Fitness trackers are becoming increasingly popular – and rightly so! The smart wristbands will give you an extra incentive to get active in your everyday life and thus already help millions of people living a healthier lifestyle. Especially seniors can benefit enormously from using a fitness tracker as they promote their well-being.
Nevertheless, modern fitness trackers are becoming more and more complicated due to numerous additional features and are not particularly suitable for seniors that are not familiar with the use of technology. In this article I would like to introduce you to the best fitness trackers for seniors, which are not only very useful, but are also super easy to use.
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Why Do Seniors Need A Fitness Tracker?
Exercise is one of the most important, if not the most important key to health and well-being throughout life. Especially in senior age, it is very important to be physically active and to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Exercise is not only important for promoting endurance, strength and mobility, but also plays a crucial role when it comes to bone density or blood pressure. In addition, numerous studies have already shown that exercise also protects against chronic diseases that frequently occur with aging. You can find more information about the health benefits of exercise here.
In any case, the bottom line is that adding physical activity into your daily routine increases your chances of staying independent and mobile with aging and simply helps to get more out of life!
And that’s where fitness trackers come into play. After all, fitness trackers were invented to promote activity in our increasingly sedentary lifestyle and encourage us to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
In many cases, we don’t really notice how much we move during a day, tend to forget being physically active or don’t even realize how much movement would be necessary. Fitness trackers can be a very useful purchase, especially for seniors, as they bring a certain amount of movement into our daily life.
How many steps did you take today? How active have you been in general? And how much exercise is appropriate? A fitness tracker will provide you with an overview of all these data and guide you through the day.
How to Choose a Fitness Tracker for Seniors
Technological progress continues at a breathtaking pace, and fitness trackers are affected by this development as well. Just a few years ago, it all started with simple pedometers counting our steps, but now there are so many additional features that you can quickly lose track of what’s going on.
The question is: How many of these additional features do you really need?
Personally, although I’m an absolute technophile, I can usually do without many of the additional features and experience has shown that seniors also want to keep things simple.
For older adults, a simple fitness tracker that concentrates on the essentials is usually sufficient. Above all, a fitness tracker for seniors should keep track of your activity and health data. For this purpose, the devices primarily require an accelerometer and a heart rate monitor.
5 Things to Consider Before Buying a Fitness Tracker for Seniors
Easy-to-Use
Many modern fitness trackers provide such a variety of features that finding und using the most essential features can be difficult. If you would like to keep it simple, then you should of course choose a fitness tracker that is easy to use! We will come back to exactly these models in a moment! ?
Reasonable Price
I could go on and on for hours talking about the many bells and whistles of cutting edge fitness trackers and talk you into buying the most expensive model… But honestly, in my opinion it’s more useful for seniors to buy a lower-priced fitness tracker.
A good, senior-friendly fitness tracker usually costs no more than 50 Dollars and still provides exactly what the elderly need: A reliable and simple measurement of your activity and health data.
Good Readability
In addition to the overall technological progress, there is another trend: Electronic devices are getting smaller and smaller over the years. While fitness trackers looked rather clumsy a few years ago, they are now designed to be worn at our wrists without attraction attention.
That’s all well and good, but unfortunately readability often suffers as a result. A fitness tracker for seniors should however be readable at all times. Luckily, this often comes along with the trackers having less features.
No Need for a Smartphone
This one is a real thorn in the side of many seniors in particular: Hardly any of the cutting edge fitness trackers can be used without a smartphone. It is actually a Herculean task to find a tracker that can be used without a phone connection.
On the one hand, the smartphone makes using the device a bit more complicated and on the other hand, it’s also a matter of data protection, because you never really know what is going to happen with your health data.
Fortunately, there are still fitness trackers that work completely without a smartphone app. These are the trackers I will introduce you to in this article! ?
But before I do, I would like to clarify one more important point.
Blood Pressure Monitor
Some manufacturers offer special fitness trackers for seniors that come along with an additional blood pressure monitor. It may be true that this technology is constantly evolving, but in my experience, you should rather stay away from such devices!
Fitness trackers may be able to guess your blood pressure at the wrist, but it does not even come close to the accuracy of a real blood pressure monitor. Relying on these values is not only misleading but can also be dangerous and harmful to health.
So, now that this is clear, let’s finally take a look at the best fitness trackers for seniors.
The Best Fitness Trackers for Seniors
Yamay Fitness Tracker
Yamay has built a well-deserved and very good reputation as a manufacturer of fitness trackers over the last few years and is one of the few companies that allow using their trackers without a smartphone app.
This Yamay fitness tracker is the perfect device for seniors who do not have a smartphone or simply do not want to use it. In contrast to many other fitness trackers, the Yamay tracker does not come with a lot of bells and whistles. Instead, you’ll always have a good overview over the most important activity and health data: Steps, distances, calories and your heart rate.
This tracker is super easy to use, even for older people, and the display is easy to read. However, above all, the Yamay fitness tracker comes at a ridiculously low price. In fact, you can buy it for under 20 dollars.
This combination of the tracker being super easy-to-use, the possibility to use it without a smartphone and the low price make this Yamay device the best fitness tracker for seniors at the moment. But the best way to get an overview is to take your time and check it out yourself. Here you will be able to find out more about this tracker.
Amazfit BIP
If you’re looking for a fitness tracker with some more functions that is still very easy to use and senior-friendly, the Amazfit BIP might be perfect for you. Next to counting your steps, checking your heart rate and tracking your activity, it also comes with GPS, a function that is very rarely found in trackers of this price range.
Even though this tracker offers some additional features compared to the Yamay device, it is still easy to use and the display is large, customizable and easy to read. To be fair, it is a little more complicated to use than my first recommendation, but as long as you don’t want to change a lot, you won’t have to do a lot for yourself. The tracker will display the most important health and activity data.
Moreover, it comes with a fantastic battery life of up to 45 days and it can be used without a smartphone connection or any apps. All in all, the Amazfit BIP is a very good fitness tracker for seniors that wish for some additional functions, but still don’t want to spend a fortune.
You can take a look at the Amazfit BIP here.
Alternative: A Simple 3D Pedometer
Tracking your activity does not necessarily have to take place on your wrist. You might also buy a simple 3D pedometer, which you can simply put in your pockets.
Pedometers are usually small, compact devices that focus entirely on counting your steps. These simple pedometers are often very useful, especially for seniors, because they are really easy to use and very simple to handle in general.
Basically, they can be placed anywhere on your body, whether on the waistband, hips, arms or even in your pockets. No matter where you put them, you can rely on these pedometers!
The 3DFitBud Pedometer is highly recommendable. With the help of modern 3D sensor technology, the steps can be tracked very accurately and reliably, no matter where the tracker is located on the body.
Of course, you can use it without your smartphone and the large and easily readable display shows your steps. All this makes this pedometer a very popular model for seniors!
It is definitely worth taking a look at this device. Again, I would advise you to do so. Here you will find it.
Final Thoughts on the Best Fitness Trackers for Seniors
I think that it becomes more and more important to make people aware of the health risks of physical inactivity and the positive benefits of exercise. Especially for senior citizens, it is simply true that exercise is one of the keys to living a healthy and independent life. With a fitness tracker, it is easy to keep track of your own activity and health data.
A good fitness tracker for seniors is easy to use, not too expensive and can ideally be used without Bluetooth, without a smartphone and without an app. The devices recommended in this article are perfect examples.
Therefore, I hope that I could help you with this article. If you still have any questions or would like to share your own experiences with a fitness tracker, always feel free to contact me. Otherwise, have fun with your new fitness tracker! ?
