Fitness down the gym, fitness in the streets, fitness in the park, almost everywhere you look: fitness – people just can’t get enough of it!
In fact, since the uncool old days of COVID, the desire to get into a shape other than spherical for men and women of all ages has increased dramatically due to what’s been labelled the ‘pandemic bounce back’ (not a 70s disco dance track). The UK fitness industry’s market value reached a record £5.9B between Q2 2023 and Q1 2024, and gym memberships rose 4.1 per cent to a record estimated 10.7M, according to a Leisure DB report.
That’s an awful lot of people pounding pavements, pumping iron, punching people and/or performing Pilates, but what they all have in common regardless of their own personal path to physical enlightenment is that they need to keep track of their routines, regimes and gym or gym-not journey with the unequivocally essential aid of a fitness tracker.
Essential? Well, according to the figures I have here from global innovation consultancy PA Consulting:
- 1 in 3 consumers (33 per cent) pay for fitness tracking apps at least once a month (e.g. MyFitnessPal, Apple Health, Flo, Google Fit).
- Two-thirds of consumers (65 per cent) are interested in wearable tech and fitness trackers (e.g. Apple Watch, Fitbit, WHOOP).
- Three-quarters of Brits (74 per cent) would consider paying over £100 for fitness tech (e.g. a fitness tracker, smartwatch).
- Most users (70 per cent) agree that tracking aspects of their physical fitness and health helps them feel motivated.
So, pretty essential. But of course, the exact kind of fitness tracker you need depends on a combination of what your discipline(s) is/are, how serious you are and, naturally, how much you want to spend. I mean, do you actually need an all-singing all-dancing smart sports watch, or will a smart band or simply a heart rate monitor suffice instead?
If you’re not sure, read on. Or, if you are sure, read on anyway, because there’s bound to be more fascinating fitness facts to follow and it’s also excellent exercise for your eyes…
Best fitness trackers at a glance:
- Best for training like an Olympian: COROS PACE 3 - £219, Amazon
- Best for keeping it simple when keeping fit: Wahoo Fitness TRACKR HEART RATE - £89.99, Amazon
- Best for core training: Apple Watch SE (40mm) - £208, AO
- Best for ultimate training and tracking: Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra - £599, Amazon
- Best for when the heat is on: CORE Sensor - £230, CORE
- Best for Apple-looks all OS: Huawei Watch Fit 3 - £150, Huawei
- Best for one ring to bind them: ExerChain ExerRing - £95, Kickstarter
- Best for Bluetoothed fitness facts on a budget: TOZO S5 - £69.99, Amazon
- Best for when the going gets tough: COROS VERTIX S2 - £581.49, Amazon
- Best for budget body metrics, deft design: Honor Band 9 - £50, Honor
- Best for bicep-tual body metrics: COROS Heart Rate Monitor - £69, Amazon
COROS PACE 3
Best for: Training like an Olympian
What more glowing endorsement of a sports watch could there be than being backed by actual Olympians? The PACE 3 from COROS is the training and running watch of choice for Team GB’s Alex Yee, Phil Sesemann and Norway’s Jacob Ingebrigsten, so from that association with a trio of training elite alone you can suspect the PACE 3 is going to be something a bit special.
How special? Well, for just shy of £220, you get an extremely lightweight (30g with silicone strap, 39g with nylon), low-profile and distinctly stylish little number that comes packing next-generation optical heart rate and SpO2 sensors, dual-frequency GPS for unerring accuracy, a barometric altimeter, accelerometer, gyroscope, 3D compass, thermometer and breadcrumb navigation, so not only will you know where you are and how high you are, you’ll also know where you’ve been and where you’re going, all while keeping an eye on your vitals.
Connecting to your phone over Bluetooth, you can sync that all-important data with the COROS app and, of course, all the other fitness app faves, such as Strava, Nike Run Club, Apple Health, and Health Connect, plus check incoming texts and phone calls, use Find my Phone to find your phone when it goes astray, and even control your GoPro and Insta360 cameras directly from your wrist which, as features go, is very cool indeed.
Supremely comfortable, the PACE 3 is a smart sports watch that you really can wear all day, and the 1.2-inch touchscreen LCD display (240 x 240-pixel resolution) is large enough to operate even if your fingertips err on the chunkier side, and bright enough and clear enough to check with a casual glance as you hurtle up your nearest mountain.
