Using Wearable Fitness Technology to Monitor Your Progress

In the ever-evolving world of fitness, staying motivated and tracking your progress is essential to achieving your health and wellness goals. Thanks to advancements in technology, we now have access to a wide array of wearable fitness devices that can help us stay on track and take our fitness journey to the next level. In this blog post, we'll delve into the exciting world of wearable fitness technology, exploring how these devices can aid you in monitoring your progress effectively.

The Rise of Wearable Fitness Technology

Wearable fitness technology, also known as fitness wearables or fitness trackers, has taken the fitness industry by storm in recent years. These devices come in various forms, including smartwatches, fitness bands, and even smart clothing. What sets them apart is their ability to collect and analyze data related to your physical activity and overall health.

Key Features of Wearable Fitness Technolog 

1. Activity Tracking: Most wearables can monitor your daily steps, distance traveled, and calories burned. This data provides a baseline for your physical activity level.

2. Heart Rate Monitoring: Many devices come equipped with heart rate sensors that allow you to track your heart rate during exercise and throughout the day.

3. Sleep Tracking: Sleep is crucial for recovery and overall health. Wearables can monitor your sleep patterns, helping you optimize your rest.

4. GPS Tracking: If you're a runner or cyclist, GPS-enabled wearables can track your routes and provide valuable data on your speed and distance.

5. Calorie Counting: These devices often estimate the number of calories you've burned based on your activity and heart rate.

The Advantages of Using Wearable Fitness Technology

1. Real-Time Data

One of the significant advantages of wearables is the ability to access real-time data. You can check your heart rate during a workout, see how many steps you've taken, and even receive notifications and reminders right on your wrist.

2. Motivation and Accountability

Wearables can serve as constant reminders to stay active. Many devices set daily activity goals and send you notifications when you're close to reaching them. This gamification aspect can boost motivation and accountability.

3. Goal Setting and Tracking

Setting and achieving fitness goals becomes more accessible with wearable technology. You can establish targets for steps, distance, calories burned, or even sleep duration, and monitor your progress over time.

4. Insights for Optimization

With the data collected by wearables, you gain valuable insights into your fitness habits. You can identify patterns, such as when you're most active during the day, and use this information to optimize your workouts and overall routine.

5. Community and Social Integration

Many wearables allow you to connect with a community of like-minded individuals. You can share your progress, compete in challenges, and even find workout buddies through these platforms.

Choosing the Right Wearable for You

The market is flooded with a variety of wearable fitness devices, so it's essential to select one that suits your specific needs and preferences. Here are some factors to consider:

- Purpose: Determine your primary fitness goals. Are you a runner, a weightlifter, or looking for an all-in-one device for overall health? Different wearables cater to different activities.

- Features: Consider the features that matter most to you. Do you want GPS tracking, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, or a combination of these?

- Design and Comfort: Since you'll be wearing it daily, ensure the device's design and comfort align with your lifestyle and preferences.

- Compatibility: Check if the wearable is compatible with your smartphone and the apps you prefer to use.

- Battery Life: Assess the battery life to ensure it meets your usage patterns.

Wearable fitness technology has revolutionized the way we monitor our progress on our fitness journey. These devices offer real-time data, motivation, goal setting, insights, and community engagement to help you stay on track and achieve your fitness aspirations. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or just embarking on your fitness adventure, a wearable fitness device can be your trusted companion on the path to a healthier and more active lifestyle.

How to Maintain a Workout Journal and Its Significance in Your Fitness Journey

In the world of fitness, progress isn't just about lifting heavier weights or running faster; it's also about tracking your journey and making informed decisions along the way. One highly effective method for achieving this is by maintaining a workout journal. In this guide, we'll explore the ins and outs of keeping a workout journal, from the practical steps to the compelling reasons why it's essential for your fitness success.

The Power of a Workout Journal

1. Set Specific Goals

A workout journal allows you to set specific, measurable fitness goals. Whether it's losing a certain amount of weight, increasing your bench press by 20 pounds, or running a 10K in under an hour, having clear objectives is crucial for progress.

