Supercharge Your Tracking with the Best Fitness Trackers
Exercise is grueling enough without doing maths at the same time. So let the best Fitness Trackers count your reps, heartbeats, and more.
Each passing year. The best fitness trackers get more and more innovative. Hence, improvements to count steps, track goals, and monitor the heart rate are not only expected. But in fact, demanded by the fitness enthusiast.
Fitness trackers first became available in the 1970s. The introduction of a wearable heart rate monitor in 1978 from the company which most noteworthy went on to become Polar. The Polar Sport Tester PE3000 went on sale in 1984. Consequently, becoming highly popular with fitness enthusiasts. Whilst, fitness trackers didn’t become truly mainstream until the launch of the Fitbit in 2009. With arguably the first wearable to be worn on a wrist.
Since then there have been a plethora of Fitness trackers entering the market. Indeed today’s leading brands of fitness trackers include Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, Huawei, and Samsung. As well as relative newcomers such as Woop and Moov.
So what are the best fitness trackers on the market? And what are the latest features available?
Here’s our list of the best fitness trackers for every fitness regime.
Best Fitness Trackers For Every Occasion.
Step counters
First of all, the pedometer is the most basic feature of any fitness tracking device. – to count steps. Above all, it is a core function of every fitness tracker. However, step counting technology isn’t perfect. Because occasionally you may find movement when you’re sitting in a vehicle. As a result, this can add steps to your total. But it gives a fairly accurate indication of your activity levels.
Some early basic fitness trackers were little more than watches with a pedometer included. Today most fitness trackers don’t simply record steps and measure the distance you have covered. But also have a wide range of features such as measuring sleep and calories. Above all, tracking steps is one of the main reasons why many people first consider buying a fitness tracker.
Fitbit Inspire
Price at the time of Article: £89.99
- Sleep tracking
- Swim tracking
- Measures calories burned
Withings Steel Watch (previously branded as Nokia)
Price at the time of Article: Launching Soon
- Sleep monitoring
- Smart wake up feature alerts you at an optimal time within your sleep cycle
- Battery life up to 8 months with no charging
Best fitness tracker for your heart
Most fitness trackers can measure heart rate with optical heart rate monitoring. For this reason, specialist technology uses light that detects the volume of blood being pumped past the sensor. And therefore uses this to identify the heart rate. Furthermore, look out for whether the product monitors activity 24/7 or just periodically through the day. Consequently, the only benefit of the latter is that it uses less battery power.
While in contrast, products that feature a heart monitor which will assess how quickly your heart rate should return to normal after a training session. Almost all optical heart tracking is less accurate during periods of intense activity. Therefore, If you are looking for very precise readings. You should maybe consider connecting your tracker via Bluetooth to a device worn on the chest. There are good options to choose from such as the Polar H10 Heart Rate Sensor
Withings ScanWatch
Price at the time of Article: Launching Soon
- Medical Grade Heart Monitoring
- ECG optical Heart rate sensor
- Stress sensor trigger for high, low or irregular heart rhythms
- Blood Oxygen sensor
- Automatic Activity Tracker
- VO2 Max Powered Fitness Assessment
Polar A370
Price at the time of Article: £149.50
- Constant heart rate monitoring
- Inactivity alert
- Sleep Plus sleep analysis
Apple Watch Series 5
Price at the time of Article: £399 to £799
- Continual heart rate monitoring
- ECG app allows you to take an electrocardiogram at any time
Essential Reading: Best Ways To Use A Heart Rate Monitor
Best fitness trackers for sleep monitoring
Some trackers can measure heart rate sleep tracking. Accordingly, they record how long you sleep. And help to assess sleep quality by measuring the periods of light, deep and REM sleep.
Huawei Band 3 Pro
Price at the time of Article: £39.99
- Sleep monitoring true sleep 2 technology developed in conjunction with experts at Harvard Medical School
- Identifies sleep-related issues & suggests ways to improve your sleep
- Battery life: up to 12 days (7 days with GPS in use)
Essential Reading: Sleep, Fitness and How a Sleep Tracker can help
Best fitness trackers for running / multi-sports
Multisports trackers are ideal if you take part in events such as triathlons and also do a wide range of sports activities. Therefore look for models that can help you prepare for a big event such as a marathon, by allowing you to load training plans.
