Hello Hayley,

How do you feel about pedometers? I would like to invest in a good one but I am on a budget.

L

___

I am a pretty simple person and the only technology I have in my life is a smart phone, an apple TV and a laptop. I have never been into strava, or Garmin or other forms of GPS monitoring and I don’t have a cadence meter or speedometer on my bike. Some people may call me out on this, but I rarely wear a heart rate monitor, even when I am training for my big races, such as Ironman, marathons and cross country mountain bike races. I am like this because to me, exercise is my escape and I want to keep it as something I enjoy. Yes, I could probably place higher if I paid more attention to the numbers, but I don’t.

However, it’s not to say that these types of products are not useful. In fact, they are very useful and can provide you with a lot of data and information about your life and your current fitness level. Most athletes I know are very into numbers and many of their post workout conversations focus on whose heart rate was where and who is winning the current strava race.

Pedometers are great tools to help bring attention to whether or not you are moving enough in a day. It is recommended for good health that we all move 10,000 steps every day, which is roughly 5 miles. If you work a desk job that you drive to and from, most likely you are not meeting that target. Even if you hit the gym for a workout every day you still may not be reaching the recommended amount of movement.

There are varying types of movement trackers and they vary in what they do, as well as what they cost.  You can purchase electronic bands to wear around your wrist that will track your movement, your heart rate and your sleep habits. You can then download this information each day into their software, adding in your recorded caloric intake and then really get a good sense of your overall health. I do not own one of these but I know many who do and who love it. They are around $100 and all do basically the same thing.

If you want something on the simple side, a basic pedometer is all you need. Although it won’t track your heart rate throughout your day, it will track how much you are moving, and in my opinion that is the most important thing. You can buy a basic pedometer for less than $20 at a neighbourhood running store but if you want it to do a more, such as track calories burned and your weight progress, then you should invest in a digital model, which will cost you around $60.

These fitness accessories provide you with detailed information regarding your lifestyle and will help make changes in your daily habits, regardless of how much money you spend on it.

Attached - Colin Farrell leaving the gym after a yoga class yesterday.