Everyone can use a reminder to move every once in awhile. As kids, Disney Channel would pop up with reminders to get moving. Now? Fitness trackers have taken over that job by sending alerts and making records in order to look back on the activity ones participated in daily.
The craze of fitness trackers brings great attention to the activity one is getting daily. Since there are many types, there are a variety of health benefits to track–from steps to heart rate and more. Not only do athletes use fitness tracker, but anybody can log their activity levels with a fitness tracker. Daniela Rybarczyk, sophomore, says, “I use it when I go to a gym outside of school or to dance.”
With late night studying and early mornings, another thing students are able to record on their devices are sleep patterns. According to sleep.org, “Trackers can make you more mindful about straying from your typical sleep schedule, such as during the weekends. And perhaps, for instance, you’ll start to notice that you feel your best when you sleep from, say, 10:00pm to 6:00am, rather than from 11:00pm to 7:00am.” Discovering how to manage a sleep schedule can make the difference between falling asleep in class to feeling reenergized every day. Plus, who isn’t curious about their activity as they sleep?
At Pleasant Valley it is a requirement to take a gym class of some sort. Some choose to take lifting as an alternative in order to gain muscle for their sports. What if, for those students that wore fitness trackers and were active outside of school, they could opt out of a gym class? Rybarczyk states, “I think if the point of a gym class at school is to get steps or burn calories then you should be able to prove that with a Fitbit or similar device and opt out. But if the point of gym class is to learn different games and teamwork, then you can’t prove that with a Fitbit.”
Fitness trackers are a great way to be in touch with the activity one does daily. From there, one can change old habits in order to further improve their health, whether that includes going for a jog more often or going to sleep a half hour earlier.
