The New Year always begins with everyone making resolutions especially concerning their health and wellbeing. 2019 is no different especially since we are more health conscious than the past generations. However, even with the knowledge of the consequences of lack of exercise and unhealthy eating habits, finding the motivation to commit to a fitness journey is not easy.
Technological innovations have over the years made it easier and more affordable for the average person to access fitness and general wellness. In recent past, workouts, outdoor activities and healthy dieting have been transformed into fun and educative activities thanks to developments in digital fitness tech. There is everything today from fitness tracking devices that monitor your heart-rate to trainer apps and social media movements that direct and motivate you on your wellness journey.
The global health-tech market is set to continue growing exponentially in 2019. This year, the world’s biggest tech show, the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), brought out the best in new tech innovations and like in past years, health and fitness was a popular category. Smart fabrics and even smarter watches were some notable products that highlighted the event. The virtual reality and renewable energy movements were also given something to look forward to in 2019.
While 2019 is expected to bring us many tech innovations, both software and hardware, centering on health and fitness, they are expected to center around four major themes. – wearables, mixed reality, and corporate wellness.
Measuring the beats with wearables
Since its inception, health, fitness and wellness tracking has evolved from tracking steps and distance to providing a continuous stream of metrics like stress, heart rate and quality of sleep. Today any wearable can be used as a health and fitness tracker.
The heart rate has become the most critical metric in wearable tech with applications ranging from helping users refine their workouts to assisting doctors to make diagnostics. However, since some fitness wearables are more equal than others, their data varies, and you can’t always rely on it.
Mixed Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are taking over the fitness tech market. Apps like AudiShield and BoxVR are already gamifying fitness making it more exciting and fun. Soon enough, we will have people using VR and AR headsets in gyms.
The biggest hurdle to the mixed reality takeover is that they are not yet portable. They have to be tethered to a PC. The new 2019 releases like Oculus Go are getting us closer to a portable and truly immersive VR experience.
Mental health and the self-care category
Mental health awareness was a big trend towards the end of 2018 and is set to continue through 2019 and beyond. The self-care category, home to meditation and yoga apps has become very popular especially among the millennial who are turning more to mindfulness to combat the ever-increasing pace of life. Even Loveballs.co has started developing an app for yoga practitioners that will help them improve their usual poses by incorporating Kegel exercises into their routine.
Be well work well trend
Health and wellness trends are increasingly making their way into the corporate world. More companies realize that employee wellness is directly linked to productivity. This trend has seen insurance companies employ a wide range of health and fitness software and wearables for customer data collection.
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