Fast forward nearly 20 years and over 200 races, and I now have 24/7 access to a dizzying array of metrics—crack rate variability, stress levels, sleep stages, and more—not one but two personal Thanks for Fitness Trackers :A garmin fenix 6s ($700) and a hoop band ($239). These are just two of dozens of tools designed to help consumers optimize and track wellness data — but is this socialization of our health healthy? yes and no, say Alyssa Paladino, CPTAn Atlanta-based certified personal trainer.
,fitness trackers Provide accountability and motivation and can give awareness and important insight into your habits,” says Paladino. “People can gain a lot of confidence and self-esteem when they see that whatever metric they’re tracking improves, whether it’s a daily step countWeekly active minutes, or running speed and mileage. ,
This was my exact experience when I got my first Whoop Band in 2019. I discovered I was only sleeping six hours (if that) a night. So I started limiting my evening screen time, cut back on my alcohol consumption, and used a meditation app To wind down at night (all good stuff) and my sleep improved dramatically. All of them had a high recovery “score”—a number ranging from 0 to 100 based on sleep quality and duration, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate and stress.
At the time, I was in my early 40s and entering perimenopause – leading to hormonal transitions. menopause And the end of menstruation – and all this sophisticated fitness data felt like a hack to make up for the decline in performance. And for a while, it did.
As I made lifestyle changes to sleep better and reduce my stress, my performance improved. My running pace and race times started falling. I had more energy during the day and started doing writing work with dream publications. Data like high resting heart rates and elevated skin temperatures also alerted me to illnesses like food poisoning and everyday colds, which reminded me to take a step back from training instead of pushing like before. . I staggered workouts and long runs to optimize the high recovery days and stuck to yoga and Pilates on the lower ones. And these habits only intensified during the pandemic, when I had unlimited time and a flexible schedule to “optimize” my health.
I realized that the very data that was helping me improve my health was beginning to be harmful.
But even after a few years of shelter-in-place orders, I was fully vaccinated (and boosted), my so-called “healthy” rituals—no food after 6 p.m., lights out at 9 p.m. From taking almost daily naps to “needing sleep,” minimal alcohol—began to become borderline obsessive.
I was distraught any time I got a “red” recovery or got sick, blaming myself for not following my healthy rituals or putting in the work to get the “right” numbers. I became nervous if I had to race or work out hard on a “bad” day, which, of course, put me in a negative mental state and set me up to fail. I continued to isolate myself from other people, turning down invitations to events I thought were “too late,” skipping concerts I was eager to attend, checking metrics multiple times in the middle of the night. Was happening – and is still happening More Curious about the quality of my sleep.
Eventually, I realized that the very data that was supposed to help me Improvement My health was beginning to deteriorate. And I am not alone. “For some people, the amount of data and constant access to[fitness trackers]can seem overwhelming, and relying too much on external feedback can lead to losing touch with your own internal signals and causing anxiety and stress,” Paladino says.
And while I didn’t ditch my fitness trackers completely, I eventually learned to do everything I had done all those years ago when I started running and even going a mile seemed impossible. – I started listening to my body.
How I Learned to Improve My Relationship with Fitness Data—And Chill Out
1. go analog
These days, when I’m traveling internationally, returning to training after an illness, or simply having a late (for me) night out with friends, I take off the fitness gadgets and Leave them at home (plus, nothing ruins a fancy outfit more than a heavy running watch!). If I’m walking my dogs or taking a Pilates class – I want to be able to tune into my body and surroundings, not worry about how many calories I’m burning.
If you don’t want to go completely analog, Paladino recommends doing the occasional workout without a watch. “Listen to your body, listen to your body, and you may be surprised at how freeing and pleasurable it feels,” she says.
And if you still want access to the data, but don’t want to stress about it, here’s my personal hack: Start your watch and leave it at the elapsed time, or open your fitness app, then turn on your phone. Put it in your pocket. This way, you will still have all your metrics after your workout.
2. set boundaries
Atlanta-based psychotherapist and mental health coach Dean Panza, LPC, RYT How often do you engage with fitness information, whether it’s limiting time on a fitness app like Strava or reviewing metrics once or twice a week.
“I’ve seen customers use blood sugar data they gather from whatever apps and systems they use and automatically attribute it to their diet,” she says. “And while this may play a role, so may hormones, sleep, and other factors, so it’s important to look at the fuller, more holistic picture over time,” she says.
Now, I keep my phone in another room at night and don’t often check my sleep data until later in the day, so it doesn’t affect how I do my work or workout. And unless I feel really sick, I try not to stress about having a day of “off” metrics. But if I notice poor quality sleep or a high resting heart rate for several days in a row, I adjust my behavior by skipping workouts or prioritizing sleep.
3. Choose your metrics
While my Garmin Fenix 6s is packed with information — crunch rate, body temperature, even a “training status” that alerts me when an activity is “unproductive” — I didn’t care about those metrics. Learned to ignore what doesn’t matter to me and delete those. From display settings.
Paladino agrees. “I like to see my speed and distance during runs and my daily step count, so I don’t wear (a device) to sleep, I don’t pay any attention to the heart rate data, I ignore it when it bothers me. Tells me tell me I’m stressed, I don’t even know how it’s calculating me VO2 max Nor do I care,” she says. “Basically, I extract from it the metrics that are meaningful to me, and ignore the rest.”
4. listen to your body
I’ve had days when all the metrics point to a “good” recovery and feel like complete garbage during a workout, and other days when the numbers are completely off, and I’ve felt amazing. “All the information and all the technology that we have at our fingertips all tells us to focus on the information around us rather than on the information within ourselves,” Panza says.
So, if you feel sick or tired, take it easy or rest. If you feel comfortable and the numbers say otherwise, trust your body and move forward instead. And realize that missing your step goal or Peloton streak one day or staying out late to celebrate with friends won’t derail your long-term fitness goals. But will be totally obsessed about those things.
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