The valley is steeped in darkness and the chill off the night turns the moment before the sun breaches the horizon into the coldest moment of the day. My wife and I sit across the valley from Half-dome to see the golden rays of the sun peak over the mountain to fill the sky with an overwhelming glow of warmth. Despite the sunrise's alluring beauty, the tenderness in our feet and the ache of our legs from the days of hiking before distract us. My wife leans over slightly to whisper in my ear "how much did we actually hike yesterday?" I stumbled through the Garmin app to find that our 9-mile hike from the day before had really turned into a 16-mile hike with the added distances of getting lost and walking to our car. My wife was in amazement. Not that she had crushed a 16-mile hike but rather that I took her on a 16-mile hike the day before our wedding pictures were being taken. We will never forget that sunrise, those pictures, or hobbling along the trail between different locations. I will never forget to ensure that a 9-mile hike stays a 9-mile hike.
Tracking your activities along with your overall health can be incredibly humbling and, in my case, creates accountability. That humility and accountability allow for an honest assessment of where you are physically. Beyond going to a doctor and facing numerous expensive tests, tracking your activities and fitness is really the only way to determine your own health. In today's market of wearables, it's easier than ever to pop on a watch, wear a ring, or use a chest band to monitor your daily activities including your sleep. The software or apps connected to wearables learn to determine your health, track every movement you make, and can now recommend workout routines according to what you want to achieve when compared to where you are physically. This is phenomenal but even becomes vital when we are all fighting to maintain our health. Want to fight obesity, you have to know how many calories you are burning a day. Want to fight insomnia, then you have to know your sleep habits. Want to fight to your goal of running a 21 minute 3-mile, then you need to know your training history. These fights require self-knowledge and self-knowledge is power. The power to take control over your health through tracking it.
I use to track all my fitness, especially lifting, in a notebook. It was time-consuming and gave me no immediate feedback on the trends that I had displayed when it concerned my health or fitness. If I wanted that feedback, I had to figure it out for myself. I had to figure out that if I only slept 5 vs 7 hours my run time would be slower by a minute or that when I jumped rope as a warm-up before a shoulder exercise I would lift heavier. This method wasn't perfect but it made me pay attention to the path I was on in achieving my own personal fitness goals. It's not that logging your fitness in a notebook isn't worth it anymore but there are easier ways to achieve the same effect. Those easier methods come with visualization and monitoring tools that keep increasing their accuracy. I started to use a Garmin watch several years ago and have never been disappointed. It is able to track everything from my calorie output to periods of REM in my sleep. The newer iterations of their watches can even track exercises like bench and squat without identifying it as a selection on the watch. This means that I can select lifting from the watch menu and the watch identifies from my body's motion what it is doing along with how many repetitions I have performed. I found that Garmin's watches and their potential were worth beyond the cost of the watch.
No matter the age, your fitness and overall health are worth tracking. The insight provided to the beginner or advanced health-savvy individual can be performance-boosting, life-enhancing, and even life-saving if used properly. Tracking is for nothing if you don't do something with that information and is only the start to listening to your body. If you want to rise you have to track.
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