Do you find technology helpful in staying fit?

[*zap*]

Sure it helps up to a point. Consistency over many years, patience and a good program to achieve what you want are much more important. Pen and paper should not be overlooked.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

I use apps and watches but they don't really help me stay fit really, they just automate the logging process. I used to keep paper notepad logs in the gym and it's pretty interesting looking back over years of those. It didn't take much to write down the day's plans, and then once I finish a set and jot down the details.

 

[Marbles]

The short answer is no.

I've used it in the past, 10-15 years ago when I regularly ran mountain marathons, so I understand why people use it.

Ultimately though for the past five plus years I've been removing tech from my life wherever possible.

It's only had positive effects for me, my wife and our children, especially our children in doing so.

The massive amount of evidence showing that screen time is harmful for children, combined with a lack of evidence that any type of screen time is beneficial (particularly in the younger years) supports that. I do not reach the goal of 0 for the kids, but get closure than most.

For myself, while I play no games, have not social media beyond Rokslide and Tacomaworld, and need it for work (no other way to have hundreds of dollars in reference material in your pocket), I still find my phone in my hand more than I like and would like to deep six the damn thing.

I'm thinking about cloning my SIM and getting a dumb phone for when I'm not at work.

Anyway, off topic, but I applaud you. I also think a Garmin watch is pretty different from smartphones, computers, and TV, thoug the use of a smart watch does require some interaction with one of the first two.

 

[Marbles]

Sure it helps up to a point. Consistency over many years, patience and a good program to achieve what you want are much more important. Pen and paper should not be overlooked.

I agree. For me, I have tried pen and paper and it has only ever stuck for about 3 months. I hit a spot like I'm in currently, where I'm working 72 hrs or so a week and with paper I get descuraged by the lack of logged workouts. Somehow, the watch is different to my mind. Cannot make sense of it, but it is how it is.

Again, I'm only 6 months in, so while it has pushed past historical limits, it is still too early for me to judge accurately.

 

[amassi]

My coworker has lost 15# since getting an apple watch, the feedback and circles the watch gives is like a game and he's definitely addicted. He went from an avg on 5k steps a day to over 19k avg, takes the stairs, walks on breaks etc- His other workouts didn't change, just the steps, stairs, parking garage etc.

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[Bearwhisky]

I find it distracting. I ran a 5k yesterday and noticed my heart rate was at 95% of my max heart rate. I was pushing hard but not unreasonably so. I knocked my pace back out of concern for maintaining that another 10 min or so. Looking back, I wish I would have never known and I likely would have pushed harder. I’m not sure I trust the accuracy of the watch for one…for two, I’m confident I would have been fine either way.


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[Anglo-American]

The massive amount of evidence showing that screen time is harmful for children, combined with a lack of evidence that any type of screen time is beneficial (particularly in the younger years) supports that. I do not reach the goal of 0 for the kids, but get closure than most.

For myself, while I play no games, have not social media beyond Rokslide and Tacomaworld, and need it for work (no other way to have hundreds of dollars in reference material in your pocket), I still find my phone in my hand more than I like and would like to deep six the damn thing.

I'm thinking about cloning my SIM and getting a dumb phone for when I'm not at work.

Anyway, off topic, but I applaud you. I also think a Garmin watch is pretty different from smartphones, computers, and TV, thoug the use of a smart watch does require some interaction with one of the first two.

GPS watches are different yes, but it's also a GPS and increasingly a bluetooth device strapped to your body, even reading heart rate, etc then uploading all that data. All of it. You know that's not private, right?

That's a hard pass from me chief.

We all, (me included) have been playing with these toys with very little thought about the how's and why's of what we are doing.

In terms of T.V. , YT, social media, phones and tablets yes you are 100% correct.
They in effect cause brain damage in children.

It's that crazy, yet very few people are thinking and talking about it and even fewer people are taking action on it.

