I have been searching for a good fitness tracker because I play football regularly and want to better monitor my daily activity, workouts, and recovery. I’m active on the field, I’m looking for a tracker that is accurate and comfortable to wear during sports. It should be easy to use, suitable for everyday wear, and ideally stylish as well.
I’ve seen a few models on the market, but I’m still deciding which one would be the best fit for my needs and have good reviews. I’d really appreciate any suggestions or personal experiences from people who have used fitness trackers while playing football or doing other sports.
Garmin vivoactive 5, Health and Fitness GPS Smartwatch
It is monochrome but its sturdy and gives great feedback for the price. It syncs fast with Garmin Fitness Connect and Myfitnesspal.
It has a moderately steep learning curve (no manual - all instructions online) but its elegance is in its reliability. There are some great YT videos on how to manipulate it. For less than $500 I love it.
Note, I don’t run much, mostly gym stuff and walking (about 17,000 steps a days.)
If you want to spend more and want some navigation features the Fenix is crazy good. You’re looking at around a grand to get all the bells and whistles.
I’m a Garmin fan so consider that in the consult. The flashlight is put to use daily. A remarkably useful feature. I think someone else on here uses the same. Maybe “Mariner” if I recall.
From the (limited, years-old) independent research I’ve read on this, Garmin tends to be the best at tracking things that I’d categorize as “sports performance” like distance traveled, while Fitbit is the best at tracking stuff that I’d describe as your “fitness level;” heart rate, calorie burn, etc. this was like 7 years ago, though, so I don’t know if there’s more accurate information for more recent models.
It’s probably worth noting that nobody does a particularly great job on calorie burn; even used optimally, there’s a large error rate there.