Water-resistant to 5ATM, making it good to go for surface water sports (stop sniggering), you get around 38 hours from a full charge with continuous GPS use (17 days without), or 10 hours if you’re indulging in GPS and enjoying music while you move via the built-in audio support.
While the PACE 3 may well be the choice of god-like Olympians, it’s also a cracking choice for everyday humans at all levels of fitness too, with features galore to keep you firmly on track and a price tag that, for a sports watch of this calibre, is decidedly affordable.
Buy now £219.00, Amazon
Wahoo Fitness TRACKR HEART RATE
Best for: Keeping it simple when keeping fit
No bells, no whistles, no GPS, no compass, just good old fashioned, accurate as heck, real-time heart rate info pumped directly to your smartphone via Bluetooth and/or synced up to a wide range of gym equipment over ANT+ to keep everything connected for seamless, streamlined get-fittery.
Comprising the TRACKR Heart Rate Pod and accompanying Strap, the Wahoo fits chests up to 50 inches, while the pod is IPX7 rated for water resistance, so good down to 1-metre in depth for up to 30 minutes. Surprisingly comfortable, you could almost forget you were wearing it, were it not for the fact that you’re in the gym or treading nature underfoot in a very deliberate bid to firm up your fitness and using the accompanying Wahoo App to track your beats per minute (BPM) in-activity as well, Average Heart Rate, Max Heart Rate, and Total Calories.
Compatible with iOS for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and Windows devices, the Wahoo’s rechargeable Lithium Ion offers over 100 active hours between charges, a handy LED indicator above the logo keeping you – ahem – abreast of battery and pairing status.
Capable of syncing with all the big training apps and accessories, including Apple Watch, Strava, Peloton, adidas Running, Nike Run Club and the whole Wahoo ecosystem of apps and training products, Wahoo Fitness TRACKR HEART RATE is a very neat bit of kit that takes the confusion out of fiddling with more complex watches and the sting out of the prices associated with them.
If you seek a simple but accurate and effective way to enhance training efficiency and hit optimal performance, then seek no further.
Buy now £89.99, Amazon
Apple Watch SE (40mm)
Best for: Core training
Apple Watches are generally considered to be rather expensive and perhaps more the choice of the well-paid poser down the fancy schmancy private gym as opposed to someone serious about pumping out all the sweat required to achieve true fitness goals. But some of those considerations are horribly wrong, because this is the Apple Watch SE, currently available for a few quid over £200 at AO.com, and it comes flexing some very serious fitness smarts.
Okay, so first up, it’s an Apple, so the build quality is superb, the aluminium casing smacking of a premium product - the digital crown turning smoothly and reassuringly and the 326 pixels per inch Retina LTPO OLED display looking sharp and feeling splendidly responsive. And, of course, it does all the things that smartwatches do in day-to-day life, such as handling phone calls, texts, calendar, music and, well, you know.
Then we get to the raison d'etre: its training chops. Featuring specialist workouts for running, hiking, cycling, swimming, walking, rowing, yoga, kickboxing and many more, the SE is armed with a second-generation optical heart sensor, compass, always-on altimeter, high-g accelerometer, and a high dynamic range gyroscope, so yes, it may look the poser part down the pricey private health club, but it can also kick some serious arse out in the wilds too.
Connecting to your iPhone over almighty Bluetooth 5.3 and water resistant to 50m, the SE is just as at home in the pool or in open water as it is on the trail/track, so if multisports is your thing, the SE is along for the adventure.
Add to all this an 18-hour battery life, plus the likes of automatic stroke detection, fall detector, crash detector, emergency SOS call and international emergency calling, and should you come a cropper while exercising your right to exercise anywhere here or abroad and you can be sure your Apple SE has your back in all scenarios.
Buy now £208.00, AO
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
The ultimate Samsung training and tracking smartwatch is now with us. Certainly striking, it cuts a swathe through the crowds of its contemporaries, whether you opt for the orange strap or not. Technologically, it’s at the top of its game, Samsung imbuing it with a serious CPU, AI enhancement, smooth-running apps aplenty, a lengthy battery life, and a build that makes it damn-near indestructible.
And it’s that last bit that gives the Ultra the edge over the Watch7 – while the tech used in both is almost identical, the Ultra offers ultra endurance for those athletes out there who want to take things off-piste and push themselves to the absolute limits, without worrying whether their watch can take the punishment.
The Ultra is twice the price of the Watch7, and that might be what sways the more casual gym bunny away from it and into the arms of the 7, but for the off-roaders, the adventurers, the adrenaline junkies dangling off cliffs at the very extremes of exercise, the Galaxy Watch Ultra will prove irresistible.
Buy now £599.00, Amazon
CORE Sensor
Best for: When the heat is on
Small, light and easily the hottest fitness tracker around (pun there courtesy of CORE PR Jasmine Denike), the CORE Sensor focuses solely on one essential aspect of your body while you exercise: your core body temperature.
Why is that important? Well, for those not in the know, your core body temperature is how hot things are getting near internal organs in the torso. When you exercise, that temp rises and if it rises too high, performance suffers and so do you. Yes, you can measure skin temperature, but that varies depending on conditions around you, whereas accurate monitoring of your core temp paints a very real picture of what’s going on.
The CORE Sensor does that in real-time using an onboard algorithm built from over one billion data points, then feeds the thermal metrics to the CORE app on your smartphone. On said app, you can view analysis of your Heat Strain, Core Temperature, Skin Temperature and Heart Rate, and view summaries of your Heat Adaptation Score, Heat Training Load, and Heat Zones, all of which help you track your Heat Strain Index (HSI) and take proactive cooling measures/adjusting pacing keep to it below thresholds that cause performance loss. So, that’s why it’s important.
Used by top athletes and coaches worldwide, such as Olympic Gold Medallist and 2021 Ironman World Champion Kristian Blummenfelt and Head Performance Coach at BORA-hansgrohe Dan Lorang, CORE has also recently incorporated its new Heat Adaptation Score that indicates how adapted you are to the heat, on a scale from 0 to 100 per cent, thus making it easier to incorporate heat training into your exercise regime wherever you are in the increasingly toasty world. Yes, we’re talking global warming.
ANT+ and Bluetooth compatible for easy pairing with phones, alongside compatible training apps and other wearables, the CORE Sensor should be an essential element of any serious athlete’s tech arsenal.
Buy now £230.00, CORE
Huawei Watch Fit 3
Best for: Apple-looks all OS
Does it look a lot like an Apple Watch? Yes, it does! Does it function a lot like an Apple Watch? Well, yes, it does, actually. Two things there that will potentially delight those who are fans of the fancy fruity one but who are not in possession of the level of readies Apple products tend to command. However, the Huawei Watch Fit 3 is far from just some Apple wannabe, rather it is very much its own ‘man’ with an impressive range of features and a character unique to itself.
Solidly and slickly built from aluminium alloy, the Fit 3 has a nicely sized 1.82-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 408 pixels, making for a vibrant and sharp display, while the rotating crown and function button helps you access all the functions – fitness or not – with a simple scroll and tap of the responsive touchscreen.
Light too at 26g sans strap (the strap not making very much difference to that), the Fit 3 is extremely comfortable, as reviewed with the Fluoroelastomer strap (nylon and leather options also available) and is imbued with an effective 9-axis IMU sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer sensors). This is alongside an optical heart rate sensor, so all your workout data is recorded as you run and available for reviewing via the Huawei Health app on your Android of Apple device. And speaking of which, there are over 100 workout modes available for all the usual suspects, such as running, swimming and cycling, many using the Fit 3’s built-in GPS to track your progress as you go.
Akin to the Apple Watch SE, alongside all the many and varied fitness features, it is a sports watch and a smartwatch, so all the expected apps to keep you in touch and entertained are there in spades too, so once you’ve worked out the best way to work out, you can work out the best way to relax too.
Running on Huawei’s in-house Harmony OS (4.2.0), its operation is slick and smooth, while the Huawei Health app is as comprehensive as ever, collating all your exercise records, and monitoring heart rate, SpO2, stress levels and sleep quality so that you stay in the rudest of health.
While the Watch Fit 2 was a more than capable fitness watch, with the Watch Fit 3, Huawei has taken the game up another level, creating a sports tracker watch that excels in all areas. And, yes, as much as it does ape the Apple when it comes to design, with compatibility with Android 8.0 (or later) AND iOS 13.0 (or later), it’s far more flexible.
Buy now £149.99, Huawei
ExerChain ExerRing
Best for: One ring to bind them
With Samsung currently rolling out its £399 Galaxy Ring, you may well wonder what a tracker ring costing from £95 on Kickstarter can offer by comparison.
What we have, in essence, is an AI-powered wellness coach wearable that, rather than a watch or strap, comes as a digital addition to one of your digits and uses biometrics in conjunction with the ExerChain app to provide accurate analysis of your vitals, then recommends exercise routines based on your personal preferences and what marries up with your level of fitness based on its own findings.
What’s more, keeping a keen eye on your general wellness, the ExerRing monitors your sleep quality, offering advice on how to improve it, alongside advice on wellness goals and meal plans to help hit that ideal weight.
Compatible with Apple Health, Google Health and Samsung Health, comfort comes down to making sure you pick your right ring size, wedding yourself to it and then just letting it do its ring thing 24/7, keeping an eye on the app to see what physical state you’re in and what it recommends to raise your getting fit game.
With a battery life of 4-6 days, the stainless steel ExerRing features touch control, and an SOS function should you get yourself into some bother. It also comes in a choice of stylish Black, Gold or Silver finishes.
How does all of this differ from Samsung’s new ringular offering? Well, the ExerRing seems to be ticking all the same boxes for a fraction of the price. However, watch this space.
Until then, the ExerChain ExerRing is an excellent alternative to sports watches, offering all of the fitness tracking functions and none of the strap-on fuss.
Buy now £95.00, Kickstarter
TOZO S5
Best for: Bluetoothed fitness facts on a budget
Yeah, TOZO. You know, the Seattle-based consumer tech company that specialises in headphones, speakers and smartwatches? Well, you know now. In fact, millions of people around the world tote TOZO products, largely due to their performance for the price, so maybe you might be about to join those millions when I fill you in on the S5.
Okay, let’s manage expectations, the TOZO S5 costs under £70, so don’t be overly surprised to discover the case is not made from fancy titanium alloy (but it is aluminium) and that dual connectivity is not a thing here, or that built-in GPS is utterly absent. None of that really matters, as your smartphone is the only connection you need and that will see to all the satellite stuff.
So, download the app, search for the S5, pair over the watch’s stable-as Bluetooth 5.3 and prepare to plunge headfirst into a world of sport, with over 100 modes covering everything from skipping to walking, running, cycling, basketball and all that stuff in between covering all fitness comers, while the precision heart rate and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitors keep a close eye on your metrics, reporting back to the app in real-time.
In practice the S5 works well, the responsive 1.43-inch AMOLED touchscreen display is bright and clear, the heart rate monitor trained on my ticker and alerted me whenever my rate went over 162bpm which, in my current physical state, can simply involve standing up too quickly.
The TOZO app also tells you everything you might want to know about daily steps taken, calories burnt, distance covered, alongside your heart rate variation range, your sleep patterns, and even weight management, which for me, currently states “Too heavy”, which is charming.
As I said, there are 105 exercise options, all of which can be tracked and recorded via your phone, and for those who require such exercise incentive, ‘Achievements’ can be unlocked as and when you excel.
Capable of making and taking calls over Bluetooth, plus displaying messages from the likes of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, the TOZO S5 has a sizeable battery to provide up to 10 days of continuous default use, so you’ll not have to worry too much about running out of juice when out running.
In summary then, in a veritable ocean of ‘cheap’ smartwatch options, the TOZO S5 floats to the top, being good-looking, fully featured and undeniably affordable.
Buy now £69.00, Amazon
COROS VERTIX S2
Best for: When the going gets tough
Playtime’s over, Marine, from this point on we're breaking out the big guns! Yep, for those relentless runners, uncompromising climbers and borderline psychotic cyclists out there, welcome to the VERTIX S2 from COROS, a GPS-enabled tour de force. How tough? Well, with a cover and bezel hewn from grade 5 titanium alloy with a PVD coating and display and a display encased in sapphire crystal glass, the VERTIX S2 can handle extremes of temperature from -30°C to 50°C, and depths down to 100m (10ATM), so other than deep diving, it’s up for anything you can throw at it, practically anywhere.