2. Track Your Progress 

One of the most apparent benefits of maintaining a workout journal is progress tracking. You can look back and see how far you've come since day one, which is incredibly motivating. You'll gain insight into what works for you and what doesn't.

3. Accountability

Your journal becomes your accountability partner. When you record your workouts, you commit to your fitness routine. Knowing that you have to log your sessions can be a powerful motivator to stay consistent.

4. Identify Trends

Over time, patterns and trends will emerge from your workout data. You might notice that your strength increases more rapidly with certain exercises or that you recover faster on days when you prioritize sleep. These insights can help you fine-tune your routine.

5. Adjust Your Training

With a workout journal, you can make informed decisions about your training. If you're not seeing the progress you desire, you'll have a clear record of what you've been doing, allowing you to make necessary adjustments.

Steps to Maintaining a Workout Journal

1. Choose Your Format

There are various ways to keep a workout journal, and you can select the format that suits you best. Options include physical notebooks, digital apps, or even a simple spreadsheet.

2. Record Essential Details

For each workout, record the date, time, exercises, sets, reps, and the amount of weight lifted or distance covered. You can also note how you felt during the workout.

3. Be Consistent

Consistency is key when maintaining a workout journal. Make it a habit to record your sessions immediately after you finish them to ensure accuracy.

4. Include Extra Notes

Feel free to add extra notes or comments about your workouts. Did you experience any pain or discomfort? Were there external factors affecting your performance, such as lack of sleep or a change in diet?

5. Review and Reflect

Periodically review your journal entries. Look for trends in your progress and consider what changes you can make to achieve your goals more effectively.

Workout Journaling Tips

To make your workout journaling experience even more effective:

- Use shorthand notations for exercises to save time. For example, "BP" for bench press.

- Consider using a rating system to record your energy level or mood before and after workouts.

- Add motivational quotes or affirmations to keep you inspired.

In conclusion, maintaining a workout journal is a valuable tool on your fitness journey. It empowers you to set clear goals, track your progress, stay accountable, identify trends, and make informed adjustments to your training. It's not just about logging data; it's about harnessing the power of self-awareness and knowledge to reach your fitness aspirations. Start your workout journal today and unlock the potential for a healthier, stronger you.

Unlock Your Fitness Potential: Discover the Secrets to Achieving Your Health Goals

In today's fast-paced world, staying fit and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is more important than ever. As we strive to strike a balance between work and personal life, it's essential to prioritize our well-being. If you're ready to take charge of your fitness journey, you've come to the right place. In this blog post, we will explore some powerful strategies to help you unlock your fitness potential and achieve your health goals.

1. Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals: Begin your fitness journey by setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. Whether it's losing weight, gaining muscle, or improving overall endurance, having a clear objective will keep you motivated and focused.

2. Embrace a Holistic Approach: Fitness isn't just about hitting the gym; it's a way of life. To maximize your results, adopt a holistic approach that encompasses nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management. By fueling your body with nutritious food, engaging in regular physical activity, getting adequate sleep, and finding healthy ways to manage stress, you'll create a solid foundation for your fitness journey.

3. Find Your Fitness Passion: Exercise doesn't have to be a chore. Discover activities that you genuinely enjoy and make them a part of your routine. Whether it's dancing, cycling, swimming, or practicing yoga, finding your fitness passion will make it easier to stay consistent and enjoy the process.

4. Consistency is Key: The key to success in any fitness endeavor is consistency. Set a realistic schedule and stick to it. Regular exercise and healthy habits will yield long-term results, while sporadic efforts will leave you feeling frustrated. Remember, small steps taken consistently will take you much further than occasional big leaps.

5. Track Your Progress: Keep a record of your workouts, measurements, and achievements. Tracking your progress not only helps you stay accountable but also allows you to celebrate milestones along the way. Consider using a fitness app or a journal to monitor your performance and witness the incredible transformations that take place over time.

6. Seek Professional Guidance: If you're new to fitness or struggling to reach your goals, seeking guidance from a qualified fitness professional can make a world of difference. Personal trainers, nutritionists, or fitness coaches possess the knowledge and experience to design personalized plans tailored to your unique needs and objectives.

7. Stay Motivated: Fitness journeys can have ups and downs, but maintaining motivation is crucial. Surround yourself with positive influences, join fitness communities, or find an accountability partner. Additionally, incorporating rewards, setting new challenges, and visualizing your future self can fuel your determination and help you push through difficult times.

8. Prioritize Rest and Recovery: Rest days are as essential as workout days. Your body needs time to repair and rebuild. Overtraining can lead to burnout and injuries, hindering your progress. Listen to your body, get enough sleep, and indulge in activities that promote relaxation, such as stretching, foam rolling, or meditation.

9. Embrace a Growth Mindset: Remember that fitness is

There are No Shortcuts

I’m not trying to sell you a shortcut. 

Shortcuts with a healthy lifestyle will NOT get you a healthy lifestyle. They’ll earn you a temporary fix that’ll soon disappear when the work is done.

This is why I’ve never been a proponent of “diets” or time limited programs. I get the incentive behind it. We all want results quickly, but do you want that fast result if it won’t last?

I ask my clients that all the time when they tell me they’re doing something wild.

Are you willing to do this for the rest of your life?

If not, you haven’t found a solution that works for you.

Don’t search for the shortcut, search for the SOLUTION.

I’m here to do the work with you.

I believe that every single person can create a healthy lifestyle.

A lifestyle that:

✔️ has you working out consistently 

✔️ has you eating well 

✔️ feels balanced

All without feeling like you’re sacrificing.

I believe it so fervently that I do the work right beside you, so we can hold each other up and encourage each other along the way.

Time to Level Up

I’m asking you to level up. 

I was asked on a podcast the other day how I know when to push my clients and when to back off.

Truth: some of it is a spidey sense from doing this for so long of knowing when clients are ready to be pushed.

Here’s the key: the push has to be successful or the person will feel small and not want to come back.

I am NOT out to make people feel small. I want people walking out of their workout feeling empowered and confidence and taking those feelings into the rest of their day.

But I’ve learned over the years that being ready to be pushed will only happen when you can check your ego at the door.

Pushing yourself isn’t always about taking the hardest option or working to the point of throwing up or injury.

Pushing yourself means expanding your horizons so you can prove to yourself that you are that badass.

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What does that mean in your workout?

• You have to be present. The expectation of what you should be able to do because you did it yesterday, can’t apply.

• Check that little negative voice that tells you “I can’t”. There’s nothing you can’t do, it’s all in your approach.

• Ditch the fear. Try the heavier weight, try to go faster. If it doesn’t work, you’re not failing, you’re just discovering new starting points.

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How to Make HIIT Work

How do I work a HIIT workout?

When I started getting certified to train people, I got certifications in the modalities of fitness that interested me. The first being CrossFit.

Back in the day, the components of CrossFit were unheard of to the majority of the population. The biggest of these being the utilization of HIIT in a workout routine.

Over the years, with the popularity of CrossFit and HIIT workouts growing, HIIT is one modality of fitness I train on a consistent basis.

It is also, arguably, the one that intimidates people the most. There’s hesitance to try it because it looks cool but also scary as hell, and the general thought of getting that uncomfortable during a workout doesn’t endear us to do the workout.

Buuutttt…while there’s great science behind its benefits, there’s also strategy behind how to start it.

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Here’s what I notice:

• If you’re new to it, it’s intimidating AF. You see those people making the burpees look easy and you’re like “well, that’ll never be me”.

• That breathless feeling sucks. You either come to love it or hate it but there’s often no in between.

• A lot of people train HIIT incorrectly. This is what I mean:

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You get into the interval and you push super hard right from the start, gassing yourself out in the first 10ish seconds. That makes you want to take a break, and when you do that, you’re not utilizing the interval in the way it was intended. 

HIIT work is not intended for you to break until the break is written in. You gotta earn that rest girl.

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Here’s my Top 3 Tips for Pacing Yourself During a HIIT Workout for Optimal Results:

• Find a comfortably uncomfortable pace. That’s the pace where you don’t feel like you need to take a break 15 seconds in but you do feel like you’re pushing your limits.

• Choose the appropriate weights. Heavy enough to challenge you and not so light that you feel like you’re breezing through the work.

• Take advantage of the rest. That’s why it’s written in. For you to use it to recover your breath and your heart rate so you can push just as hard on the next interval.

What Does This Mean to You?

If working out isn’t selfish, then what is it?

We’ve all been on this train for the past few years of “self-care isn’t selfish”. I remember when this movement started. I think I remember it because I was on that train as the freaking conductor well before it even started. 

Grab Your Dumbbells!

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I used to tell clients the importance of making time for your health. Not just so you could look good naked with the lights on (to yourself) but so you could serve those around you from a more authentic place.

Your workouts give you the opportunity to catch your breath from the chaos that surrounds you, and from the stress of your day. It also gives you the chance to remind yourself that you are strong, you are capable and you are a badass (with a good ass).

Now we’ve all come to understand the importance of taking care of yourself and how that care trickles into every other part of your life. We have the sweatshirts that say “self-care is the best care” or whatever. Even if we aren’t the best on implementing consistent self-care, we at least understand the importance of taking care of ourselves.

But if working out isn’t an act of selfishness, then what is it to you?

For me, it’s my sanity saver. Sure working out keeps me strong and serves a professional purpose. Obviously right? I train people how to workout, so really I have to be able to do the things I’m teaching and that only comes with practice.

But a hard workout completely diverts my focus. A hard EMOM means I’m only thinking about what I’m currently doing. I’m not thinking about all the stuff that needs to get handled in that day or the laundry or the dog, or the grocery list.

It’s my time. It’s my time ALONE. No one can help me on it, no one can do it for me, and there’s no way past it except to go straight through it.

It’s sacred to me.

You Got to Move

Move like you mean it. 

Not like it’s an accident. Not like you hate it and not like you’re dreading it.

Prior to getting hurt, I was working out 6 days a week. Granted a lot of that was out of necessity because of military training, but I was constantly moving my body.

In complete transparency, I didn’t like it.

Being “athletic”, doing the sports thing, it was never my thing. So I was definitely stepping WAY outside my comfort zone with the amount I was running and pushing myself.

I dreaded the whole thing. I used to get stomach aches prior to going to PT sessions because I hated the idea of having to do it so much.

In reflection, I’m not exactly sure why I disliked it to the point of getting sick. I just knew that I did.

Then I got hurt and was stuck in a bed for months. MONTHS. Damn did I miss moving at that point. I would’ve taken any kind of movement possible, and trust me, I totally did. To the point where I had dumbbells in bed with me to do arm work.

Fast forward, past my recovery and into me finding a way to move that I loved, and I move like I mean it.

I know that moving my body keeps me strong, keeps me pain free, and saves my sanity. So I continue to push myself because I can and mostly because I get to. When you know what it’s like to have that ability to move taken from you, you stop taking it for granted. You stop looking at it like a chore and start looking at it as something you can give to yourself to become a better version of YOU.

Regardless of how busy your day is and how much time you have to workout, move because you CAN.

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Here’s your Kettlebell workout for the day:

4 Rounds

10 goblet squats

20 hand to hand swings

10 windmills (each side)

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Gimme 2 Minutes

I can tell right off the bat if someone will be successful in their fitness journey. Crazy huh? But really I can tell. Want to know how I can tell?

I train a LOT of different types of people. From athletes, to adolescents, to stay at home parents, and basically everyone in between. Everyone has different goals, everyone has different things that propel them in their fitness journey, but their potential for success ALL looks the same.

