I’m focusing on fit tech’ at the moment, partly because I am interested in how it impacts our lives and because today technology and fitness are so closely integrated.
I recently wrote about home exercise in the age of the internet and it’s clear that technology (and particularly consumer technologies) are now a feature of our lives as at no time in recent history. Just think about the impact of AI, the continuing evolution of the devices in our hands and palms, how we watch television (as well as where we watch it) and the changes taking place in the transportation systems around us.
Or take a moment to consider the influence and power that big and social technology firms now have on our daily lives and how we live - unimaginable 20 years ago - and it is clear that we are today living in a liberating, but also challenging technological age.
Where health and fitness is concerned the direct impact of technology on our lives used to be limited to when we visited hospitals or our local doctor or went to the gym and experienced the swanky allure of the latest exercise machines (even if they essentially did the same thing as the machines they replaced).
But today, for a lot of people, fitness and and particularly working out is very much about the marrying of individual or collective effort with the technology in our pocket or on our wrist.
A good colleague of mine, for example, is very much into this technology bubble and consistently champions the benefits of his smart watch; how it records his heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, the number of steps he takes, the calories he burns and how many times he blinks his eyes (I may have made the last one up).
For him, his smart watch and its related charting of the data it accumulates, has added a valuable dimension to his fitness lifestyle by not only giving him a snapshot of his apparent fitness, but also by motivating him to walk, exercise, eat better and to keep an eye on his general health for any problems that may arise in the future.
All of which are good things, obviously.
To my mind anything that motivates individuals to be more aware of their health, bodies and fitness and which also encourages them to maintain all three is to be applauded. This is because living a long and energetic life is not simply about genetics or health, it is also about the investment we make in our minds and bodies and how we choose to live.
By being alert to our physical state and how we can improve it (as well as to our fitness measures) we are able to live our lives in the best way possible.
So embrace the opportunities that technology offers and make use of it. Just don’t get obsessed with the gadgets and in the process lose sight of the relationship of the mental to the physical when living a full and happy life.
Julien