written by john c ashworth, ma, cscs
Two weeks ago on Fitness Friday, John Stofflet and I discussed the declining fitness levels of America's youth. Click here for that post.
As a follow-up to that segment, tonight we will be discussing a strategy I recommended for increasing awareness and the activity levels of kids. During the last Fitness Friday segment, I talked briefly about the Jawbone Up24 Activity tracker, and how my son Carl and I had been using it to track out fitness programs and activity throughout the day.
Tonight on NBC15 with Ashley Mathews, will discuss the five things I absolutely love about the Jawbone UP24 constant activity tracker.
1. Number one has to do with the increased level of awareness on a daily basis that this device has created in our household when it comes to daily activity and fitness. One of the many cool things about this device is that you can form teams and review fitness and sleep data for anyone you have teamed up with inside the application. Not only is it cool to see your own data, but it is also interesting to see how you measure up compared to others on your team, including your kids. This has created a daily conversation about fitness, the importance of sleep, and good nutrition in our household.
2. The Jawbone Up24 iPhone application is extremely slick. The wrist band syncs wirelessly with your iPhone or other smart phone device and provides a constant update about your activity level each day. In addition, should you choose to do so, "Push" alerts can be set so that the UP24 app is sending text messages and alerts to your throughout the day reporting on your steps, progress toward your goals, and a variety of other alerts including alarms you can set to remind you to take your vitamins at 12:30 PM every day like mine does 🙂
2. Each day, the UP24 app creates a new stream of quick fitness and nutrition tips that are often customized directly to you based on your personal data. I've included an example of this in the image below this paragraph. In this case, the app is taking my 3-day average and then prompting me to set a new goal based on this data. Pretty cool.
3. When you invest the extra $50 you get the version of the UP24 that requires no wires to sync the data. As I stated before, the wristband syncs via bluetooth with your smart phone and provides a constant stream of data.
4. You only have to charge it once every 7 days and it connects simply via USB to your computer or charger.
5. The cool, effective, and user friendly data streams are an excellent way to stay in close touch with how you're really doing when it comes to your fitness program. You might have a good general idea about your current fitness program data and how you are doing, but everything changes when you can take advantage of more data.
6. It tracks your sleep. Through the detection of movement patterns from the device throughout the night, the UP24 can really help you hone in on improving the quality and amount of sleep you get each night. This feature has helped me tremendously.
Below are a few more images from the app...
Have fun!
-John
