It wasn't always so, but nowadays you see many people wearing some kind of fitness watch, often a full-blown smartwatch by Apple, Samsung or Google and several others. But I'm going to confine myself to fitness-orientated watches designed mainly to track the things that sportspersons need to know in order to assess their performance capability. Watches typified by the wide range offered by Garmin, and in particular my own watch, a Garmin Vivoactive 5 that I bought in May 2024.
Mine is a middle-of-the road fitness watch, a step up from a Fitbit, but not one of Garmin's high-end watches for athletes. Even so, it can record a lot of information. Not just steps taken; I originally set it up to monitor my sleep, the naps I might take, my heart rate, my heart rate variability, my breathing, how much stress I cope with, and my current energy level. I could have set up even more, but I am no fitness fanatic, and just wanted to see a few more things than the Fitbit Versa 3 I used to own could tell me. And in any event I wanted to tell the time on a device that was shaped like a proper traditional watch, with a round face. Although my Vivoactive 5 shouts 'fitness watch' it isn't overlarge, nor cluttered with rotating bezels, big buttons to press, and other practical-but-ugly features like that. I can wear it anywhere, with any kind of outfit.
Well, to begin with I was fascinated with the measurements it took, which I synched to the Garmin Connect app on my phone every morning. (To save battery-power, I've never had Bluetooth on all the time. That way, I can go at least a week between watch recharges) The app processed the metrics and presented the results usefully, and with comment. Sometimes it congratulated me. Mostly it didn't. I put the negativity down to Garmin supposing that I was an aspiring and serious contender in the fitness stakes, and that I would appreciate the truth, with no molly-coddling.
As I simply wanted to be ordinarily fit, I felt I could snap my fingers at Garmin's tut-tutting. And for a long while I did just that. But I knew Garmin was right in not giving me good sleep scores: I sometimes went to bed at ridiculously late times, and really didn't get enough good-quality sleep. That was unsustainable in the long run, yet I did nothing to correct it, and therefore kept on getting a wagging finger from Garmin.
One thing that irritated and also puzzled me was the stress that my watch recorded. I didn't feel stressed in the ordinary way, and certainly had nothing significant to burden me - no family responsibilities or financial pressures, for instance. But my watch said that I was often maxed out with it - when driving, or when seeing my friends, and every time I felt some emotion or excitement. Perhaps I have exciting friends! But it was strange that half my sleeping hours were 'stressful' - why? I'd got to sleep easily enough. I couldn't see where the truly stressful moments came from. Thankfully, my average stress level was low. But those spikes were odd.
And then something started to happen that I couldn't ignore, and it began to worry me. In the last months since last July my Heart Rate Variability fell away, and got very low. I think it's an indication of how easy my heart would find it to speed up in an emergency, so that I could run away or leap aside, and escape sudden danger. In other words, I think my watch was suggesting my heart would have a hard time beating faster on demand: that I wouldn't be able to snap into a sprint to outpace a charging bull, or a slavering mad dog, or a man with a knife.
I felt increasingly uncomfortable - and concerned - about these low HRV measurements. So when I had occasion very recently to visit the doctor, I brought my poor HRV to her attention. But she couldn't tell me what the watch was measuring, and whether I should really be concerned. A specialist sports doctor would know, but it wasn't part of a GP's training. But she did recommend an ECG and blood tests to see why my heart rate was on the low side - a different issue that both my watch and my home blood-pressure measuring device had revealed. I hadn't been bothered about the low heart rate, but she was, and so first thing in January I will turn up at the surgery and get those things seen to by the practice nurses. But I feel well; and I'll be surprised if there is any underlying issue.
Before that consultation, I had already set up various alarms on my Garmin watch to get me to bed at a sensible time, and these mild prompts had done the trick. I was already sleeping longer and better. And - it was tentative, but surely it was happening - my HRV had begun to improve. So perhaps there is a strong link between good-quality sleep and heart health.
A few days ago I took stock. There was no doubt. I had become addicted to looking at the health metrics on my watch, as badly as those who can't resist glancing at their social media feeds. And because I was constantly checking, I saw things that were simply of the moment, and not typical of my general state. The stress metric, for example. Surely I was getting too much information, and it was grinding me down.
So I've resolved to have only a couple of metrics visible: how many steps taken (which gives me a daily target, an incentive to keep moving, and a great feeling of achievement if I take 10,000 steps or more), and - for now - my heart rate (which at this very moment, sitting down at the end of the day, and typing this post, is 57 beats per minute). I hide the rest. I can drill down to see them, but I find it easy to resist. And I now sync watch and phone app only once every three days. That way I can still see my metrics, but the immediacy has gone, and I'm not so likely to obsess about them. And if three days between syncs isn't enough, I'll make it a week.
I like my watch. I want it to be my useful friend, telling me the time, nudging me with gentle alarms, and helping me stay on my feet sufficiently to maintain a basic level of fitness. I don't want it to be a tyrant, nagging me, and on some things telling me that I am failing.
Well, I've fixed my sleeping schedule, and that's clearly having good consequences. For the rest, ordinary medical checks with hospital-grade devices will surely be sufficient - and I have those regularly. You do hear stories about how a fitness watch warned someone of an impending heart attack. But I think now that if not used with discrimination, these watches can bear down heavily on one's general wellbeing, and create real stress. Which in turn can bring about various bad effects. I hope I've now done enough to avoid that trap.
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