TECH TALK WITH THE LEAN MACHINES

THE LEAN MACHINES AREN’T HUGE FANS OF TECH WHEN WORKING OUT, SO WHAT DO WE REALLY NEED?

We get asked a lot about fitness tech in terms of whether or not there’s anything we use or recommend. It’s funny, there’s so much tech there now that there’s almost too much for people to choose from. Where do you start? It’s hard enough understanding what style of fitness works for you without then worrying what tech you may or may not need. Yet we reckon that when you boil it down and look at what most people use, the most common denominator is probably the tried and tested step counter and heart rate monitor. Your Fitbit or Pulse, that kind of thing.

The step monitor was one of the first bits of tech to come out and really it only tells you how many steps you’ve done, how many calories you’ve burned and what your heart rate is. It’s pretty slimline and easy to use, so what’s not to like? Well, apart from the fact that according to some research your wearable tech is likely to contain as many germs as a toilet seat!

Everything that has come out since has the basic step/heart/calorie information at its core and while some people want more – and there’s clearly a market who do – most people just want to be able to hold themselves accountable for their daily activities, and have some way of tracking that progress.

We actually think that fitness wearable tech will come full circle. At the moment, companies are adding more and more bells and whistles but with that comes bigger and more complicated products with bigger price tags, which can put a lot of people off. At some point, we reckon the tech will be stripped back. It might last longer, or look nicer, but ultimately what do we need our wearable tech to do? We want it to encourage us to move? Yep. Perhaps measure the effectiveness of that movement? Yep. Do we really need anything else?

We might be alone in this but the last thing we want when walking, running, working out or whatever is to be contactable, or to face other distractions. Life is already full of distractions that your exercise time should be the time you disconnect and focus on yourself. If a message or email comes through, it’ll take you right out of your workout and leave you thinking about things other than your workout and your mind/body. You have all day to stress about life, and your phone is already a big enough distraction, so give yourself a break.

One thing we’ve seen recently that takes a different approach is the Whoop Band. It goes around your wrist like all the other wearables but it’s not a watch or whatever, it’s merely a sensor that tracks sleep and heart rate in a slightly different format and measures the performance levels of your body. From there, it recommends whether you need to train harder, rest or whatever. It’s driven around your exercise and that’s it, it doesn’t even tell you the time. Some of our friends are using it and really like it. Simple and effective.

What else? Well, we might see the return of retro equipment. That seems to be a wider cultural phenomenon that hasn’t really come into fitness yet. If you think about the way vinyl has made a comeback, soda streams etc… at some point the same thing will happen in fitness. Bare foot training and technology, for example; it’s been around for years and when it first launched the industry probably wasn’t ready for it, but they’ll probably come round again.