In the tech world this is known which is why they don't allow their children, (what few of them that have children) to use or even see mobile phones!
Very common practise in San Fran for nannies to have written into their contracts that their phones will never been seen let alone used in front of the clients children.

Then the real, but again mostly dismissed issue of electromagnetic radiation from bluetooth, mobile signals, and internet and WiFi signals.

 

[pk_]

@pk_, I'm curious about this part. What do you do with this information, do you actually alter your training plan on a given day based on the numbers? I've got a Fenix 6, I use it mainly to track distance and time. I occasionally look at some of the other metrics, but the data doesn't influence my training. I work a regular 9-5 job M-F, so even if the data says I should take Saturday off, it's just not happening. That's my long run day. I will sometimes skip a weekday run if I've been on a good streak and I'm feeling fatigued. But that's totally based on feel (never actually compared that to the data, I should in the next cycle). I've got several friends who also track all this data, none of them change their training based on the data either. So, I'm not trying to call you out, I'm genuinely curious if anyone who trains recreationally uses the data to influence their training schedule.

Yes, well, not based on numbers but how I feel. But what has surprised me is when I feel off or wake up groggy, is how how accurate the numbers reflect it. If I get a poor nights sleep or haven’t been eating enough calories or for some other reason I am not feeling good (truly not feeling good, not just unmotivated) I will absolutely alter my routine. I used to be able to just power through but I believe I am entering the stage of life (35) where I must listen to my body not the other way around.

I only do 2 strength training days a week, 1 day of sport and the other days are mobility and trigger sessions. So I will absolutely shoot for feeling my best on the strength/sport days but sometimes life happens so I will move those days if needed and plug in a mobility day in it’s place if possible, if I can’t move the day for some reason then I will do the exercise but may not be able to go 100%, unless I feel terrible I may just take a rest day which isn’t a bad thing for me because I have overtrained most of my life and my body thrives when I give it a break.

 

[Marbles]

GPS watches are different yes, but it's also a GPS and increasingly a bluetooth device strapped to your body, even reading heart rate, etc then uploading all that data. All of it. You know that's not private, right?

That's a hard pass from me chief.

We all, (me included) have been playing with these toys with very little thought about the how's and why's of what we are doing.

In terms of T.V. , YT, social media, phones and tablets yes you are 100% correct.
They in effect cause brain damage in children.

It's that crazy, yet very few people are thinking and talking about it and even fewer people are taking action on it.

In the tech world this is known which is why they don't allow their children, (what few of them that have children) to use or even see mobile phones!
Very common practise in San Fran for nannies to have written into their contracts that their phones will never been seen let alone used in front of the clients children.

Then the real, but again mostly dismissed issue of electromagnetic radiation from bluetooth, mobile signals, and internet and WiFi signals.

From a privacy standpoint, I find a cell phone (any cell phone, not just smartphones) significantly more disturbing than a smart watch (unless the watch has a sim and is cellular enabled, then it is basically a cell phone). The GPS on the watch is not always on, the significant hit in battery life when tracking an activity is evidence of this. On the other hand, a cellular device is always giving away its location to stay connected to the network.

Like guns and hammers, technology is a tool than can be used for good or bad. Look at how China prosecutes uyghers for not carrying their phone or letting their service expire. The potential is terrifying, though that potential is not currently realized in most of the world. If it is, simply putting it down will have consequences.

I'm no more concerned about the electromagnetic radiation from radio signals (bluetooth, WiFi, Etc.) than I am about the electromagnetic radiation generated by lightening or electrical wires. I'm more concerned about radiation exposure from the sun, but even then, short of being dumb and getting a sever sunburn, the beer I'm drinking at the moment is far more harmful than the background dose of ionizing radiation I get every day, and radio is not even ionizing radiation, plus all of it is longer wavelengths than visible light, and we are bathed in the electromagnetic radiation of visible light for most of the day.

Anyway, I have had these conversations ad nauseum with various people. I think it is safe to conclude that neither of us will alter our positions.