Garmin Forerunner 45
Price at the time of Article: £149.99
- Garmin Coach feature
- Predicts your performance for a major event
- GPS built-in
Fitbit Versa 2
Price at the time of Article: £199
- Can connect to your phone’s GPS to record outdoor activities
- Use with Fitbit Coach for workout programmes
- Waterproof
- Interchangeable bands to suit sports / other use
Moov Now
Price at the time of Article: $39.99
- Provides live feedback as you exercise
- Running analysis; advice to minimise the risk of injury
- Boxing analysis, feedback, and recommendations
- Swim tracking
- Can be worn on the ankle for enhanced cycle tracking accuracy
- The low price tag for generous functionality
Best fitness trackers for navigation
If you want to head off and explore you ‘ll need a fitness tracker with good navigation features and maps. Here are some great options to buy.
Garmin Fenix 6
Price at the time of Article: £479.99
- PacePro specialist training guidance
- The display can be read in bright sunlight
- TOPO maps
- 2000+ pre-loaded ski resort maps
Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F30
Price at the time of Article: £479.99
- Altitude sensor
- Measures atmospheric pressure
- Full-colour maps
- Compass
Garmin Vivosport
Price at the time of Article: £99.99
- Built-in GPS
- Monitor progress with VO2 Max
- All-day stress tracking to Measure Stress Levels.
Best fitness tracker for water sports
Some of the best fitness trackers are water-resistant. But if you’re a swimmer you will need a fully waterproof fitness tracker. Because this needs to feature swim tracking capability. Waterproof quality is measured in ATM or atmospheres. A product with a 5ATM is technically suitable at depths of up to 40 metres or 130 ft. We would recommend a 5ATM tracker for regular swimming or snorkeling. For more extreme water sports, such as diving, you should go for a specialist diving product.
Best trackers for swimming:
Garmin Swim ™ 2
Price at the time of Article: £219.99
- Records swim stroke
- Open water swim mode for use in lakes and sea
Huawei Band 3 Pro
Price at the time of Article: £39.99
- Detects your swim stroke
- 5 ATM waterproof
Garmin Forerunner 945
Price at the time of Article: £469.99
- Suitable for triathlon tracking
- Wide range of additional features
Best tracker for diving:
Garmin Descent
Price at the time of Article: £899.99
- Compass
- GPS
- Heart monitoring
- Interchangeable wrist straps – use silicone for diving, switch to metal or leather for other activities
Essential Reading: What is the Best Fitness Tracker For Swimming
Best fitness trackers for music-lovers:
Indeed many models have music functionality. Moreover, some allow you to sync wirelessly with music streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music. More importantly, this can give you easy access to more choice if you tire of you’re own music playlist.
Fitbit Ionic
Price at the time of Article: £249
- Access Deezer playlist
- Links to Bluetooth headphones
- Wallet-free payments
- Customisable clock faces
Apple Watch Series 4 or 5
Price at the time of Article: £399 to £799
- Access iTunes
Garmin Forerunner 645 Music
Price at the time of Article: £349.99
- Access Spotify playlist
Essential Reading: Music on the Move; Choosing a Running Watch with Music
Best all-rounders:
The Apple Watch Series 5 is hard to beat with its array of features and intuitive operation
Price at the time of Article: £399 to £799
- Barometric altimeter for tracking hill ascents and descents
- An all-day heart monitor, with alerts for unusual activity
- Make calls & send texts without your iPhone
- Apple Pay
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2
Price at the time of Article: £419
- Automatically records all activity
- Real-time running coach
- The watch can produce a face to match your outfit
- Sleek classic design
Best fitness trackers for Elite Athletes
Whoop 3.0
As if to prove that Elite Athletes get treated differently. Indeed they have their Tracker in the form of the Whoop. Also, they are designed to be worn 24/7
Price at the time of Article: Free when you sign up to Whoop
- Tracks sleep automatically
- Collects data on Heart Rate, Body motion, skin conductivity and ambient temperature over 100 times a second
- Offers an Analytics Platform for coaches to monitor fatigue
- Requires subscription ($30 a month)
- Measures HRV and ambient temperature.
- Broadcast heart rate to third-party apps.
- 5 days of battery life.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion. There are many Fitness Trackers on the market to choose from. What your aim or goal in using one is important. Above all, it is how you use the gadget that will determine your success in reaching your objectives.
