Jawbone fitness tracker may be very helpful....
Today's Post: Thursday, 2-9-2012
I heard it existed last Saturday in a talk by the doctor who founded the Stanford Center for Disease Prevention, Dr John Farquhar.
See http://jawbone.com/up/product .
1. Keeps track of your activity all day long from walking to your car to go to work to jumping rope fast. 2. It can be set to prompt you to stand up if you have been sitting too long!
The bad news first.
Currently it is only for people who have an iPhone and are tech savvy and into social media.
If you lack any part of that, you can’t yet use this product. BOO! That means I can’t use it.
The measurement device and programming could easily be put into a product the rest of us could use that would need no mobile device. I saw no listing of plans to do so however.
Hopefully they will realize they are leaving more than half their potential income on the table and change that. But I saw no sign that they intend to do this so far.
The three things it has to recommend it most are that:
1. You can get a real picture of how much effect you are producing from your exercise program and how active you are the rest of the time.
Most people who exercise keep track in a log; but some people don’t and almost no one keeps track of their other activity. This device can give you extra data to put into your exercise log. But most importantly, it can help you keep track of how much you move the rest of the time and help you improve it.
This is like being able to see out when you drive on the freeway. If you can’t, you have no data to use to stay in control. With exercise logs and some knowledge of calories burned by different exercises you can get more than half way to the data you need for exercise. But for your other activities, this device can give you a 100 % picture instead of hardly any idea. That’s a huge positive improvement.
2. I read that sitting too long was a bad idea and tried an idea to get me up more often. I forgot to do it. Then I developed a couple of sets of easy but vigorous standing exercise and a log to help me ensure I remember to stand up an extra time and do these five times every weekday. In 5 more months, I’ll have used this for 24 months. It’s worked out well. (I already got up 5 times a day to go make tea and at least that often to visit the bathroom from the extra water.)
But sitting long is so bad for you that just standing up and sitting down about 10 times a day besides that would help. Now, I’m simply to busy to mess with it.
If you have their device, you can set it to buzz you every 15 minutes to remind you to stand up briefly. As busy as I am I don’t have the mental bandwidth to remember to do that and do my work too. But I just stood up and sat down and timed it. It took two seconds! THAT I would have time for. The reminder function this device has for that is worth the whole price of the device and its “App” software based on the research I’ve read on the health harm of sitting too long.
Also, if you take really long air flights, this function could save your life. Sitting for over 5 hours without getting up more than once or twice can cause life threatening blood clots. But if you get up every 15 minutes extra, you may never get these clots.
3. The device also can track how well you sleep. Do you sleep well now?
If not, you might benefit a lot from getting into exercise every day if you don’t already to that. You might sleep better if you took a tiny dose of melatonin at bedtime. You might sleep better in a darker room. You likely would sleep better if you usually drink more than two drinks a day and might if you cut your average to closer to one a day.
You can try these positive changes one at a time and see exactly how much each one helps.
You might even find you have sleep apnea in time to fix it before its effects kill you.
This again is worth the whole price.
The added feature that it can get you up at a time you aren’t in the deepest sleep might appeal to some people.
That one I’d have to try. But I doubt I’d use it.
Yes if you get up at the exact same time each day and sleep closer to 6 hours a day than 7 or 8, you do wake up some mornings feeling as if you need someone with a crane to get you up and a bit groggy at first or have the alarm slam a dream you like to a full stop.
But when you need all the sleep you can get and find this alarm gets you up 7 to 10 minutes before your alarm setting when you need that sleep, that is something I find horribly obnoxious when it happens to me by itself now! I’d have to try it. But I doubt I’d use it.
A device to shape your sleep sections to optimize getting up would be nice so you’d get up right on time but from a light sleep. But I suspect this device isn’t quite up to that. Using it for a month might have that effect though with a gradual training effect. But again, I'd have to try it to see.
