Those Annoying Smartwatch Move Alerts Will Save Your Life. Only One Brand Gets Them Right.
Sunday Thursday
In this weekly column, Android Central Fitness Editor Michael Hicks explores the world of running and health wearables, fitness apps and technology in your quest to get faster and fitter.
Anyone who owns a smartwatch or tracker knows the nagging guilt that comes from setting an hourly reminder to move. If you are busy with work, "It's time to get up!" the message is not motivating; It's like a criticism of their lifestyle and a reminder of how unhealthy the whole place is. No wonder most people turn it off!
Count me in with that number. I try smartwatches for a living, and one of the first things I usually do after unboxing and setting up the watch is find a way to turn off these reminders, even though I know I shouldn't.
As one of my New Year's fitness resolutions, I'll put these warnings back on the stands. But as a watch reviewer, I can confidently say that many of the most popular brands (the Apple Watch or the best Android watches) don't get motion alerts properly. The closest thing, believe it or not, is Fitbit, and its motion alert strategy isn't perfect either.
Here's why you should make motion alerts a regular part of your 2024 fitness strategy, which fitness tracker or app you should trust, and what moves you should do to stay healthy.
Risk of falling
Since I took 10,000 steps a day for a month, I have tried my best to maintain my daily walking habits. This link will tell you about the documented medical benefits of walking at least 6000 steps a day and personally I have improved a lot in the last few months.
Here's the problem: Several medical studies have shown that sitting for much of the day can negate the long-term health benefits of exercise. And as a writer I feel a lot .
First, we'll look at the obvious: Sitting will kill you... eventually. The World Health Organization states that a sedentary lifestyle (sitting 7 to 12 hours a day) leads over time to a "20% to 30% increased risk of death", mainly from heart problems, cancer or diabetes, but also for other reasons. The conditions.
Who sits a lot? The WHO says that in richer countries seven out of ten people are too inactive, resulting in millions of avoidable deaths every year.
“Sitting for long periods can be harmful to your heart and blood vessels, regardless of how much physical activity you do.” - American Public Health Organization
You can assume that you are doing well if you walk or exercise regularly after work. According to several reputable organizations and studies, you would be wrong.
Heart.org cites an American Heart Association study showing that "sitting for too long can be harmful to your heart and blood vessels , no matter how much physical activity you do " (emphasis added), increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and increase death. .
To support this claim, the Annals of Internal Medicine conducted a study that found that “prolonged sitting time is independently associated with adverse health outcomes, independent of physical activity.”
It's not that training is useless; quite the opposite! But medical evidence suggests that if you spend eight hours of your workday sitting, a one-hour walk or a subsequent walk to the gym won't automatically reverse the damage caused by eight hours spent sitting.
How much should you do while standing and moving?
To stay healthy, walking is often more effective than standing during the day. But we live in the real world where work keeps us tied to our desks; The question is: is a standing desk enough to compensate for the problems of sitting or do you also have to walk? The answer to this question is not always clear.
The British Journal of Sports Medicine says that sedentary people should start by trying to reduce two of the eight hours a day they spend sitting, with an eventual goal of four hours. They recommend "treading lightly", but in many cases standing is sufficient.
On the other hand, a study from the University of Glasgow found that for overweight subjects, the difference between sitting and standing in improving heart health was negligible compared to walking all day.
When it comes to getting fit, "standing gets you there", but walking is often a key ingredient.
A CNN Health report finds that standing throughout the day has significant benefits, with a recommended frequency of eight minutes of walking and two minutes of walking every thirty minutes.
Alan Hedge, an ergonomics professor at Cornell University, told CNN that even if you can't stand all day, the act of standing and sitting gives your body a "gravitational push," reminiscent of effect of gravity, which can help muscles and bones remain strong.
CNN experts concluded that you should aim to stand and sit 32 times a day to maintain a healthy body, about twice an hour while you're awake.
In the same story, the New York Times quotes doctors who say that just two minutes of walking after a meal can have significant benefits for blood glucose levels. Although "standing will get you part of the way," said Stanford cardiologist Dr. Ewan Ashley, "a two- to three-minute mini-walk" offers the best benefits.
The right smartwatch (or phone app) to always be on the move
I recently started testing the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and while I really like its fitness features, its constant reminders don't help. Either it doesn't register that I've been sitting at my desk for an hour or it's missing motion reminders because my fidgeting tricked the Ultra 2 into thinking I was moving.
My colleagues have noticed similar issues with their Wear OS watches. But here's the problem: While watches are better at determining when you're standing, standing alone isn't enough! At least not according to these previous studies.
Fitbit, like its competitors, reminds you after 50 minutes to get up and move. What sets it apart is that it also gives you a specific goal of completing 250 steps every hour.
Achieving this goal requires two to four minutes of walking per step, which is the minimum most medical studies have found to combat damage from sitting for long periods of time. The Fitbit method also avoids the problem of false positives because you cannot stay in one place and move your arms to meet the requirement.
The Fitbit app isn't perfect because you can't adjust the cadence. If the Fitbit Charge 6 had asked me to move at the 15 and 45 minute points, I would have met the recommendation of moving every 30 minutes. I doubt I'll find time during the week, but it would be nice to force myself to be more active on the weekends.
However, the Fitbit has to consider how annoying frequent notifications on the wrist can be, and its standing and walking requirements are better than most other fitness smartwatches with their vague movement requirements.
So if you're looking for a new watch or tracker, any of the top Fitbits, from the pricey Sense to the basic Inspire, will do the trick. Or, if you want a real smartwatch instead of a tracker, you can opt for the Pixel Watch 2, which has a built-in Fitbit and uses the same motion reminder system.
If you can't stand the buzz of a watch on your wrist or if you have a watch that doesn't handle standing reminders well, you may be less bothered by a phone notification on your desk telling you to wake up. stop at a specific time..
My favorite reminder tool is Get Up! (unfortunately only for iOS). You can adjust when you see reminders to stand on certain days and at certain paces, as well as how long you have to stand at a time. If you're too busy to get up, you can press a button to delay the next move reminder by an hour.
I haven't found a better equivalent for Android phones; most apps I've tried don't work without a subscription or work fine in the background. You can always manually set your phone's alarm for a specific time, but that doesn't give you the ability to change the reminder frequency if you're feeling tired, because "Get up!" submit the application.
I combine this app with a simple Pomodoro timer in my work computer's web browser. As soon as I get up, I set a timer for 25 minutes and then make sure to stay up for at least that long.
Every step counts (even if you don't take it)
I found a number of medical studies that I didn't have room to include here, each with different perspectives on the benefits of standing versus walking during the workday.
Scientists say that in an ideal world you would have to walk five minutes every 30 minutes to stay completely healthy; Since this isn't feasible for most people, try to find the right balance that your body can handle. Because research shows that every little effort counts.
Standing every hour doesn't have the same impact as walking every hour, but it's much better than just sitting. Exercising at the same time at the end of the day isn't as good as walking throughout the day, but (again) it makes you healthier than anything else.
Try using a standing desk if you don't already have one and alternate between standing and sitting. Also, try following Fitbit's strategy of taking about 250 steps every hour, even if it's just a lap around your living room or farm.
According to all scientific indicators, these good habits will save your life after decades.
