How to Measure Fitness
I got my Apple Watch almost exactly a year ago. I originally wanted to purchase it so I could go running without my phone and still be able to listen to music, track my workout, and not miss any important texts or calls. However, I waffled on buying one for ages because of two things - 1. The price. It’s expensive and something I wasn’t completely sure if I would get maximum utility out of. And 2. I was worried I would get addicted to the metrics.
I love collecting metrics and data about myself - you can check this post if you don’t believe me. And the Apple Watch makes it very easy to collect workout and sleep data. Even before buying it I would hear people talking about ‘closing their rings’. If you don’t have a watch, the aforementioned ‘rings’ are quite literally little circular bands on the watch face that track your progress throughout the day on three different categories - move, exercise, and stand.
Move is tracked by calories, exercise is tracked by minutes, and stand is tracked by minutes per hour. I’m definitely the type of person who would get addicted to the idea of closing the rings so to try and prevent this, I set the goals for each of these categories to pretty low numbers for myself. I was genuinely scared of getting to a place where I only moved or exercised to hit my numbers rather than for the sake of the movement itself.
The vast majority of days, I far exceed those goals, and most other days, I still manage to do the bare minimum to close them. However, I know that setting the goals low was the right move for me because on the rare days I don’t hit them, it does make me anxious.
Logically, I know I workout enough for my body and there will inevitably be days where I don’t feel well, am traveling, or for whatever reason, don’t move much that day. But the metrics are addictive. Similar to checking a task off a list, I want that satisfaction of closing all the rings for the day. And the watch really doesn’t let you forget it. It sends you little motivation reminders. Things like ‘you’re off to a great start’ if I workout in the morning. Or ‘you can still do it’ if it’s past six and I haven’t hit my exercise goal for the day.
If I were injured or in transit all day, these reminders would piss me off. This little device that claims it has my health in mind is directly pushing me to do things that are at odds with my health. And that’s the key with these devices.
Right now, these devices, including the Apple Watch, provide suggestions based only on the data they are able to collect from us which, for now, is quite limited. My watch can’t actually tell if my body needs rest, if I should push myself harder, or if I need to be working on mobility instead of strength to improve my deadlift. It has no clue. It only even knows I’m working out because I press a little button to tell it I am, and even then, it asks if my workout has ended if I’m doing something that doesn’t elevate my heart rate like yoga.
Assessing your health using these rings is similar to assessing your health using any other number. You simply cannot distill health down to numbers, at least not yet. Weight, height, body fat percentage, vo2 max, calories, minutes - even all of these together still can’t offer you a comprehensive picture of your health. Health depends on so much more - quality of rest, hydration, stress levels, relationships, nutrition, etc.
Overall, I enjoy having the data on myself. I like tracking my exercise minutes and different workouts and I still enjoy being able to go for a run without bringing my phone. I also believe that metrics can be an important tool, among an array of methods, in developing plans, or increasing motivation. However, I think we are still far off from having wearable devices that can truly contribute to our health in meaningful ways.
Maybe one day, for better or worse, these devices will exist but until then, remember that your health and fitness cannot be distilled down to numbers. Your metrics cannot possibly represent everything you’re currently going through and you certainly don’t need to live by them in order to be healthy.
Another con of the Apple Watch - it can sometimes ruin photos when it doesn’t match your outfit