Watch type thingy

[Rory's Dad]

I have been a bit snippy in the past about watches (jewellery ) but now I'm not so sure... 

For those that didn't know, I had a biggish car crash about a year ago (not my fault) and am still sore and stiff in both my back and legs. I'm wondering about buying a fitbit thingy that can record how far I walk each day (and what the time is)! . 

Any thoughts or suggestions?

TIA 

[Alfascozzesi]

I have some empathy with your situation as I had a crash last year almost to the day as well.

I hope your crash hasn’t changed everyday living for you.

I was fortunate but fractured a few vertabrae on a back which wasn’t the best before.

I have found the biggest help to this is morning stretching and regular osteopath visits to be stretched out and then “cracked” to undo the locked muscles in a back trying to protect itself.

Now that I have a degree of mobility back I have been told to start strengthening again.

These fitbit / apple watches to my mind are more cardio vascular oriented and you would get more benifit from stretches although motion is lotion.

All the best anyway and hope you see improvement however it is managed.

[stephenh]

Martin, Sally had a Fitbit wristwatch as a present this Christmas, from our children, and she has found it very instructive, and it helps both of us set goals for the amount of walking we do. It really depends what you want or have been recommended. Yes, if you want some serious upper body exercise, then maybe a gym membership is a better option. But at our age and state of health we just want to get/keep our legs and hips working reasonably, for which any encouragement to get out and walk, even if it is (in our case) just to walk round the village for 20 or 30 minutes has to be a good thing.

It is a case of "horses for courses" in my opinion.

[AdamR]

Sorry to hear of your accident Martin, I had no idea.

For stiffness and pain in those areas I've found pilates and yoga invaluable. Motion is lotion as has been said! I don't know much about the 'gadgets' but I gather they are heart rate focused ie. cardio.

Flexibility is very important in my opinion, both for injury prevention and helping with aches and pains, which the more gentle exercise classes will give you.

(Background: some sports science and nutrition at uni, and more recently personal 'development')

[Kit Car Electronics]

If you want a bit of gadgetry then any Garmin watch will link to a Garmin app on your phone and also allow you to map your walks, which is nice if out exploring footpaths and you want to work out where you went afterwards

Even if the heartrate is measured, you don't have to look at it...

[CarbonWest - Chris Broster - Bristol & Bath AO]

Also have the bad back issues and use an Apple Watch to track steps/exercise etc and it certainly does encourage you to get up and push on for your daily target.  Apple Watch data can now also be read by the NHS and private Doctors etc to assist with diagnosis of exercise levels.

However, to echo above - Yoga, Stretching and Warming up are key to recovery and maintenance of the back!

 

[Blatman]

Number of steps per day was a marketing gimmick for trainers in Japan, IIRC. Seems it has been adopted as an actual health goal. 

10 seconds on Google and...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42864061

I too have a bad back. I had a micro-discectomy about 20 years ago and I can attest that when I do a lot of walking, my back is painful at the end of the day. Yoga/stretching is key here. 10,000 steps not so much...

[CraigHew]

Wife has a fitbit charge II (at least that's what model I think it is).

Over the last 12 months it has helped her general fitness tremendously.

I think the main incentive is that it logs all manner of parameters, once set up, and encourages you to reach and exceed yesterday's goals.

[Stuart]

My wife has an app on her phone that seems to be fairly accurate without the watch thingy. Pedometer Step Counter it's called

[Rory's Dad]

Well thanks chaps! Just by way of background I have been doing pilates and osteopathy. The pilates in particular has been very good and straightens me out in no time at all. I've got some pilates kit at home too. 

The key to this is not hurting my back again (easier said than done) and doing as much walking as I can. Sometimes, like today, walking down to the shop will be too much. On other days I can do that distance twice over. It's very unpredictable. 

Anyway, keeping track of all this is important so I'm after more of your advice please on what make/model works well for you and/or your partner. 

Thanks again. 

[Steve (sdh2903)]

My Mrs has used fit bits for a few years. However I would say the build quality was a bit questionable. She ended up going through 3 of the b*******s (1 replaced under warranty). I then bought her a cheaper copy off Amazon. It was a qtr of the price, the battery lasts much longer and it's lasted twice as long as the fitbit (god knows what she does to them). 

The app isn't as slick as the fitbit though but does all the basics just as well.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mpow-Bracelet-Bluetooth-Pedometer-Smartphones/dp/B01MUDU6BU/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1547297423&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=mpow+activity&dpPl=1&dpID=41zb4OXxoPL&ref=plSrch

[SootySport]

I wouldn't bother with fit gadgets Martin, just regular walking, swimming and the Pilates thingy as it seems to work for you.

[Rory's Dad]

My problem Sooty is that I can't keep track of it . As I said, sometimes I can walk twice as far one day as I did the day or two days previously. Why? I have no idea. 

I need to get this stuff recorded and then try to figure it out, find the causes and adapt my life accordingly. 

[Blatman]

But a fitbit type device isn't going to help you find out why some days it's good and some days not. To me that's the more important detail. Nor will it help to know that today is a bad day and you can't beat yesterday. To me that's more likely to put a downer on "todays" efforts. Or worse "encourage" you to try to beat yesterday when really doing so could actually be worse.

When I have a "bad" day (fortunately enough these are in single digits each year) it's usually a result of sleeping awkwardly (the "unknown") or because I can figure out that I did something dumb the day before. At no point do I feel I "need" a fitbit to figure out what today is going to hold...

[Rory's Dad]

Thanks @Steve (sdh2903) order placed and thanks to everyone else's contribution