I certainly would not be the first to publicly register my concern for the widespread overuse of communications technology. Few sectors seem to be able to withstand the ongoing onslaught of technological revolution.

The fitness gadget revolution has been in full swing for decades now. When various phenomena get referenced with increasing and unmissable frequency in TV shows, movies and other forms of mass media, one cannot help but take note. Fitness trackers are the latest to bring the fitness industry into the visible mainstream spotlight. They are quite simply, ‘in’.

It seems that many people find it ‘kind of cool’ to be able to measure and track heart rate, physical activity levels, temperature and even mental well-being continuously and automatically. Advanced systems these days can track your whereabouts via GPS technology and provide you with a range of stats about your physical performance. The devices are usually wearable around the wrist and appear as a regular or slightly enlarged sporty-style watch.

The smooth and slick marketing machine presenting such products to the public has done an excellent job in establishing their wider appeal to prospective clients from all walks of life, beyond the horizons of the hardcore fitness buff alone. We show off our new fitness gadgets with pride, presenting a long line of functions and features to all those interested enough to take a look. We do not question through it all whether such equipment is actually all it is hyped up to be and whether we actually have any real benefits to gain.

We take it as read that using such equipment correctly could do nothing but good, but how do we know this for sure? Here is where researchers at Lancaster University in the UK have stepped in to play the party-poopers. Exercise scientists urge us to hold our horses and not rush out too hastily to part with our hard-earned cash in exchange for joining in on all the excitement.

We are admittedly suckers for technology in this sector. Whether it is mechanical, electrical or even something as simple as big blow-up rubber ball, we just love to introduce colourful and fancy bits of equipment into our fitness repertoires.

In getting hung up on numbers fed to us by devices, we might actually be missing out on the bigger picture

The experts, however, remind us that most products that are ‘all the rage’ are rarely backed up by any evidence-based scientific endorsement. When we say a given item can help enhance our health and fitness, we are simply making unfounded claims unsupported by any real impartial evidence.

Some of the science actually indicates the contrary, cautioning us against impulse buying of brand new and exciting products. Like gym memberships themselves, one of the mainstays of fitness industry products, adherence or sustained use of a given product rarely fares particularly well after the initial six-month period. The chances of much fitness-product-use lasting any longer than a year are actually slim.

For this reason alone, can we really say that fitness gadgets help us to get fitter, stronger and healthier? We know that real lasting results come through permanent lifestyle change and not from temporary measures of any sort. If the use of gadgets is proven to be largely temporary, then the promise of lasting results by default simply cannot stand up as a worthy claim.

What is more worrying is the actual reliability of the information fitness tracking gadgets give us. It is easy to put total faith in the kilometre, beats per minute and degree celsius readings jumping off monitors both large and small, but when you try measuring the same cases with different trackers, it soon becomes evident they seem to disagree at what can sometimes be an alarming discrepancy. Different measurements of the same performance can sometimes vary up to a margin of error as large as 25 per cent. Do we really need expensive technology for what are essentially, approximations?

I fondly recall an adventure trip in English forestry many years ago where my group was shown how to establish pretty accurate location coordinates in degrees of latitude and longitude using nothing more than the sun during the day, the stars at night, some twigs and some string. Of course, you could just use technology if it is available, but learning to establish your location that way would not really teach you much about the interesting physics behind the structure and movement of the earth, the passage of time as we know it and the wonderful constellations that fill our night sky with so much beauty and splendour. Best of all, the sun, stars, twigs and bits of string amount to far less than the cost of a GPS system and don’t require any batteries.

I raise this analogy because a genuine curiosity about how the body works and may respond to the various means of achieving your goals forms an excellent foundation upon which to build motivation to exercise.

In getting hung up on numbers fed to us by devices, we might actually be missing out on the bigger picture. The moment we start seeing equipment as ancillary and not primary, as a supplement not a substitute, perhaps we can take a step closer to results that are truly lasting and not fleeting.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt