Is Your Wearable Making You Fit Or Fat?

By the looks of several billion humans prowling the planet today, overdoing fitness is not the problem.

You know the story. We all do.

It’s 1997 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Bulls are playing the Utah Jazz in Game 5 of the finals. A ghostly, abnormal version of Michael Jordan takes the floor. He looks off, confused, slow. Above all, he looks human.

No matter. Games do not abide by the feelings of men. Games continue because that’s what games do. It’s one of the many reasons we love them so much — they teach us how to live. And one of the most important lessons you can learn is no one cares how you feel. People only care about how you play the game.

About the time fans head to the concession stand in despair, Jordan rallies. Scores 17 points in the second quarter. Come to find out, the dehydrated and physically crushed legend is sick. Really sick. The kind of ill that would slay an average human for days. But not Michael. Not number 23.

By the end of the fourth quarter, Jordan has racked up a staggering 38 points. The Bulls win. Scottie Pippen carries Michael off the court.

“Probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” Jordan said afterward. “I almost played myself into passing out just to win a basketball game.”

It’s one of the many MJ moments that lives on, almost mythical. A relic, a campfire story we still call upon for inspiration to this day.

That was 24 years ago.

Technology has exploded since then. We have new and efficient methods for building beasts — a panoply of tools to create gods of the court and field. And we have data — lots of data, from the elite to the weekend warrior. Data collected from something you wear around your wrist, your finger, or your chest. Information backed up to some server for all eternity, meant to make us more fit. But is that what’s really happening? Is your wearable making you fit or fat?

There’s no shortage of wearables on the market today. Devices that measure heart rate, steps, sleep, and any number of fancy metrics. And while this is certainly an achievement and worthy of our attention, it can also be a curse.

Take Jordan’s performance described above. Would his wearable have told him to play in Game 5 against the Jazz? Probably not. It probably would have said to “put your feet up, Michael. Take a break. You’re too sick. You deserve the rest.”

And fair enough. Maybe there are times we do more harm than good. But by the looks of several billion humans prowling the planet today, overdoing fitness is not the problem. In fact, the bigger issue is what to do with data that tells we need to back it down?

Granted, Michael Jordan was a professional athlete — someone who gets paid to ignore the pain. But that doesn’t mean we can’t steal a bit of MJ’s mojo for ourselves. Mainly the ingredients that allow him to do the hard things even when he doesn’t want to.

Because that, my friend, is how we improve. Not by training hard when we feel our best, but by training hard when we feel our worst.

It’s called grit.

“Grit is that ‘extra something’ that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.” — Travis Bradberry

Does that mean your fancy wearable isn’t worth its hefty price tag? Not at all. It means collect the data and set yourself up for success, knowing that there are days you will hurt, stay up too late, and eat like hell. And on those days, especially those days, you’ll train anyway. Because there’s something infinitely more valuable in playing the game no matter how you feel.

No evidence says your wearable is making you fat. Maybe it’s doing the opposite. Maybe tracking your steps and your heart rate is just what you need to get healthy. But just to make sure, ask yourself, “what kind of person was I before the watch?”

The kind of person who took the rough days in stride and pushed anyway. The gritty spirit who knew that building a habit means working the habit ALL the time. Or the data-driven individual who chooses to sleep in because a watch said it was a good idea.

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”
― Michael Jordan