Best Fitness Trackers That Aren’t Meant Strictly for the Gym – AskMen
Best Fitness Trackers That Aren’t Meant Strictly for the Gym AskMen
Fitness trackers specialize in amassing workout data but those workouts don’t always have to exist on a treadmill at a gym. Here are the best fitness trackers that …
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Fitness trackers changed the way people think about being active. Even before they became full-blown smartwatches outfit with smartphone notifications and GPS, they hooked people into keeping tabs on their daily activity. Between steps taken, flights of stairs climbed, or resting heart rate, wearers feverishly ate up the gathered activity stats.
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Although today’s watches are smarter, the enthusiasm for fitness data remains. For many people, the bulk of that tracked info comes outside of any gym or intended workout. Commuting to and from work racks up thousands of daily steps, while a hike through the park or a bike ride to the store logs burned calories.
Keying in on fitness obtained outside the gym gave brands an opportunity to expand their fitness tracker lineup – as well as their intended consumer. Now, there’s an activity tracker for nearly everything. Swimming, mountain biking, surfing, snowboarding, trail running, you name it. Some brands have even opted for a more simplistic approach, offering basic tracking in a chic, stylish package.
With the market offering more variety than ever, we rounded up five of our favorite activity trackers that aren’t intended strictly for gym-goers. Whether you prefer to run outside, swim laps, take a yoga class, or just add a few blocks to your morning commute, there’s a smartwatch tailored to fit your routine.
Fitbit Charge 3
The Fitbit name has long been synonymous with activity trackers, and its versatile Charge 3 proves it’s still one of the industry’s go-to fitness brands. On the surface, the Charge 3 looks like a typical fitness tracker. It features a rectangular watch face with a digital readout, counts steps and calories, and has 24/7 heart rate. But it’s the rest of what it offers that lets it truly stand out.
Charge 3 offers a wide range of activity compatibility, with support for biking, running, swimming, yoga, circuit training, and others. Its SmartTrack feature even automatically detects some workouts and begins tracking them without any input from the wearer. And don’t worry about the watch getting wet during those swim workouts – it’s water-resistant up to 50 meters.
The fitness tracker’s features are made even better by Fitbit’s companion smartphone app. With the Fitbit app, you’re able to chart each day’s activity, monitor or start new fitness challenges, set daily, weekly, or monthly goals, and analyze your sleep habits. Fitbit also supports female health data which tracks periods and period symptoms, as well as fertility and ovulation windows.
Outside of fitness and health, the Charge 3 also offers smartphone notification compatibility, quick reply options to text messages, accessible weather and calendar apps, and the ability to use Fitbit Pay. The smartwatch won’t break the bank, either. With a price tag of just $150, the Charge 3 is one of the most cost-effective, multipurpose activity trackers currently available.
Garmin fenix 5X Plus
Garmin’s place among the who’s who in the activity tracking industry is well-known – it’s been designing and manufacturing some of the best wearables in the space for years. But what sets the brand apart from its competition is its wide variety of multisport watches, including its highly versatile fenix 5x Plus.
The next iteration of its fenix Series, the fenix 5X Plus does it all. It tracks conventional workouts like runs and bike rides, but also offers support for trail runs, strength training, snowboarding, hiking, paddle boarding, and so many others. With built-in GPS and full-color topographic maps, it’s like wearing one of Garmin’s advanced turn-by-turn devices right on your wrist, too.
One of this fitness tracker’s best features is how it tracks and displays advanced performance metrics, while also monitoring your blood oxygen levels. This allows you to track progress you’ve made and tailor your daily activity however you see fit. Based on your level of activity, it displays a training effect readout, your total workout load over the last seven days, training status evaluations, and where you’re able to improve.
Beyond its advanced metrics, the fenix 5X Plus also offers sleep tracking, contactless payment via Garmin Pay, music compatibility via services like Spotify, and Garmin’s updated Elevate heart rate technology. This smartwatch is not meant to sit inside a gym every day for two hours, rather it is geared towards the fitness enthusiast who prefers to take workouts outdoors. It’s a hefty investment at $750 but with everything it offers, it could very well be the only activity tracker you buy for many years.
Apple Watch Series 4
It’s hard to have any sort of “best activity tracker” list without at least some mention of the Apple Watch, so here we are. But don’t mistake its inclusion in the list as being grandfathered in. The Apple Watch Series 4 is a high-quality fitness tracker that deserves its own recognition.
The Apple Watch first burst on the scene in 2015 almost entirely as a wrist-based companion to its iPhone counterpart. It had smartwatch notifications, could store music and photos, and was compatible with certain apps. It even had a heart-rate sensor built-in. Still, it wasn’t exactly a bonafide fitness tracker.
