Smart bracelet for Exercise, Good or Bad?

Before explaining the guiding significance of heart rate monitoring by smart bracelets for health, we need to figure out what is the importance of heart rate measuring, and what is the health implication.

Heart rate, as one of the most important vital signs of the human body, accompany with your life from the beginning to the end.

For Adults, heart beats at 100,000 times a day, and the frequency is not fixed. The frequency, rhythm, and strength of each beat varies with the state of the body.

The three major regulatory systems that influence heart rate changes include: autoregulation, fluid regulation, and neuromodulation.

As the name implies, autoregulation means that the heart can adjust rate by itself. For example, due to strong myocardial force, the athlete has a larger output than ordinary. So they can meet the basic needs of human organs with a lower resting heart rate. Hyperthyroidism patients with a high heart rate due to increased secretion of thyroid hormones in the blood, which is fluid regulation. And the man meets the girl he loves that would accelerate heart beating by the sympathetic nervous system, which is neuromodulation.

So, why we need heart rate monitoring in exercising?

Heart rate monitoring has three important roles in fitness:

·Improve training efficiency.

·Prevent sports injuries.

·Test exercise ability.

Many professional sports medicines and fitness medical institutions in the world recommend that people should use heart rate monitoring during exercise. Heart rate monitoring can quickly and clearly reflect the body’s information during exercise period, and prevent physical damage due to entering dangerous anaerobic areas when exercising. At the same time, with the help of smart bracelet, the exercise intensity can be maintained at an appropriate level to make the fitness better. Heart rate measurement is also a boon for weight loss. It can inform the users which type of exercise consumes the most fat.

In the past ten years, the results of sports medicine research for professional sports have proved that heart rate is the most important indicator of exercise volume and exercise intensity. It is the most convenient and accurate way to ensure the safety and quality of exercise by heart rate monitoring.

Therefore, as above mentioned, we need a smart heart rate monitor device during exercise. And we can see that smart bracelet is the device which can meet our needs in the market. Because in view of the limited accuracy of monitoring the heart rate of the smart bracelet measurement, the wristband is not suitable for medical and disease diagnosis. Meanwhile, for mental applications, it is necessary to analyze heart rate variability with a extremely high accuracy. So it is also not suitable. For its portable and comfortable features, thus, the most suitable area for measuring the heart rate with smart bracelets—Exercise.

We can take a smart watch from Conacy as example—GT98

GT98 has 8 sports modes which can cover the daily exercises. Suppose you play basketball now, you can choose the related mode for monitoring.

Before we talk about the heart rate monitor function, we need to realize two basic concepts: HRrest and The maximum heart rate.

HRrest, also known as quiet heart rate, refers to the number of heartbeats per minute in a quiet, inactive state. When you get out of bed, it is the best time to measure. At the very least, you should take the measurement 5 minutes after sitting quietly, otherwise the result will higher than the fact.

HRrest can also reflect the ability of heart and lung. The athlete who have long-term endurance exercise is at 50 times/min. There is no standard for heart rate when people are at rest.

In general, the average heart rate of men is 72 per minute, and that of women is 78 per minute. The kids’ are higher, and the older are lower. For some people, the heart rate is normal between 55 and 105 beats per minute at rest.

The maximum heart rate refer to the increase in oxygen consumption and heart rate as the the exercise load increases. At the maximum load intensity, the oxygen consumption and heart rate cannot continue to increase.

The best formula for calculating the maximum heart rate: estimate the maximum heart rate by subtracting the age from 220, or HRmax = 208 − (0.7 × age).

For example: if age is 30, then 220–30=190,190 is your maximum heart rate.

The maximum heart rate calculated by the above formula own a certain inherent error. The heart rate of each person may be 15 times more or less than the above calculation results. There are many ways to test to determine your maximum heart rate. It’s dangerous with a high heart rate, so the actual measurement should be guided by a doctor or exercise instructor.

The maximum heart rate is closely related to the degree of exercise. When performing different sports, there are different maximum heart rates. The maximum heart rate data measured by the bicycle endurance test can only be applied to running/walking. Heart rate will vary when cycling or swimming.

You may get confused how does smart bracelet monitor heart rate.

Actually, Photo Plethysmo Graphy (PPG) is the most common monitor method in smart bracelet device. Simply speaking, PPG is just a kind of reflection, which can observe the pulsating change in the transmittance of blood, then converted into an electrical signal, which corresponds to the heart rate.

Why the detected light is commonly green?—Next artic will let you know this.