Throw Away Your Apple Watch
Seriously, what if you did? I want you to imagine taking off that trusty piece of technology and leaving it at home. Or, even better, putting it back in its box. Watch, phone, pedometer—whatever it is that keeps track of your movement during the day is out of reach. If that thought makes you shudder, stay with me. I have some good news for you.
Before going further, I do want to clarify something: you are allowed to have fitness goals. My intention in this post is not to condemn physical fitness goals. What I do want to do is challenge an exercise mindset that has become so common that many of us don’t even notice when we engage in it.
High tech fitness trackers have become so common that they are a daily part of our fitness vocabulary. We are used to always having a record of our workouts and daily movement at our fingertips, always available for reference. It seems we have found a sort of common ground in having “proof” of our day’s accomplishments, for better or worse. We’ve found common ground in the numbers’ inescapability.
In case no one has told you today, it counts. The workout you did without setting it first on your watch, the walk you took with a friend that didn’t burn a ton of calories. You do not need numerical proof for your movement to “count”. Next time you are tempted to joke, “I didn’t set my workout, so it didn’t really happen!”, I want you to take a deep breath and think about what you are really saying to yourself and others. I’ve heard this said by people pouring sweat, clearly putting in hard work. What you are further ingraining in your brain is that the important thing isn’t showing up, or the fact that you’ve gotten stronger, or improved your form. It doesn’t matter, that is, unless that tiny screen says it did. Further, it reduces “good” exercise to only that which brings your heart above a certain BPM or high number of steps—because that’s what these devices are ultimately designed to pick up on.
That good news I mentioned before is guess what—it counts. All of it. Your workout doesn’t have to be aggressive to be good. The barre classes you take that make your muscles burn but don’t bring your heart up to a marathon rate are building you a stronger body. The quick ten minutes you set aside to work on your plank form will help protect you from injury. I don’t gain less endurance from my boxing sessions because I can’t safely fit my watch under my gloves.
At the end of the day, you can’t fool your body out of the work. Whether you lift, dance, chase your kids in the yard or practice yoga, your body will respond accordingly. Logically, we know this. But the sad thing is, only valuing workouts that register on a fitness tracker can lead to overexercising, guilt and shame over missed workouts, and a reduction of your complex self to only what is seen or recorded. We can all easily get caught in this trap. To be honest, I must consciously correct my mindset on an almost daily basis. Next time you finish a workout and realize you didn’t press “set workout”, I want you to take a moment to connect with your body. Close your eyes and feel the work you just did, instead of looking for that numerical pat on the back. Feel the fatigue in your muscles. Feel the rush of endorphins. Feel your body’s resilience and strength. There is your proof. And next time you get that oh-so-helpful “You can still do it!” prompt to close your movement ring for the day, remind yourself that just by existing, you have done something to be proud of. Or, chuck it out the window. Most days, the latter sounds best to me.