In this post with videos, we present our picks for 7 of the best fitness trackers. All of these fitness trackers offer excellent ways to track your workouts and a range of other health stats, plus offer other fitness and health features as well. Tracking your workouts is one of the best ways to improve your health, because tracking motivates you to exercise more. It also enables you to monitor your progress, which can be extremely motivating.
No. 1 Best Fitness Tracker – Fitbit Versa 2 Health & Fitness Smartwatch
The Fitbit Versa 2 is a health and fitness smartwatch that allows you to monitor your heart rate, listen to music, and track your sleeping. Of course it allows you to track multiple sports, including swimming workouts. It provides all of your stats on your wrist, accessible with a touch – or by your voice, thanks to Amazon Alexa being built-in!
You don’t have to activate Alexa, but it does make this great all-round fitness tracker even more handy and accessible. You can use your voice to create alarms, set bedtime reminders, or check the weather with Alexa. This feature elevates this device to the top of our list of best fitness trackers!
How-To Video – Using a Fitbit Versa to Track Your Runs
This video shows how to use a Fitbit Versa 2 to track a run:
Battery Life of the Fitbit Versa 2
With a battery life of six days, the Fitbit Versa 2 sets you up for trouble-free, uninterrupted tracking of your workouts. The Fitbit Versa 2 comes with connected GPS, which piggybacks off of the GPS on your phone to provide detailed tracking metrics for your activities.
Of course, you can also use the Fitbit Versa 2 to track a whole lot of other health indicators. For example, Sleep Score is built into the Fitbit Versa 2. Sleep Score analyzes your heart rate, time asleep and restlessness, and tracks your time in light, deep and REM sleep stages, to assess your sleep quality and give you useful personal insights.
No. 2 in our List of Best Fitness Trackers: The Fitbit Charge 3 Heart Rate Plus Fitness Wristband
The Fitbit Charge 3 rates no. 1 in THREE categories on Amazon – Running; Cycling Accessories; and Heart Rate Monitors. No wonder it’s widely considered to be one of the best fitness trackers. It’s a slim little powerhouse, using PurePulse to automatically and continuously track your heart rate and figure out your calorie burn. Track your sleep; then be gently awoken by a silent vibrating alarm. You can pair the Fitbit Charge 3 with your phone to get smart notifications. And you can use it to plan how to improve your health.
The connected GPS enables you to track your outdoor actitivities. And finally, the Fitbit Charge 3 will remind you to stop and breathe when your heart rate is less than calm. As someone who is consciously working on being calmer and more conscious, I find this feature very useful.
The Fitbit Charge 3 is also waterproof to 50 m; so if you are a swimmer, you can use this tracker to track your swim workouts. For those seeking all-round heath improvement in an attractive and affordable package, you can’t go far wrong with the Fitbit Charge 3.
No. 3 in our List of Best Fitness Trackers – the Garmin Edge 530
The Garmin Edge 530 is a bike computer that makes an excellent fitness tracker for cyclists, thanks to its ability to monitor your heart rate and your rides, and give you advanced data on your performance. It is GPS and Glonass-enabled for extremely fast satellite acquisition, and offers wireless transfers of your data to Garmin Connect (or Strava, which you can read about here).
Video Showing Upgrades to the Garmin Edge 530
Garmin Edge 530 Upgrades
This bike computer is a massive upgrade on the 520 Plus. For a start, it’s twice as fast. This means you are not sitting on your bike, waiting for the GPS to kick in before you can start your ride. Also, it features brand new features never before seen in Garmin Edge bike computers. These include ClimbPro; Mountain Biking Metrics, including Grit rating, Flow rating, Hang time, and fully integrated Trailforks app; Brand New Performance Metrics, including Performance power curve; Heat acclimation; Altitude acclimation; Water and calorie requirements.
Button Control, not Touch Screen
The Garmin Edge 530 uses button control, not touch screen control. I prefer button control. Sometimes I find screen swiping doesn’t work perfectly, especially in the rain. Button control gives you complete control, all the time, even with gloves on. The Garmin Edge 530 also has a beautiful color screen, and a great hand-feel – it feels very smooth, light, and high quality. Plus, it will help you navigate, so you don’t get lost on your long-distance training rides!
Related Content You Might Find Useful: Smart Phone vs. Bike Computer – Which is Better for Recording Bike Rides?
No. 4 Best Fitness Tracker: Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smartwatch
This is one of my personal favorites in fitness trackers. I like the chunky look of it, plus all the features and ease of use – such as the fact you can see the display clearly in bright sunlight.
The Garmin Vivoactive 3 HR GPS Smartwatch ranks no. 1 in Amazon’s Running GPS units and in Handheld GPS units, and ranks no. 2 in Pedometers. Not too shabby!
