- Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
- Step Counts and Distance Traveled
- Sleep Duration and Quality
- Active Minutes and Calories Burned
This wealth of data empowers both users and exercise professionals to track progress, set goals, and personalize fitness plans with a precision that was previously difficult to achieve outside of a lab.
How ACSM Views Wearables for General Fitness
The ACSM emphasizes that wearables can be a highly valuable tool in promoting a healthier lifestyle by providing motivation and accountability. - Enhancing Personalized Coaching: Certified Exercise Physiologists (ACSM-EPs) can leverage the data from wearables to better understand a client’s daily physical activity, sleep patterns, and recovery. This allows for more individualized coaching and adjustments to training programs. The data moves fitness conversations beyond just gym time to encompass the full 24-hour cycle.
- Driving Behaviour Change: The immediate feedback and goal-setting features inherent in these devices help users stay engaged and adhere to their physical activity targets. They translate abstract goals into measurable, actionable steps.
- Supporting Public Health: At a population level, the widespread use of wearables provides researchers with massive amounts of data, offering unprecedented opportunities to study physical activity patterns, predict health trends, and develop targeted public health interventions.
The Importance of Critical Evaluation: Benefits and Limitations
While celebrating the benefits, ACSM and related scientific communities are quick to point out that wearables are not a magic bullet. They stress the need for a critical, evidence-based approach to their use.
Benefits of Wearable Technology Limitations and Concerns
Increased Self-Awareness Accuracy and Validity Issues: Data accuracy can vary significantly between devices, especially for complex metrics like calorie expenditure or certain non-walking activities.
Motivation & Goal Setting Over-Reliance/Obsessive Behavior: Users may become overly focused on numerical goals, potentially ignoring body signals or developing an unhealthy relationship with data.
Objective Tracking of Progress Data Privacy and Security: The continuous collection of sensitive health information raises questions about data ownership, confidentiality, and third-party access.
Real-Time Feedback Not FDA-Approved: Most fitness wearables are not regulated medical devices, meaning their data should not be used for medical diagnoses without professional oversight.
ACSM-certified professionals are encouraged to educate their clients on how to properly interpret and apply the data, making sure it supports, rather than dictates, healthy lifestyle choices. The key is to use the technology as an information and motivational supplement, not a replacement for professional guidance or fundamental exercise principles.
In short, the ACSM sees wearable technology as a powerful, enduring trend that is rapidly changing the fitness industry. The future will involve exercise professionals innovating and learning to leverage this technology to maximize client adherence, improve personalized training, and ultimately, advance global public health.
If you want to hear more directly from an expert on how to use these devices to drive healthy change, check out this video: Using Wearables and Technology to Encourage Healthy Behaviors.
This video is relevant as it features a presentation from the ACSM’s Brown Bag Series on using wearable technologies to promote healthy behaviors. YouTube video views will be stored in your YouTube History, and your data will be stored and used by YouTube according to its Terms of Service. - Video Link Below:-
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smart home gym, connected fitness, interactive mirror, Peloton bike, adjustable dumbbells, smart jump rope.
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Watch the Video for Detail Explanations:
