Digital fitness fans can start to move?

Confession: I'm a little obsessed with the pedometer on my smartphone. It is fun to take it with me and see how many steps you take when exercising or shopping or to wear clothes through my house. 

My goal of 10,000 steps a day, but not always on target, and I wondered if the change of a digital fitness tracker push me to go the extra mile. So a small study published in the September American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) caught my attention.Researchers in the study wanted to see if the followers of digital fitness increase physical activity in older women.  

Trackers are small portable devices that come in styles such as bracelets, pendants and watches and versions can clip on a slide in a sleeve or pocket. In addition to the number of steps you take, a digital fitness tracker can also measure and record how fast you walk and how far, how long and at what intensity. In the study of AJPM, the researchers used a brand called Fitbit monitoring and accompanying Web application that evaluates graphics and even recorded information.

How did
The study included 51 overweight postmenopausal women who received about 33 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Researchers them divided into two groups. Women in the first group each received a standard pedometer. Women in the second group were each Fitbit a training session and a follow up call after four weeks. Both groups were asked to perform at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every week and walk 10,000 steps a day. All women use an additional device called an accelerometer to track your movements.

After 16 weeks, neither group had reached their fitness goals. The only pedometer group had no significant increase in their physical activity levels. But the shape-tracker Fitness group increased physical activity for an additional 38 minutes per week.

Accountability, accuracy and motivation
The study does not prove fitness trackers caused women to exercise more or pedometers are great tools. (And perhaps only 51 have shown that older women could not reach their fitness goals, even with the help of fitness tools.) But we must ask: is fitness trackers get to do a little more ? "I think it can be useful," said Linda Arslanian, director of rehabilitation services at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital It emphasizes three main factors:. Responsibility, accuracy and motivation.

"When you can see what their activity levels, and you know that someone has them, no accountability checks, and you are motivated to work harder because you want to meet," he says . In the study participants to AJPM they knew that investigators were looking at their results. (You can get the same degree of responsibility using a tracker and ask a colleague to check your results.) "We used strategies Similar with our patients and clients. We often fill magazines or activity log their exercise programs and record them in follow-up visits are examined. This helps establish a degree of responsibility because they know that we arrived ".

But an activity log can not grasp what it does specifically a fitness tracker, said Arslanian. Unlike records, diaries, pedometers or standard trackers record the precise objective data about your workout including pace, distance, intensity and duration of exercise, and can follow their progress in action. "When you see all these things, especially its progress, which motivates you to continue to build on what you have accomplished," said Arslanian.

Another advantage
Some fitness fans can also record your heart rate, which is important to determine the intensity of your workout. "If you do aerobic exercise, you want to exercise 60% to 80% of your maximum heart rate for at least half an hour, three to five times a week," Arslanian said. "Do this, and your resistance will improve." Having a camera that gives you this information, or alerts you if you are below or above your heart rate in the training, you can do sessions more effective training. You can also make them safer, especially if you have heart problems or other medical conditions.

The most accurate way to determine your maximum heart rate is to undergo a stress test. But for healthy people, it is possible to estimate their maximum heart rate. To calculate the predicted maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. (For example, if you are 60 years old, your maximum heart rate is 160 beats per minute). You can exercise in a 60% to 80% of this number:

    60% 160 (0.60 x 160 = 96) is 96 beats per minute.
    80% 160 (0.80 x 160 = 128) is 128 beats per minute.

So in the year, you want to keep your heart rate between 96 and 128 beats per minute.But Arslanian warned not to engage in an exercise program without notice. "Clearing your doctor is first necessary, and you need someone to design an exercise program that is in the range of training and safety area, with a range of intensity and duration will most likely to be effective, "he said. Using a device like the Fitbit can make it easier to stay within this range training. It is advice that can help us all to do more, if we use a fitness tracker, a pedometer, or even a smart phone as an exercise tool.
By: Heidi Godman