

For most people though, this offers very little extra value for a many times higher price than the combination of Google Fit, Mi Band 4, and the free version of Strava described in this post. 

Choose wisely 🙂