This article was written for 9Round Kickboxing for their September "PULSE Challenge" in 9Round studios around the nation. These challenges teach members about the "why" behind heart rate training and incentivize them to hit certain heart rate zones for the most effective workout. This piece unpacks the role of wearable tech in the fitness industry, while giving members insight into how 9Round's PULSE heart rate monitor can help them better reach their fitness goals.
These days, wearable technology can do almost anything.
Sure, it might not be making your breakfast quite yet, but give the technology industry a few years and we might be surprised.
The heart of every 9Round studio is our 30-minute kickboxing workout, not our technology. But the PULSE heart rate monitor is a key part of the 9Round experience because it helps our members take their health into their own hands through the science-backed benefits of heart rate training.
Today, we’ll unpack everything you need to know about wearable technology, and we’ll see exactly how the PULSE heart rate monitor helps you crush your fitness goals.
First off, what exactly do we mean by “wearable tech”? A "wearable" is any type of technology physically worn on the body. You’re probably familiar with smart watches and heart rate monitors, but you might not have heard of Tomaton—a tomato-headed robot backpack that debuted at the 2015 Tokyo Marathon, feeding runners small tomatoes throughout their race to prevent fatigue.
Not too long ago, our modern versions of wearable tech only existed in the world of science fiction. But in one form or another, they have been with us for a long time. The invention of the shoe was likely one of the first, followed by primitive versions of eyeglasses in the thirteenth century, abacus rings developed under the Chinese Qing Dynasty, and the first wearable heart rate monitor in 1982—just to name a few examples. A few of the things wearable tech can do for us include:
Track physical activity and vital signs, such as heart rate, steps taken, calories burned, temperature, and blood sugar levels
Give advanced insights into our sleeping patterns
Control and provide data about connected smart home devices
Detect falls, alert emergency services, help doctors monitor their patients from afar
Promote safe work environments, specifically in the construction, mining, and manufacturing industries through smart helmets and vests
Technology has always promised a more efficient tomorrow; wearable tech just takes this efficiency one step further.
Wearable technology allows us to efficiently track and measure a lot of health metrics. For example, smart watches alone can track your heart rate, steps taken, sleep patterns, noise levels, stress levels, skin temperature, falls, and even suggest recovery times based on your activity. The health data smart watches offer us is amazing. When we consider the many other types of wearable tech that exist in addition to smart watches, the capabilities are endless.
But it raises a question—how much data is too much data?
Advanced tracking data can be immensely helpful for athletes, those studying sports performance, or even those with certain health conditions or specific goals. But for the average person, it’s possible that tracking every health metric can clutter your ability to focus on the ones that matter.
9Round members use wearable tech in every single workout through their PULSE heart rate monitor. After all, if you can’t measure your health, you can’t manage it. We’ve developed wearable tech that empowers our members to track the data that’s most important without getting lost in metrics that don’t move them toward their health goals.
The key to the PULSE heart rate monitor is simplicity and real-time feedback.
PULSE technology lets you focus on one thing: your heart rate “zone.” Since 9Round workouts are only 30 minutes, it’s crucial to maintain the right level of intensity so that you put each and every minute of your workout to work. Our blog post, “Why 9Round Uses Heart Rate Training to Improve Your Workout” unpacks the why behind our PULSE heart rate training.
While many health metrics observe or explain what is happening in your body, your heart rate is one of the few metrics that you have control over throughout a workout.
While your monitor will let you know how many calories you’ve burned, the focus is on your heart rate, so you know how to adjust in real time. You’ll know exactly when to push yourself harder and when to scale back to stay in the optimal heart rate zone for an effective workout. (Check out this quick guide to understand each zone.)
This approach doesn’t base success on how “in-shape” you are, whether you can keep up with your punch partner, or on an arbitrary number of reps to complete. Instead, it’s a tool that empowers you to listen to your own body so you can reach your fitness goals in a way that makes sense for your body.
The PULSE heart rate monitor is an integral part of the 9Round experience because we’ve seen the powerful effects of heart rate training for our members. At 9Round studios around the world, we routinely kick off new PULSE Challenges, which bring together heart rate training and friendly competition by pushing members to stay in their optimal PULSE zone for the most amount of time.
It's about time to hit your local 9Round studio for a workout—just don’t forget your heart rate monitor.