Whether you’re traveling for leisure on a vacation or holiday or for a business trip, you should take this awesome opportunity to use your fitness tracker in a whole different way. In this article, we’ll recommend you some ways that you can make the best use of your fitness tracker when you travel. What makes heart rate monitors a great travel accessory.Take a look at this article to learn how to use a wearable when you travel.
A fitness tracker such as the Fitbit Charge 3 or a new smartwatch like the Fitbit Versa or one of the awesome Garmin devices like the Vivoactive 3 can be a great way for you to keep an eye on your daily activities, sleep patterns, and the quality of your meals.
1. Encourage Yourself to Explore the New City You’re in
You’ve probably memorized the streets of your hometown by heart, so taking a walk there doesn’t seem like a novelty anymore, but more like a duty.
Being in a different city is a great chance to increase the amount of the steps you take per day and the distance you walk as the walks would have a different, more engaging purpose: exploration and adventure.
Whether you’re visiting the landmarks of the city, the different tourist attractions, or simply walking around to take in the beauty of the different culture, you’re going to get two birds with one stone.
2. Make Sure You’re Getting Enough Sleep
An important feature that comes along with most fitness trackers is the sleep-tracking feature.
This will help you monitor your sleeping patterns while you’re away from home, which serves to show you whether you’re getting enough rest or not.
The sleep stages feature would be very helpful in this matter as well, as spending enough time in each sleep stage can greatly impact your mood and your concentration, which have serious consequences on how well you enjoy your trip or make progress with your work abroad.
You can also make use of this function when you’re on the flight itself, to see if you’re making good use of the time you spend without many productive options.
This is particularly helpful because sometimes you can doze off for long periods of time and fall under the illusion that you got enough sleep when you’ve only gotten an hour or two.
A fitness tracker will make you well aware of that, and encourage you to get more sleep so you can make the best of your trip.
3. Find How Healthy Your Trip is Overall
Depending on which fitness tracker you use, you will have a bunch of different health-related information to input into your watch.
From the various activities you do, the meals you eat and your calorie intake, to the patterns of your sleep and the beating of your heart.
You’re surely going to want to try the cuisine of the new place you’re in, and this might include snacks and desserts that are jam-packed with calories.
A fitness tracker would be a great tool to help you limit the number of calories you take in each day or to encourage you to exercise to burn those extra calories.
Gathering all of this various information would help you form a general and solid idea of how healthy your trip is overall, and whether you should take any steps towards making it healthier.
4. Track Your Heart Rate
Your heart rate during your trip can be a great indication of your overall health. If it’s consistent with the stats you usually got back home, then it’s a good indicator.
If it rises above or falls below your normal levels, then you might be exerting too much effort or you could be too stressed.
It’s a great indicator if you should take a little rest if you’re overworking yourself, or not getting enough cooling down for your adventures.
5. Don’t Forget to Exercise or Hit the Gym
The reminders to move or daily goals could be a great way to motivate you to hit your hotel’s gym and make use of it.
An Apple Watch cleverly reminds you to stand, move, and exercise with 3 interactive rings that indicate the progress you’ve made in each of these 3 fields.
It’s a nice way of experiencing how different places run their gyms and if you’re in a different culture it’s a great way to see how people of different background work out.
6. Keep Tabs on Your Cycle
If you’re a lady traveler, you can make use of the female health tracking feature that some fitness trackers are equipped with.
It’s a great way to make sure your hormones are working fine and that the difference in climate –for example- didn’t get to you.
Your period being late is also a close indicator of how stressed you could be as stress can greatly affect the hormonal balance.
7. Make Use of the Different Apps
Usually, you use your apps in a way that is inspired by your routine, so there is a large portion of features and options that you might have not explored yet.
Being in a different atmosphere, area, and maybe time zone, you will be able to make great use of different applications like the weather and maps.
You could also make some friends while you’re there using the apps that were designed for meeting up with people who share similar interests and hobbies.
You can even download apps for different activities that might not be as available in your hometown like yoga (Down Dog or Asana Rebel) and cycling (Strave or Map My Ride) or running (Map My Run or Zombies Run).
Final Words:
A fitness tracker is no less helpful during a business trip or a vacation than it is during regular times at home.
It’s actually the best travel companion you can get, as it keeps you informed on how healthy your routine is.
If you’re not getting enough sleep, it will prompt you to take a rest. If you’re not getting enough exercise, it will motivate you to be more active.
You can make use of the built-in or connected GPS features.