Fast forward four years and the Apple Watch Series 4 has fully embraced the fitness lifestyle and offers wearers a deep suite of fitness-focused content. There’s a built-in ECG to measure the activity of your heart and its rhythm, automatic workout detection, pace and cadence alerts for runners, and an emergency SOS function for when it detects falls.
For tracking, it supports everything from running in the gym and outside to strength training, yoga, and hiking. It even allows you to share your data with friends and set up head-to-head activity challenges. In essence, it takes the gamification of activity tracking to another level in order to motivate the wearer.
Even if you aren’t competing with friends or participating in challenges, the Apple Watch is still designed to push you through your day. With its three rings approach to daily activity, it constantly tracks how many calories you burn, your time spent exercising, how much you’re on your feet, and gives you a real-time visual read-out of each statistic. The goal is to fill each ring by the end of the day (similar to reaching a steps or calories goal on normal fitness trackers).
Like most things Apple, the Apple Watch Series 4 comes with a fairly steep price tag. The standard watch with built-in GPS runs for $400 while the upgraded GPS plus cellular network version costs $500. A special Nike edition is also available for $400 with standard GPS, along with a GPS and cellular network-ready option for $500.
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Samsung Galaxy Watch
The Samsung Galaxy Watch does a lot. Like Garmin’s fenix 5x Plus, it’s designed to act as an everyday wearable, capable of handling everything from your daily fitness progress and sleep habits to your work schedule. But while Garmin’s smartwatch is geared more toward the rugged outdoorsy person, the Samsung Galaxy Watch is like its professional cousin.
While this fitness tracker still supports many of the same outdoor activities like running, biking, swimming, or hiking, it does so in a package that looks more at home in an office than in the woods. But that’s not a bad thing. Its style is one of its best features, and although it features a sweat-wicking rubber strap, it still looks classy when paired with dressed-up work attire.
Its proficiency as a work-focused activity tracker is made even better by its daily assistant features. Each day, the watch gives an easy-to-read digital readout of your upcoming calendar and any events for the next 10 hours. Before going to sleep, it presents a recap of your day, including fitness stats, event reminders for the next day and weather alerts.
At its core, it’s still a fitness tracker. As mentioned above, the Samsung Galaxy Watch offers a wide range of activity tracking, with support for roughly 40 activities. It also features a built-in heart rate monitor that takes heart rate readings both during exercises and at times of rest to create an accurate snapshot of your health. The watch even monitors your stress levels, offers guided breathing tutorials and tracks your sleep schedule.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch does still hold its own as an adventure wearable with built-in GPS, along with a barometer and altimeter, and water resistance up to 50 meters. Samsung also offers a deep suite of compatible apps such as Strava, Spotify and MapMyRuN, and, when paired with a phone, shows smartphone notifications.
For $300, it’s certainly not cheap but it offers more than enough features to make that price tag seem like a steal.
Withings Steel HR
The Withings Steel HR may not be as technologically advanced as Garmin’s fenix 5X Plus but that’s because its selling point is its simplicity. This fitness tracker is well-suited for those who aren’t interested in tracking every element of their workout but still want to monitor their daily activity. It can also be paired with a variety of stylish watch bands which add to its aesthetic appeal.
The fitness tracker may resemble a regular watch but it actually offers a suite of tracking capability, smartphone notifications and feedback. It provides data for step and distance tracking by using built-in motion sensors and calorie expenditure via its companion Health Mate app. There’s also a sleep tracking feature which documents how long it takes you to fall asleep, how many hours you sleep, your various sleep cycles, and any sleep interruptions.
Withings includes support for runners and swimmers, too. The Steel HR has the ability to automatically detect either a run or a swim, and tracks distance traveled, how long you did the activity and calories burned. The same Health Mate app then shows recaps of the activity to help you keep track of your daily and weekly fitness.
The Withings Steel HR isn’t a smartwatch for the hardcore outdoor enthusiast, but rather a wearable for working professionals who still want to keep an eye on their daily activity. And though it’s certainly not the first tracker to offer a rose gold-colored case and brown leather strap, its combination of basic fitness tracking, a clean, stylish watch face and fashionable design make it one of our favorites.
Fitness trackers don’t have to exist solely as gym companions, and their evolution into highly-capable smartwatches proves they have much more to offer. So, even if you don’t consider yourself a runner, biker, swimmer, or hiker, there’s still a smartwatch capable of giving you the feedback and support you need to live a healthier life.
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