Grab Your Dumbbells!

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You want it so badly you can TASTE it. You want it so badly that nothing else in the world matters. You want it more than anything else.

At the end of the day, that’s what makes the biggest difference. I can’t want this for you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I do want this for you, but you have to want it more. You have to want it arguably more than you want air. 

You carry yourself differently and speak differently as a result. Not just in private coaching sessions but also in your workout.

It does not mean that this process comes easily nor does it mean that you don’t have aspects of it that challenge you. 

It just means that the part of your brain that is telling you to JUST GO AND DO THE DAMN THING has taken over. Which means that all those excuses that used to hold you back are not as important anymore.

Here’s the thing: I also know that by the time you actually stop lurking on my IG, stop clicking the coaching link, STOP FREAKING TOE DIPPING and do the damn thing, you do want it more than air. By that point, you’re so sick and tired (ready for my cliche?) of being sick and tired, that you don’t give af about anything else. You’re in it to win it because you know how much the alternative SUCKS and you’re over the alternative. You’ve lived the alternative long enough and it’s past time for a change.

Maybe you don’t know how to get there, maybe you’re intimidated to take the first step, maybe the prospect of change is scary but you know it’s needed. Change goes from being a pipe dream to a necessity and when you hit that point, that’s when you find me.

Once you reach that point, anything I tell you need to do, any change I suggest you make, won’t feel like a sacrifice. You won’t feel like I’m inconveniencing you to incorporate healthy habits into your life. The excuses you once gave without a second thought will fall away.

Then all of those healthy habits won’t seem so extreme, they’ll be easy and you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

Give Me Your Best Excuse

I’ve come to really enjoy hearing the sheer amount of excuses that keep a person from working out over the years.

Seriously, come at me with your best excuse. I bet I’ve heard it before.

Don’t get me, I’m not referring to excuses as the valid reasons as to why you can’t do something. Those valid reasons are usually medically related and due to injury. Even those valid reasons are things we can work around. 

Back to the excuses…

This is actually a legit internal monologue I have all the time. It’s really hard for me to understand why someone would let their workouts fall on the back burner when they know the benefit they get from working out. Conversely, they also know how poorly they feel when they don’t work out and how frustrated they get when they stop working out and have to do all this work to get back to where they were before.

I understand that the fitness industry puts emphasis on crazy results that happen in a quick amount of time, and that’s what we want. I also understand that most of us, generally speaking, don’t want to or don’t like to workout, so it’s easy for our workouts to fall low on the priority list.

We want to look good naked with the lights on to ourselves, with minimal amount of work, without understanding that the work we put into our bodies now insures our health over time. We just want to look good. I’m here for that, because duh I do too. There’s something to be said about the confidence you get when you’re feeling yourself.

Today’s Workout

Tabata

10 rounds

Kettlebell swings

I was lucky though because when I got hurt, I had a group of people around me advocating for my health and encouraging me to think about the longevity of my health. To be proactive about taking care of myself so I don’t end up back in a place where I needed to lose a ton of weight or get over a debilitating injury.

Because I know being in that place is more frustrating and more demoralizing than figuring out how to schedule in a quick workout.

The focus for me became how I could workout safely to continue seeing results, so I could not only look good naked with the lights on to myself, but also FEEL good

Knowing that about myself, it kills me even more to know that most of the time the workouts aren’t happening because you’re getting stuck wasting your time on BS like refreshing your email or getting stuck in the scroll hole on social media.

If you have 20 minutes to spend on IG or scrolling through TikTok, you have 20 minutes to workout. You have the time, it’s just a matter of how you’re spending it. Trust me, you can scroll TikTok again after the kids go to bed.

I know we use those outlets as a means to let go, decompress and not think, and I’m here for that, it has it’s time and place, but it needs to be after you’ve taken care of your health. After you’ve given to yourself, go for it, lose yourself in the scroll hole. But get the workout done first.