With the busy schedules of Redwood students and faculty it often seems as though there is not even enough time to stop and take a breath. But, what activity trackers are showing many is that they don’t so much need to stop to take a breath, but rather get active and exercise more.
The Nike Fuel band was released in February of 2012 and is to be worn on the wrist in order to track physical activity, steps taken per day, and calories burned of the person wearing it. Redwood Junior, Tristan Pulver said it has helped him realize just how active he is being.
“It’s kind of eye opening to see how much work you’re actually doing,” said Pulver. “The fuel is the measure of how much activity you’re actually doing, and whenever I’d see my fuel being kind of low I’d try to go out and do something active to try to get it up. I’d set a goal and try to get it.”
Pulver also said he doesn’t just wear the band when he’s exercising, but instead all the time through out his day.
“I use it all the time because it’s a good way to measure how much activity you’re doing within a day,” said Pulver.
Along with students, teachers are also finding the Nike Band quite useful through out their days.
Elizabeth Eichler said she received the band as a gift from her husband, and began using it to track her steps per day.
“I was trying to do 10,000 steps a day, and it was hilarious because I’d get to about 8,000 steps and I’d strap the baby on me and I’d march to a TV show because I was obsessed with getting 10,000.”
Along with measuring daily exercise the band also tracks how much you are working out over time.
“This downloads to the computer and you can see your progress over time. So I’ve had this for a year and you can really see when you’re most active and when you’re not and I kind of have it in my head.”
Eichler was most intrigued by the calorie counter, and how different the result of burning calories was compared to what she had imagined.
“I think the most interesting part was how many calories according to this that I was using,” said Eichler. “For example I’d have a super hard day at work, I’d be running all over the place and then it would say that I burned 600 calories, and I’d think ‘no way. You’d think you’d burned 3,00 because you’re so exhausted, but it said you only burned 600, so I thought that was super eye awakening.”
Although the Fuel Band may be “eye opening,” there is downside to it.
“The only problem I’d say with it I’d say is that it breaks a lot because it’s really fragile, and you have to go all the way to Nike Town in San Francisco to get it repaired.”
Similar to the Nike Fuel band there are also watches that track your activity through out the day. The Nike Plus watch has a GPS and helps you track your work out. Senior, Eric Bryan has owned a Nike Plus watch since he was in middle school and has been using it as a GPS for biking.
“It connects to a chip in your shoe and with that it tracks how far you’ve gone,” Bryan said.
Bryan says he uses the watch to track his activity really only while he is working out, but he thinks if the didn’t have it wouldn’t affect his activeness.
“It’s a really helpful training tool, but I don’t think if I didn’t have it I wouldn’t exercise as much. I’d probably exercise just about the same, but it does help you know track your progress and see how much training you’ve had.”
