Gym memberships can be pricey!

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These exercise hacks could save yourself hundreds of pounds.

Smart people use hacks. Elite athletes use exercise hacks.  If you fall into both camps then you are a very lucky person. In the UK, the average person spends £480 per year on a gym membership.  According to Tech Target, every new year as many as 40% of gym-goers lapse on their membership within the first year. While recent research in the US suggests that 80% of January gym-joiners quit within five months.

With the advent of Wearables fitness technology do you even need a gym membership? Can you achieve fitness without spending money on an expensive gym membership? And what exercise hacks can you use to improve your fitness levels?

Adoption of Fitness Tech Becomes Mass Market

Wearables are now a staple part of our lives; Millions of people from elite athletes to Millenials, to the elderly, all have adopted gadgets to help track movements, monitor heart rates, check their blood pressure while staying fit and healthy. What once was a niche is now embedded within the fabric of society, whether you are on a bus, on the track or in the pool, the wearable movement is here to stay.

With so many people using these wearables, What is the benefit of wearable fitness technology? What are the everyday exercise hacks that you can use to get the best out of these smart devices?

It’s Official! Government Champions Benefits Of Regular Exercise.

The UK Government is currently rolling out new guidance to health professionals about physical activity. They are concerned about the reduction in activity within the population, which they report is 20% lower than it was in the 1960s. With this in mind, they are pushing for health care professionals to advocate for the benefits of physical activity whenever they are treating patients.

The Chief Medical Officer recommends that everyone should aim to do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes at a more vigorous level per week. They also recommend doing strengthening activities on two occasions per week.  As well as reducing periods of inactivity as much as possible.

They say that exercising at these levels could reduce up to 1 in 6 deaths. And that it could help patients better manage chronic conditions and that it could have positive implications for mental health.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you need to go out and purchase an expensive gym membership. It is perfectly possible to fit in more exercise using affordable Fitness Technology. Take a look at the best wearable exercise hacks and see how they could help you improve your activity levels.

Ditch the Gym Forever; Invest In These Exercise Hacks

Core Strength

Strengthening the core is so important when it comes to maintaining a good posture and also preventing muscle injuries. A strong core has been linked to improving the outlooks of those who suffer from back pain. Plus, any core strengthening that you take part in will count towards those two strengthening activities that the Chief Medical Officer recommends you do per week. A stronger core will also help when it comes to completing that moderate or vigorous exercise.

Strengthening your core doesn’t have to be countless sit-ups or going along to expensive pilates classes. It can all be done in your own home using fitness technology. Items such as Activ5, a portable fitness device can help. This guides you through core strengthening exercises. While checking your form to ensure that you are getting the most out of exercises as you do them, it could be all that you need.

The Stealth Personal Core Trainer, meanwhile helps you strengthen your core whilst also playing games on your phone. It targets 29 different muscles and certainly takes the boredom out of traditional ab workouts.

There is also Hyfit, the wearable gym that you could consider. This features unique resistance adjusters that guide you through workouts designed to ensure that you train in the right way. The device keeps track of everything. Which includes the number of repetitions, calories burned, and your heart rate. It shows you as much information as many of the fitness trackers on the market do. These gadgets will certainly help keep you trim and strengthen up that core ready for some more vigorous exercise.

Improve Balance

Often when people decide that they want to improve their overall fitness levels they find themselves drawn to the gym and those tantalising machines. They seem to hold promises of trimmer waistlines or more energy. This really couldn’t be further from the truth, however.

Those machines do have their place but if you go and make use of them with all guns blazing, you are likely to wear yourself out or in the worst-case end up with an injury. Plus, they mostly only exercise one muscle at a time, certainly not the best way to energise your entire body. The best place to start when taking your first steps into a fitness regime is with your balance and stability.

By doing this you can work multiple muscles at a time and also build up your strength gradually to help prevent injuries. As with core strengthening, there are plenty of smart gadgets to help you achieve this right where you are.

The benefits of wearable fitness can be vital. Use smart wearables like The Tangram Smart Rope as one of your exercise hacks, for instance, it helps you combine a cardio workout with balance improvement. The device can pair up with your phone so that it can analyse your performance and suggest training intervals that will help you reach your fitness goals.

Who needs a personal trainer with technology like this on your side? Or perhaps you could get to grips with your posture issues with the Upright Go 2 Posture Trainer, which ensures you are aligned properly as you go about your day, delivering you a vibration when you are misaligned. There are also Blaze Pods, a set of pods that you can use to help you create a workout. There are plenty of workouts that you can do using these and they also sync with your phone to record fitness data.

Improve Reflexes

Improvement in coordination is important for every athlete.  Gaining a one percent advantage can mean hitting your goals. Or failing at the final assault. Whether it’s hand to eye co-ordination for Tennis players. Or maintaining balance in Rugby.   This is where the EyeGym comes in.  It’s an app that aims to improve your reflexes.  You can often reach peak strength and speed.  But the EyeGym aims to improve things around that.

Think about the improvement of reflexes and peripheral vision.  The EyeGym works on the principle of how quickly you react. EyeGym uses software to train the responsiveness of the eyes and brain to visual targets and distractions. How quickly you perceive things.  And how well you can concentrate when you are fatigued.

Injuries

Injuries often prevent people from getting the exercise that they need. This can tempt people into paying out a fortune on sports massages or physiotherapy. Simply because they want to get back into their regime as quickly as they can. The thing is though, there is plenty of technology that can also help treat injuries to get you back out there as soon as possible. You could save yourself a fortune and speed up your recovery process at the same time.

The Omron HeatTens, for instance, gets to work on muscle pain and stiffness by administering electrical nerve stimulation to the surface of the skin. It also applies soothing heat to make you feel more comfortable. There is also the Compex Fit 3.0 which uses massage to restore strength and muscle tone whilst also getting to work on reducing pain. It can help tone muscles anywhere on the body as well as fight pain through the use of technology. It also just gives users a great recovery massage to help them feel better after a particularly strenuous workout.

Technology can fill all the gaps, including aiding with your post-workout recovery. There is no need to shell out a fortune on a gym membership.

Wrapping Up

Technology can help you reach your fitness goals quicker than any gym membership can. Consider investing in some of these exercise hacks to see how much quicker you can reach your goals and improve your fitness levels.

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