BLOG 7 TECH TIME

BLOG 7 TECH TIME

I remember when I used to call my parents from a Pay Phone after practice for a ride home. I remember when AOL dial up was brought into the house and Carmen San Diego was the greatest game ever. I remember when my teachers started to require papers to be typed. Granted, I’m a child of the 80s, but just in my years, technology has changed the way we live. In college it was My Space, and now between Twitter, Facebook, and Netlfix, we have access to countless sources of time consuming clicking and watching. It’s unheard of to actually pick up a phone and call someone, let alone even have a house phone anymore. Those Pay Phones have been removed.

How many hours do you spend watching television or on your cell phone?? Technology does make our lives easier, but it also has led to an increase in sedentary activities like playing computer games or Candy Crush. Many arguments say that technology has led to the increase in obesity. Then I thought about technology and how I am in the process of creating a phone App for fitness videos, and there is a whole other side to the argument that began to spin in my head.

There are now many motivational tools technology offers to help us track, log, time, monitor, and inspire us to be active. Pedometers and heart rate monitors have been around for years, but now we have tools like the Fit Bit or Bodybugg to monitor calorie burning, Run Keeper and MyFitness Pal on our phones, and there are interactive video games like the Wii. We are entertained by the clicking and constant checking of our progress, which in turn can help us be more active to reach our daily goals. I’ll admit I obsessively check my Fit Bit, and MyFItness Pal is a must for me each day.

This in turn led me to think about how teachers and trainers like myself are being replaced by technology. Yet, when it boils down to it, if I am motivated by the human interaction with my clients, I know that they are in turn motivated by me. I am always at the studio but I seriously feel strange not working out with someone else now. When I went to New York last year, even though I was on vacation, I was bored on my runs and having client withdrawals. Nothing can replace the relationships we form, the conversations we have, or the encouragement we provide for one another. Of course I love my Fit Bit, but it telling me I’m an “overachiever” is incomparable to hearing and seeing a client’s reaction when they lost inches, body fat, or weight. I love laughing at how uncoordinated we can be, forgetting to count because we are in deep conversation, or giving each other the look of exhaustion.

In the end, I feel that technology is an aid to my profession for those people with a healthier lifestyle. Yet, for those who are struggling to start, technology can hide the reality of the task ahead of them. Watching Netflix instead of lifting weights can be tempting…. and then the trainer is me says, “Well, you can watch and lift at the same time” (trainer mode never stops). In fact, I felt connected to the outside world once I got a TV at the studio to hear the local news. That in turn gave me more fuel for conversations to have with clients. I’m excited to release my FIT Life App with videos very soon. It’s definitely been a work in progress that has tested every ounce of my patience, but good things come to those who wait….. just like our fitness goals (there I got again with the trainer talk).