INTRODUCTION

There are three types of adopters of modern exercise equipment: early adopters, non-adopters, and lazy adopters. One of the most popular pieces of exercise equipment during my long life, other than the 1950s wrench-fit roller skates, first appeared around 2007. That would be the Fitbit. This device is a huge success: the company has sold more than 100 million devices to more than 28 million people. It was not adopted, until very recently. He was in favor of anything that got people moving, but personally didn’t see the value of a device to motivate or track activity. Because I liked exercise, fitness, and the various forms of endurance athletic competition, I pooped, scoffed, and dismissed follow-up movements as a distraction and nuisance. I’ve exercised almost daily for over eight decades and I don’t remember ever wishing I had an activity tracker.

AN EPIPHANY

However, after discovering that my health insurance company would provide a $160 tracking device for free, I decided to give the contraption a try.

Clever! After a day or two wearing this handsome, comfortable and impressively handy dandy Fitbit Versa Lite marvel of modern technology, I was no longer a slacker.

A Fitbit is one of many step tracking products, usually worn on the wrist like a watch. If you’re close to my age group, the device might initially remind you of the Dick Tracy two-way wrist radio. If so, forget it! We’ve come a long way since Dick Tracy’s comic book tool. That 1931 watch is a Bronze Age predecessor compared to the AI/space age/Large Hadron Collider (LHC)-worthy Fitbit.

However, not everyone benefits from more exercise. In fact, high-level Superperson-type athletes who engage in wondrous feats of endurance could benefit from a reverse, anti-step Fitbit device that motivates, tracks, and rewards lack of exercise. this would be useful during which athletes benefit from not taking unnecessary steps, or even standing up when they could be lying down, recovering their exhausted bodies for the hard ordeal of competition that each new day demands.

RESTRICTIONS

This applies to riders in the three-week Tour de France. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, walking or staying awake when not on the bike is practically heresy for Tour riders. They need rest between stages. This endurance wunderkind endures 21 brutal stages over the course of 2,164 miles, including mountain climbs. They obsess over energy conservation when they’re not on their bikes; they don’t come close to 10,000 total steps over the course of the entire run. (Source: Joshua Robinson, How to Wear Out a Tour de France Rider: Ask Him to Take a Ride, Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2020.)

In one of his many victories (all lost by cheating), Lance Armstrong covered 2,232 miles over the course of the Tour in 86 hours, 15 minutes, and 02 seconds, posting an average speed of 25.9 mph. can you imagine the atta boy congratulatory badges a Fitbit would have washed away for a feat like that? Unfortunately, he missed out, due to the near certainty that Tour riders and other professional athletes have to deal with other, more important metrics like hits, goals, touchdowns, times, points, etc.us. However, we ordinary mortals can have fun and motivate ourselves with the search for 10,000 steps a day (the gold standard for Fitbit users), heart rate, calories burned, floors climbed, zones traversed, etc.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH FITBIT

I’ve always exercised regularly, as noted above, but activity tracking is a new experience. It’s motivating to have a convenient readout of data such as number of steps taken, maximum and average heart rate, calories burned, distance traveled, stairs climbed and much more. It also provides details, when configured to do so, for specific activities, such as swimming, biking, running, walking, jogging, weights, golf, tennis, yoga, etc. It even sends out various badges when you reach certain levels, like 10k steps in a day (I don’t have less yet). Just yesterday I received the precious Redwood Forest Badge, proudly displayed on top of this RWR. He arrived in an email from Fitbit, with this high praise accompanying the badge:

Way to go! You have climbed 25 floors. The tallest trees on Earth cannot exceed the heights you have been conquering. No wonder you’ve earned the Redwood Forest badge!

One activity that I do NOT track, that I have included in my daily routine for the past six months for strength training (due to gyms being closed), is push-ups. I do 200 six days a week, 50 at a time for four stops on a one-mile walk; On the seventh day, instead of resting, blessing and sanctifying the Earth, as God did after creating it, I settle for walking four miles and doing 500 push-ups, 50 at each of the ten stops.

Actually, my Fitbit can probably track push-ups too; there is more to learn, as the device has almost as many features as an Apple watch. In addition to the time, the day of the week and the date, it has a stopwatch, an alarm, the weather, music, a wallet, a relaxation/breathing function, Alexa, a phone search mechanism. Oh hell, it seems like it never ends. There’s probably a get-rich-quick button somewhere.

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION

I shared a copy of this essay with a colleague in Perth, Australia. I found your review very entertaining:

I smiled when I read your conversion to the Fitbit promoter. God will be encouraged that you are so easily swayed by some nifty technology. Look in the mail for the next wrist device that counts his Lord’s Prayer and Amen before rewarding him with Way Forward, he has reached the first step on the stairway to heaven. I have heard (similar to Trump’s say) that it is common for people to convert as time runs out. I have even heard of people turning to spa treatments.

This led me to think that perhaps Fitbit enthusiasts should heed Lord Chesterfield’s words: ‘Wear your apprenticeship, like your watch, in a private pocket, and don’t take it out and bang it just to show you have one. If they ask you what time it is, say so, but don’t proclaim it every hour and without being asked, like the watchman. Lord Chesterfield, statesman and writer (September 22, 1694-1773)

In other words, the good Lord (Chesterfield, that is) was urging wellness newsletter writers to spare us unsolicited details about his step count, heart rate, calories burned, stairs climbed, cardiac minutiae, and other insufferable details. . Plus point.

So whether you’re a fitness buff or a non-athlete, consider a tracking device. It’s inexpensive (and could be free if you have a good health insurance plan), versatile, and could lead to more daily movement, which, if you’re not a professional athlete, can be a very good thing.