Fitness trackers, especially wearable watches and bands, have become hugely popular with many people over the last few years. This is due to many people choosing to take better control of their activity levels and other fitness metrics by monitoring themselves whilst working out. There are now fitness tracker products at all ends of the market, from cheap pedometer style wristbands through to smartwatches with touch screen interfaces and additional non-fitness specific features, like being able to notify the wearer of calls coming in on their phones.
If you are planning a vacation where lots of activity will be involved, this could be the perfect time to get your child interested in using a tracker. It could help them get more out of the trip, as well as help them to obtain some good new fitness habits!
- Fitness Trackers for Kids
With so many adults getting great benefits from wearing fitness tracker technology, it is certainly worth considering whether these devices are good things to use to try and encourage kids to be more active. While there aren’t specific products targeted at children, products like the cheap, cute Fitbit Zip could certainly be thought of as a ‘Fitbit for kids’ by their design, and for older children who are tech-crazy, even the higher end trackers could be something that could help your child feel excited about being more active. And where better to test out those capabilities than on a fun family vacation?
- Why Kids Could Benefit from Using Products like Fitbit
There are lots of positives to fitness trackers as part of a healthy lifestyle for children and young adults. These include:
- Learning more about how nutrition and physical energy work.
- Having some cool tech to play with that actually makes them more active, rather than less.
- Things like Fitbits can be connected to compare activity with other people, and to compete in challenges with friends and family, meaning the whole family can be motivated to move more if everyone is using one.
- Doing things like meeting daily targets for a number of steps makes even going for a walk feel like part of a game.
- Fitbit and other fitness tracker systems award achievements and badges as users do different things, adding to the sense of ‘gamification’.
- Lower end products that could be suitable for children like the Fitbit Zip are durable and fairly inexpensive, so they can use them while they are playing sports and during holiday activities where they may not be able to wear something like a watch.
- It can help form good habits, like being sure to include some exercise every day.
- Are There Any Downsides?
Some parents are concerned that facilities on fitness trackers, like the tracking of calorie consumption, may make children too concerned about things like counting calories and promote an unhealthy mental relationship with food. For children, especially those who are not overweight, tracking exercise, activity and fitness levels is much more important, and you can choose devices that focus on monitoring steps and time spent exercising rather than calories burned.
Fitbits and other trackers can make great pre-vacation gifts for kids and young adults, so why not make them a part of your next family vacation?
