Fitness

Fitness trackers and watches: The key to intentional wellness

Published

2 years ago

July 10, 2024

Fitness trackers and watches: The key to intentional wellness

By Police1 Staff

A consistent, intentional wellness strategy is crucial for first responders due to the physical and mental demands of the job.

Maintaining health and wellness helps you perform at your best, manage stress and reduce the risk of injury on or off the job.

Fitness trackers and watches can play a significant role in supporting wellness goals by providing real-time health data, tracking physical activity and promoting healthy habits.

Features to look for in fitness trackers and watches

Heart rate monitoring. Continuous heart rate tracking helps monitor cardiovascular health and workout intensity
Sleep tracking. With the prevalence of sleep disorders in first responders, the ability to analyze your sleep patterns and quality to ensure restful recovery periods is essential to any wellness plan
GPS. Helpful for planning running, biking or hiking routes and making sure you can find your way back even in unfamiliar areas, GPS tracking can also help measure your distances
Water resistance. Consider how you’ll be using your device and if water resistance (for all-weather activities) or waterproof durability (for swimming) is a must for usability in various conditions
Battery life. With your demanding schedule, a long battery life will ensure your device can keep up with you all-shift long
Compatibility. Ensuring your fitness device can sync easily with smartphones and other health apps will help with comprehensive data tracking

Top choices for fitness trackers and watches

Fitbit Charge 5

The Fitbit Charge 5 enhances workout routines with a daily readiness score, stress management through an EDA sensor and heart health tracking with ECG capabilities. It monitors vital health metrics like SpO2 and skin temperature, and has a built-in GPS for real-time pace and distance tracking. It offers up to 7 days of battery life, 24/7 heart rate monitoring and sleep quality insights.

Apple Watch Series 9

The Apple Watch Series 9 extends advanced health, safety and activity features, offering temperature sensing, ECGs on demand, irregular rhythm notifications, detailed sleep stage tracking with REM, core or deep sleep stages, and insights into both physical and emotional well being. It also delivers workout metrics and has safety features like fall detection and crash detection, connecting to emergency services when necessary.

WHOOP 4.0 with 12 Month Subscription

Professional golfer Nick Watney, the first player on the PGA Tour to be diagnosed with COVID-19, credits his WHOOP device with flagging his high respiratory rate – leading to him getting tested and despite his lack of symptoms very early in the pandemic.

WHOOP 4.0 is a comprehensive fitness and health monitoring device designed for first-time members. This package includes a 12-month WHOOP membership, 4.0 hardware, Onyx SuperKnit band and a wearable, waterproof battery pack. The WHOOP device continuously monitors various physiological data such as heart rate, respiratory rate, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, blood oxygen levels, daily activity and sleep.

The WHOOP system is personalized, offering insight-driven recommendations to improve overall health and optimize performance. Users can log daily behaviors in the WHOOP Journal, which helps identify habits that impact sleep and recovery. WHOOP is also FSA/HSA eligible.

Fitbit Inspire 3

The Fitbit Inspire 3 offers a suite of health and wellness features, including a daily readiness score to gauge your physical readiness, active zone minutes to monitor exercise intensity and 24/7 heart rate tracking. With over 20 exercise modes and automatic exercise recognition, it motivates you to stay active.

For stress management, it provides a daily stress management score, mindfulness and relaxation breathing sessions, along with notifications for irregular heart rhythms and SpO2 levels. It also offers automatic sleep tracking, a personalized sleep profile and a daily sleep score. It boasts up to a 10-day battery life.

Garmin Vivoactive 4

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is designed for fitness enthusiasts who seek a comprehensive approach to monitoring their health and fitness. It offers a wide range of features including body energy monitoring, animated workouts directly on your wrist and Pulse Ox sensors. Its sensors are capable of tracking over 20 biometrics, ensuring personalized health data. The battery life? Up to 8 days in smartwatch mode and up to 6 hours in GPS and music mode.

Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen)

Need an Apple Watch on a budget? Look no further. The Apple Watch SE includes essential health and safety features like fall detection, crash detection, emergency SOS, and notifications for irregular heart rhythms and abnormal heart rates, but does not offer the more advanced features found in the Series 9, such as ECG and temperature sensing.

Fitbit Versa 3

The Fitbit Versa features sleep stage tracking, a daily readiness score for workout or recovery days, built-in GPS for phone-free activity tracking and active zone minutes for exercise effort recognition. It includes enhanced heart rate monitoring with PurePulse 2.0 and boasts over 6 days of battery life.

Oura Ring Gen3 Horizon – Smart Ring

If you’re looking for a different option, the Oura Ring is a discreet-yet-powerful tool for anyone looking to enhance their understanding of personal health and well being.

The smart ring offers a comprehensive look at your sleep, activity, stress and heart rate. It monitors over 20 biometrics and is compatible with both iOS and Android – allowing for integration with popular health apps. The ring has a battery life that can last up to 7 days on a single charge, providing a week of continuous health monitoring without the need for frequent recharging.

How fitness trackers and watches can improve wellness

Fitness trackers and watches offer several benefits:

Monitoring vital signs. Track heart rate, sleep patterns and stress levels to stay aware of overall health
Activity tracking. Keep tabs on steps, calories burned and exercise routines to ensure adequate physical activity
Health alerts. Receive notifications for irregular heart rates or reminders to move, helping prevent prolonged inactivity
Goal setting. Set and achieve fitness goals with personalized insights and progress tracking

Police1 is using generative AI to create some content that is edited and fact-checked by our editors.

Fitness

Put the fun back in your fitness routine with this 10-minute follow-along workout from The Curvy Girl Trainer Lacee Green

Published

4 hours ago

April 22, 2026

Press Room

Put the fun back in your fitness routine with this 10-minute follow-along workout from The Curvy Girl Trainer Lacee Green

Ever feel like beginner-friendly workouts are anything but?

That’s how BODi Super Trainer Lacee Green felt, so she devised a three-week, entry-level program designed for genuine newcomers to exercise—or those just getting back into it.

“My beginner-only plan is for every body and everybody,” Green tells Fit&Well.

Green’s program combines low-impact cardio, strength, core and mobility workouts for a total of five sessions a week and 30 minutes a day.

One of the routines she loves—that she says will provide a flavor of the plan—is a total-body cardio workout inspired by seven different sports.

“There is no repetition, it’s all bodyweight and super fun,” she says. “We do basketball, we do pickleball, we do soccer, and it’s really going to get your heart rate up.”

It will all count toward the CDC’s recommended 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity per week, while incorporating resistance training elements to strengthen your bones and muscles, she explains.

And Green has provided the full 10-minute routine below for you to try.

10-minute cardio workout for beginners

Press play on the video above and Green will guide you through the workout, or keep reading to see what’s in store.

Green’s 10-minute beginner-only cardio workout is inspired by seven different sports that she says will help channel your inner athlete.

Each sport links to an exercise during the routine. Follow the short warm-up, then perform each move for 40 seconds and rest for 20 seconds, for one round per sport.

In the video, another trainer demonstrates variations of each exercise so you can make it slightly more challenging as desired. The workout concludes with a short cool-down.

Here’s a brief breakdown of each exercise.

1. Basketball catch and shoot

Step to your side, then reach up into full extension as if shooting a three-pointer. Repeat by shuffling from side to side.

2. Quick football feet

Lower into a quarter squat with your feet wide apart and alternate quick stepping onto either foot. On Green’s cues, switch the direction you face from center to left and right.

3. Skater side-step

Step side to side as if skating, hitting an imaginary hockey stick across your body.

4. Soccer kick-up

Keeping light on your feet, hop from side to side as if juggling a football with your feet.

5. Pickleball shuffle

Lower into a half squat with your hands together in front of you. Keeping low, step or jump forward, then shuffle back to the start position.

6. Boxing jab cross

Stand side on with slightly bent knees and your guard up. Alternate throwing jabs with your left and right, switching your stance after 20 seconds.

7. Baseball squat to high plank

With your feet wide apart, lower into a deep squat with your hands up like a catcher. Place your hands on the floor and step back into a high plank, then back to the low squat.

