In the fitness world people love gadgets! And don’t get us wrong, we love them too! From Apple Watches to Fitbits, from Heart Rate Monitors to Whoop Bands, these gadgets give us detailed information to track our health and fitness goals. People are motivated to invest in the latest and greatest technology because of the instantaneous feedback they provide. It is fun and exciting to see how many steps we’ve had each day, how well our body is recovering, what our resting vs exercise heart rate is, and how we sleep at night. This technology gives us all kinds of information at our fingertips. This motivates us to keep working hard at our fitness and recovery. These gadgets truly are awesome.

However, the problem with gadgets exists in what they don’t do for us. Wearable fitness and recovery technology trackers tell us how much we move and how our heart rate responds to this movement throughout the day. The information is great, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. These gadgets don’t take into consideration the quality of our movement while exercising. Wearable tech is unable to tell us the type of exercises we should be favoring or avoiding based on our history of injury and daily stresses. None of these devices give feedback on our posture or muscle activation. When these things aren’t emphasized, it doesn’t matter how awesome our heart rate recovery is because it can lead to excessive wear and tear on our joints and muscles. These things might tell us we need a recovery day, but what kind of recovery do we need? Mobility, hydration, stretching, walking, more sleep?

Keep this in mind as you find yourself motivated to invest in the latest wearable technology. Is there something else you could invest in? Have you had your posture and movement assessed to see what exercises you should avoid? Have you had an expert help train you to have proper form when exercising? Have you been coached on proper recovery techniques? Wearable tech is easy to use and exciting to have, but if you don’t address your fundamental movement or postural problems, then you could be setting yourself up for nagging mobility problems, aching joints and injury. Definitely keep your wearable technology since it helps keep you motivated and excited, but make sure to consult your local chiropractor or other health/fitness professional to make sure that your body is moving appropriately. Invest in some form of regular body maintenance so you stay healthy and pain free as you hit those wearable tech milestones!