Getting Better Fitness Results With The Best Tech
The fitness industry has made huge advances over the last 20 or so years, with numerous technological advances all throughout the industry. These advances can help increase your strength, improve weight loss, add muscle, and much more. While there are many advances that have been made in the fitness industry, here I will point out two that can be highly beneficial.
Calorie Tracking Software And Apps
When it comes to losing weight, the single greatest factor to focus in on is caloric intake. Even those who workout for hours a day can have their results undone very quickly if caloric intake is not where it should be. Websites and apps that can track your caloric intake are now abundant. The best part is that you can use these apps and websites for free. Although they cost nothing to use, their value is exceptional, particularly if you are trying to lose weight.
Calorie tracking websites not only track your caloric intake but will also breakdown how many grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat you are taking in. The more specific your goals, the more valuable this information is. For example, if you are looking to add muscle mass, than knowing how much protein you’re taking in daily is highly important. If you are an endurance athlete, you may wish to know how many complex carbohydrates you are taking in leading up to an event. If you are trying to lose weight, than monitoring fat intake, which is calorically dense, may be appropriate.
Calorie tracking software and apps typically have huge databases of food items. This means rather than trying to figure out how many calories and grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat are in a food item, there is a good chance it is already in the database. All you have to do is type the name of the food item into a search in the app or on the website, and options for that item will come up. This eliminates time and hassle, and makes recording your food intake much easier.
If you want to use calorie tracking software, simply do a search for it. There are many out there, so you can do a bit of browsing and find one you like. Once you have done so, you will typically create a free user name and password. Once you’re all setup, you can update your daily food intake either through the website or its smartphone app.
Heartrate Monitors
Heartrate monitors have been around for a long time, but the one’s coming out now are definitely beyond those of yesteryear. A number of heartrate monitors will now sync up with your smartphone. The most accurate heartrate monitors typically are worn around the lower part of the chest, right next to the heart. This allows for a high degree of accuracy when monitoring your heartrate. Some of the newer models on the market are designed to then send a signal to your smartphone, which is then picked up and displayed on an app. The result is that you can see an up to the second display of your heart rate.
The benefit of heart rate monitors that are around your chest is that they can give an estimate of your caloric expenditure that is highly accurate. Since the estimate is based on how hard your body is working, it is more accurate than other means of estimating caloric expenditure.
There are apps that can store your workouts when using heartrate monitors as well, allowing you to log your workouts and how they are coinciding with your progress. Some apps will even allow you to take this information, combine it with your food intake for the day, and then show you your net caloric intake. This kind of information can be invaluable for those looking to lose weight or gain muscle.
Heartrate monitors can be great not only for when you are doing aerobic work, but when you are doing resistance training as well, or even interval training. Some of the most effective weight loss methods entail using interval training. For example if you are doing TRX rows immediately followed by assisted pushups on Isawall with no rest in between, your rate of caloric expenditure will be considerable. In this case not only are you doing exercises that involve moving your body mass against gravity, but you are also doing them back to back with little or no rest in between.
Having your smartphone out and seeing the calories going up during a workout can be very motivating. It takes the ambiguity out of the workout and provides you with great information to help you advance and progress even more.
Two Great Tools=Great Results
Both of the technological tools mentioned here are great to help you maximize your fitness results. Both tools can be used on your smartphone provided you go with those that do so. You still have to put in the hard work, but having this additional information can help you reach new heights with your workouts, fine tune your diet, and motivate you to work even harder.
Paul Owens is a personal trainer in the Cleveland area. He is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and the National Council on Strength and fitness. He is also a Corrective Exercise Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. He can be reached at http://www.clevelandpersonaltraining.com