Light at 70g with a nylon strap and 87g with a silicone band, the 1.4-inch always-on touchscreen LCD features a resolution of 280 x 280 pixels, making it bright, sharp and easy to read at a glance, which is handy when you’re hanging precariously from a rocky outcrop by your fingertips or thundering down the side of a mountain, clinging for dear life to the handlebars of your Atherton AM.130.1. Or if fingers are too wet or muddied for the touchscreen, the four tactile buttons featured on the case gives access to all too.
Inside the box comes all you need; specifically: the VERTIX S2 itself mounted on a silicone band, the alternate nylon band, USB charging cable, and quick start guide cards. So, scan the QR with your iOS or Android smartphone, download the COROS App and pair up over Bluetooth to open up access to an absolute wealth of tracking sensors, including optical heart rate monitor, barometric altimeter, accelerometer, gyroscope, 3D compass, thermometer, optical pulse oximeter and electrocardiogram sensor. These combine with the whole array of GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou and QZSS GPS satellite systems to ensure unerringly pinpoint data to track your route and engage the watch’s Checkpoint, Back-To-Start and Deviation Alert features and, of course, explore your surroundings on the touchscreen-enabled map control.
With modes for pretty much every sport you can imagine, from bouldering, skiing and whitewater rafting to the more usual running, hiking and cycling, you’re not going to struggle to find the feature that goes hand in digital glove with your personal fitness needs, while compatibility with all the major third party fitty apps, like Nike Run Club, Komoot, TrainingPeaks, Strava, Relive, adidas Running, Apple Health, Stryd, Final Surge, Runalyze, Running Quotient, Decathlon, means you can explore your training data and body metrics any way you want.
Finally, not just a rough-and-tumble wrist-going fitness finder, the VERTIX S2 also possesses the ability to soothe you as you assail the unassailable thanks to a built-in 32GB of memory on which you can store music to drive you on or calm you down, so business and pleasure.
The COROS VERTIX S2 is, in short, one hell of a sports watch, from a firm that is the training choice of Olympians. Hard-wearing and action-packed, if your choice of sport strays seriously into the camp of ‘adventure’ and you’re serious about your sport, up your game and arm your arm with an S2.
Buy now £599.00, Amazon
Honor Band 9
Best for: Budget body metrics, deft design
Want your basic body metrics immediately available to your eyes when you work, rest and play, but don’t plan on parting with more than half a ton to have convenient health management right on your wrist? Then Honor has the answer in the Band 9.
As the name might suggest, this is a training band (perhaps the 9th of such), that comes complete with a rather natty 1.57-inch, 256 x 402-pixel resolution, colour touchscreen for ease of navigation around the Band 9’s 96 sports modes, whilst enjoying continuous detection of your heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, stress levels, plus sleep patterns and menstrual cycle, should you so wish, on the accompanying Honor App.
Extremely light at a mere 16.3g, the Band 9 is comfortable thanks to the TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) strap, while the durable polymer build of the body itself feels nicely solid - the rounded corners adding a touch of design panache.
Connecting to your phone over Bluetooth 5.3, the Honor Band 9 is water resistant to 5ATM (5 metres), pairs up with phones of both Android and iOS flavours, and comes in purple, black or blue finishes to look subtle or flash when donned down the gym.
A bargain tracking band that does the job of much more expensive options with exercise-tracking aplomb, Honor’s latest offers ‘find my phone’, phone camera shutter and music control, plus weather updates and notifications to keep you in complete control while you carve this abs. A wearable workout workhorse at a price lower than a low-down limbo bar, nail your fitness tracking with a 9.
Buy now £39.99, Honor
COROS Heart Rate Monitor
Best for: Bicep-tual body metrics
Find the idea of a strap around your chest a little restrictive when running up a heart rate? Then forget the torso and armband together with this COROS’s alternative, a sophisticated heart rate monitor that slips onto the upper arm, links with up to three Bluetooth devices simultaneously, and uses a multi-channel optical sensor for precise measurement of your jam tart, which it then delivers to health apps on any or all of the aforementioned trio of tech.
Made from polyester fibre, nylon and spandex, the fit is snug (it has to be) but comfortable, the band holding place no matter how vigorously you take things, while a full charge gives you up to 38 hours of hard sweating, or 80 days in Standby Mode.
A great alternative to a chest-based monitor, there’s no need for a separate smart sports watch, no matter how expensive or affordable, just pop a compatible app on your smartphone (of which there are countless) and accurate heart rate monitoring is yours to muscle in on.
Buy now £69.00, Amazon