Today's Post: Thursday, 2-9-2012
I heard it existed last Saturday in a talk by the doctor who founded the Stanford Center for Disease Prevention, Dr John Farquhar.
See http://jawbone.com/up/product .
1. Keeps track of your activity all day long from walking to your car to go to work to jumping rope fast. 2. It can be set to prompt you to stand up if you have been sitting too long!
The bad news first.
Currently it is only for people who have an iPhone and are tech savvy and into social media.
If you lack any part of that, you can’t yet use this product. BOO! That means I can’t use it.
The measurement device and programming could easily be put into a product the rest of us could use that would need no mobile device. I saw no listing of plans to do so however.
Hopefully they will realize they are leaving more than half their potential income on the table and change that. But I saw no sign that they intend to do this so far.
The three things it has to recommend it most are that:
1. You can get a real picture of how much effect you are producing from your exercise program and how active you are the rest of the time.
Most people who exercise keep track in a log; but some people don’t and almost no one keeps track of their other activity. This device can give you extra data to put into your exercise log. But most importantly, it can help you keep track of how much you move the rest of the time and help you improve it.
This is like being able to see out when you drive on the freeway. If you can’t, you have no data to use to stay in control. With exercise logs and some knowledge of calories burned by different exercises you can get more than half way to the data you need for exercise. But for your other activities, this device can give you a 100 % picture instead of hardly any idea. That’s a huge positive improvement.
2. I read that sitting too long was a bad idea and tried an idea to get me up more often. I forgot to do it. Then I developed a couple of sets of easy but vigorous standing exercise and a log to help me ensure I remember to stand up an extra time and do these five times every weekday. In 5 more months, I’ll have used this for 24 months. It’s worked out well. (I already got up 5 times a day to go make tea and at least that often to visit the bathroom from the extra water.)
But sitting long is so bad for you that just standing up and sitting down about 10 times a day besides that would help. Now, I’m simply to busy to mess with it.
If you have their device, you can set it to buzz you every 15 minutes to remind you to stand up briefly. As busy as I am I don’t have the mental bandwidth to remember to do that and do my work too. But I just stood up and sat down and timed it. It took two seconds! THAT I would have time for. The reminder function this device has for that is worth the whole price of the device and its “App” software based on the research I’ve read on the health harm of sitting too long.
Also, if you take really long air flights, this function could save your life. Sitting for over 5 hours without getting up more than once or twice can cause life threatening blood clots. But if you get up every 15 minutes extra, you may never get these clots.
3. The device also can track how well you sleep. Do you sleep well now?
If not, you might benefit a lot from getting into exercise every day if you don’t already to that. You might sleep better if you took a tiny dose of melatonin at bedtime. You might sleep better in a darker room. You likely would sleep better if you usually drink more than two drinks a day and might if you cut your average to closer to one a day.
You can try these positive changes one at a time and see exactly how much each one helps.
You might even find you have sleep apnea in time to fix it before its effects kill you.
This again is worth the whole price.
The added feature that it can get you up at a time you aren’t in the deepest sleep might appeal to some people.
That one I’d have to try. But I doubt I’d use it.
Yes if you get up at the exact same time each day and sleep closer to 6 hours a day than 7 or 8, you do wake up some mornings feeling as if you need someone with a crane to get you up and a bit groggy at first or have the alarm slam a dream you like to a full stop.
But when you need all the sleep you can get and find this alarm gets you up 7 to 10 minutes before your alarm setting when you need that sleep, that is something I find horribly obnoxious when it happens to me by itself now! I’d have to try it. But I doubt I’d use it.
A device to shape your sleep sections to optimize getting up would be nice so you’d get up right on time but from a light sleep. But I suspect this device isn’t quite up to that. Using it for a month might have that effect though with a gradual training effect. But again, I'd have to try it to see.
Labels: all day activity tracker, how to become more active in addition to exercise, Jawbone fitness tracker, new way to sit less, way to enable better sleep
posted by David at 1:48 PM
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