The popularity of the Garmin Vivoactive HR GPS Smartwatch stems from the fact that it offers tracking for such a wide variety of sports. You can use its color touchscreen to track your cycling, swimming, running, yoga, and golfing. Of course you can also pair it with your phone to get smart notifications. As it has a built-in GPS and heart rate monitor, you don’t have to carry any other equipment on your rides to record all of your ride stats. Best of all, it has great battery life – if you’re not using GPS, the battery will last for 3 weeks!
It also has all kinds of features, including contactless pay. Plus it is preloaded with 15 GPS and indoor sports apps. And you can monitor your fitness level with VO2 max, and monitor how you are handling stress.
Unboxing the Garmin Vivoactive 3
Below is our video of unboxing the Garmin Vivoactive 3, plus how easy it is to set it up and connect it with your smart phone and any other fitness apps you are using. Note that before you can connect this fitness tracker to your phone, you do have to download the free Garmin Connect app to your phone.
The latest version of the Garmin Connect app is very slick – great looking, and easy to customize. We have been using Garmin Connect to record our bike rides for years, and are very happy with how great it has become. Plus it connects to all our other apps, such as My Fitness Pal and Apple Health.
Smaller Version for Smaller Wrists
Bear in mind that the Garmin Vivoactive 3 is quite a big watch – it is slightly longer and thicker than an Apple watch. If you have tiny, petite wrists, you may be better off with a smaller fitness tracker, such as the Fitbit Alta. Alternatively, there is a smaller version, the Garmin Vivoactive 4S. This one is more popular with women, as it is more suitable for smaller wrists.
How the Garmin Vivoactive 3 Works
The video below shows how the Garmin Vivoactive 3 works. It’s really quick and easy to use this watch to record your bike rides.
No. 5 in our List of Best Fitness Trackers: Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker
The Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker ranks as the no. 1 best seller in fitness trackers AND activity trackers. And it’s also no. 3 in Fitness Technology.
There are good reasons for the massive popularity of the Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker. Fitness trackers are supposed to motivate, and that is exactly what the Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker does. Unlike many of these devices (including the Apple Watch), this device is smart enough to automatically know when you are exercising.
One thing I found really frustrating about my Apple Watch is that when I forget to tell it I was exercising, it often did not seem to know. (Cue lots of cursing …) Not so with the Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker! When my Apple Watch died young and Apple refused to fix it for free, I moved on to Garmin and Fitbit. I have never looked back.
How to Automatically Record Exercise with SmartTrack on the Fitbit Alta
This video shows how this very useful feature automatically records exercise.
Video Showing How to Use the Fitbit Alta to Track Bike Rides and Runs
Here’s another useful video.
The Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker Helps with Sleep
As with all Fitbits, you can track your sleep, and be gently awoken with a silent, vibrating alarm. Sleep is a badly underrated but very important aspect of health. If you’re planning to improve your health, the foundation has to be getting enough sleep. The Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker can help with that!
It’s also easy to keep your Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker looking good, as there are a range of different bands available for it. And you can keep it on in the shower!
6th Best Fitness Tracker – the Garmin Edge 830
The Garmin Edge 830 is an excellent fitness tracker for cyclists, thanks to its ability to monitor your heart rate and your rides, and give you advanced data on your performance. Plus, it is a massive upgrade on the 810 and 820. For a start, it’s twice as fast. So, you are not sitting on your bike, waiting for the GPS to kick in before you can start your ride. Plus it has brand new features. These include ClimbPro; Mountain Biking Metrics, including Grit rating, Flow rating, Hang time, and fully integrated Trailforks app; Brand New Performance Metrics, including Performance power curve; Heat acclimation; Altitude acclimation; Water and calorie requirements.
The Garmin Edge 830 is excellent for both training and navigation. Really, the only way in which it is inferior to the more expensive Edge 1030, is that it has a substantially smaller screen. This could be a problem if you are over 40, or have eyesight that is less than 20/20.
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7th Best Fitness Tracker: Fitbit Blaze
Another top favorite! I reviewed a Fitbit Blaze for weeks, and was really sad when I had to send it back. It’s the no. 1 best seller in Men’s Smartwatches. We have a full review of the Fitbit Blaze here. It’s comfortable, it looks great, and it does everything you could want a fitness tracker to do.
It offers simplified heart rate zones to easily check exercise intensity during workouts with PurePulse, and continuous, wrist-based heart rate monitoring (no uncomfortable chest strap required). It can track multiple sports, including running, cardio, cycling, and more. It piggy backs on your phone to use GPS to map your routes, and provide stats such as pace and duration.
The Blaze also has a neat feature: you can pop the watch easily in and out of its strap, which means that you can buy different straps for it and achieve different looks – much like an Apple watch.
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All of these fitness trackers offer excellent value for money, and offer excellent ways to track your workouts and other crucial fitness stats.
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