Health is what everyone is looking for, as God given amazing body is reflection of our life style. Most of us take recreational sports as a mean to stay healthy. Of course any recreational sports have many physical and psychological advantages, however the motivation to go a long way to make it a part and parcel of every day life routine is a challenge.
There is a old saying
what you can measure ...is what you will control..
.what you can control ..is what you can improve
when you improve...you excel
When it comes to sports the wearable devices do the same thing. It helps you to measure your performance. In recent years sports world have observed many breakthrough technologies to measure many performance parameters.
I will talk about Running as a sports. Running is a sports in which if you measure your vitals then they are good indicators of your health. Some of the vitals are Heart Rate, Pace, cadence, Heart Rate zones, stride length, vertical oscillation, aerobic performance etc.
When someone starts the sports all these parameters shows where you stand on the health. Consult a coach how to interpret these parameters. But the fact is, if you have no mechanism to find out these parameters then you are performing in dark. However when you or through your coach are aware of these parameters then it is possible to put a plan to improve.
Wearable devices such as Garmin had bought many parameters close to your access without going to expensive labs. How accurate are these reading is always a debatable topic, however these parameters definitely can be used as trend to improve performance.
A decent device cost anything between INR 10000 to 50000 ( $100- $600). So do one invest in such device. I would with my experience in coaching would say BIG YES. One can invest anywhere in this range based on your budget. It have two fold advantage. First it motivate you to understand how you are improving and motivates you to hit the road again and again. Without such device you have no control on your activities and hence difficult to track improvement. Secondly it gives your Coach a visibility of what you are doing, help him to design targeted running and ST plans.
The feedback is important as based on this feedback you tend to change your lifestyle or diet or emotional environment. For example if you are sleeping less than it affects your HR and to maintain good HR during performance you tend to sleep early and for sufficient hours. So a wearable device is a great investment in your sports and hence in your health performance
I wish you all happy and safe running
Uday Bhosle
Integrated Wellness Coach
Life | Nutrition | Physical Coach
+91 9819326452