About our expert

Lacee Green

Lacee Green is a BODi Super Trainer, certified personal trainer (CPT) and coach with more than 10 years of experience. She hosts a number of BODi on-demand fitness programs that are designed to challenge and motivate you while also providing a supportive and inclusive environment.

Fitness

Higher fitness levels linked to lower risk of depression, dementia – Harvard Health

Published

16 hours ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

Higher fitness levels linked to lower risk of depression, dementia – Harvard Health

research review

People with high cardiorespiratory fitness were 36% less likely to experience depression and 39% less likely to develop dementia than those with low cardiorespiratory fitness. Even small improvements in fitness were linked to a lower risk. Experts believe that exercise’s ability to boost blood flow to the brain, reduce bodywide inflammation, and improve stress regulation may explain the connection.

Fitness

These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique

Published

1 day ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique

While many swear by them, most people see burpees as a form of punishment – usually dished out drill sergeant-style by overzealous bootcamp PTs. Often the final blow in an already brutal workout, burpees are designed to test cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance and mental grit. Love them or loathe them, they deliver every time.

For Max Edwards – aka Busy Dad Training on YouTube – they became a simple but highly effective way to stay fit and lean during lockdown. Once a committed powerlifter, spending upwards of 80 minutes a day in the gym, he was forced to overhaul his approach due to fatherhood, lockdown and a schedule that no longer allowed for long, structured lifting sessions.

‘Even though I was putting in hours and hours into the gym and even though my physique was pretty good, I wasn’t becoming truly excellent at any physical discipline,’ he explained in a YouTube video.

‘I loved the intentionality of training,’ says Edwards. ‘The fact that every session has a point, every rep in every set is helping you get towards a training goal, and I loved that there was a clear way of gauging progression – feeling like I was developing competence and moving towards mastery.’

Why He Walked Away From Powerlifting

Despite that structure, Edwards began to question whether powerlifting was sustainable long-term.

‘My sessions were very taxing on my central nervous system. I was exhausted between sessions. It felt as if I needed at least nine hours of sleep each night just to function.’

He also noted that his appetite was consistently high.

But the biggest drawback was time.

‘I could not justify taking 80 minutes a day away from my family for what felt like a self-centred pursuit,’ he says.

A Simpler Approach That Stuck

‘Over the course of that year I fixed my relationship with alcohol and I developed, for the first time in my adult life, a relationship with physical training,’ says Edwards.

With limited time and no access to equipment, he turned to burpees. Just two variations, four times a week, with each session lasting 20 minutes.

‘My approach in each workout was very simple. On a six-count training day I would do as many six-counts as I possibly could within 20 minutes. On a Navy Seal training day I would do as many Navy Seal burpees as I could within 20 minutes – then in the next workout I would simply try to beat the number I had managed previously.’

This style of training is known as AMRAP – as many reps (or rounds) as possible.

The Results

Edwards initially saw the routine as nothing more than a six-month stopgap to stay in shape. But that quickly changed.

‘I remember catching sight of myself in the mirror one morning and I was utterly baffled by the man I saw looking back at me.’

He found himself in the best shape of his life. His energy levels improved, his resting heart rate dropped and his physique changed in ways that powerlifting hadn’t quite delivered.

‘It has been five years since I have set foot in a gym,’ he says. ‘That six-month training practice has become the defining training practice of my life – and for five years I have trained for no more than 80 minutes per week.’

The Burpee Workouts

1/ 6-Count Burpees

20-minute AMRAP, twice a week

How to do them:

Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
Crouch down and place your hands on the floor (count 1)
Jump your feet back into a high plank (count 2)
Lower into the bottom of a push-up (count 3)
Push back up to plank (count 4)
Jump your feet forward to your hands (count 5)
Stand up straight (count 6)

20-minute AMRAP, twice a week

How to do them:

Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
Crouch down and place your hands on the floor
Jump your feet back into a high plank
Perform a push-up (chest to floor)
At the top, bring your right knee to your right elbow, then return
Perform another push-up
Bring your left knee to your left elbow, then return
Perform a third push-up
Jump your feet forward
Stand or jump to finish

Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.