Fitness tracking technology is expanding at a rapid rate. With the devices of today, you can now track many different sports and exercise routines.
But fitness trackers are ideally suited for someone who does a lot of cardiovascular based sports, such as running, cycling, or swimming. When it comes to tracking weightlifting, very few manufacturers have devices that support this function. And while you can use an accelerometer style fitness tracker for this purpose, most will not have weightlifting as a built-in activity. This makes tracking weightlifting a little difficult.
However all is not lost. There are a few manufacturers who are bucking the trend and beginning to look more closely at tracking resistance training. For instance, devices such as the Beast Tracker contain many embedded sensors in the form of gyroscopes to track all manner of weightlifting activities.
And with new advances in sensor technologies, your are now able to track your heart rate more accurately than ever before. Although chest strap style heart rate monitors are still the norm, things like optical heart rate sensors are becoming more affordable and will soon be standard on many fitness trackers.
I was initially rather frustrated with the the amount of time it took to track down a good fitness tracker for weightlifting. So I went ahead and put together this list of weightlifting fitness trackers that will take the guesswork out of your workouts.
The devices on this list will be able to record things like intensity, time/rep duration, explosiveness, and even muscle density. They also contain many extras to, like heart rate monitoring and distance/calorie tracking. Use this list to help you decide on the best activity tracker for weight lifting.
Fitbit Surge
Fitbit is a company that should be no introduction. Their trackers pretty much dominate the fitness tracking industry. And with good reason to – many of them are feature packed and highly capable of tracking anything you throw at them. And The Fitbit surge is no exception. It is basically a smart watch with an embedded optical heart rate monitor.
While the surge doesn’t have any built-in activities for weightlifting per se, it can be used to track weight training manually. It’s on board accelerometer can usually be used to log reps, and you can input the data later with your own notes as to the type of activity that was performed. If you’re someone he doesn’t do a whole lot of weight training than the Surge is an adequate substitute for a dedicated weightlifting tracker.
This Surge's main selling point however is its GPS tracking which is great for runners and cyclists like.
Gymwatch
The Gymwatch is an interesting weightlifting tracker. The device is able to measure your motion and form over various types of weightlifting exercises. Its abilities are not just limited to free weights either. The device can also keep track of your movements when you’re on a machine or even using your own body weight. It will also give you a warning when you’re using incorrect form. Not bad.
You can also set the device to give you verbal feedback. A nice feature but one I don’t see myself using too often. Additionally, the app also has the ability to pair two sensors at once. This can be useful as you are able to put one sensor on the arm and one on the leg keep track of more complicated exercises.
Beast Tracker
This tracker is a "Beast" all right. The manufacturer seems to have created this tracker with weightlifting in mind. The sheer amount of metrics that it can record is quite impressive. You’ll get strength/speed, power, explosiveness, time and tension, intensity, reps, average power, and muscle density to name a few.
The sensor is also magnetic which can be useful if you’re someone who doesn’t like to wear a wrist band. Simply attach it to whatever weight or machine you’re using to begin recording.
Atlas
As a fitness tracker, Atlas has all of your bases covered. But it is especially adept at recording weightlifting metrics. Atlas claims that their tracker removes the burden of manual tracking completely. The device is able to automatically identify the type of exercise or lifting that you’re doing and automatically record it.
As far as weightlifting tracking is concerned, the Atlas can record your rep count, muscle focus, and velocity. It will give you your form score at the end of your workout. The great thing about the glasses that it also has an embedded optical heart rate monitor. This will give you additional data about your overall workout intensity.
The app is fairly robust and will allow you to build custom workouts that give you a 3-D view of your fitness progress. You are able to see which muscle group you worked and what intensities. It will also give you a detailed graph along with your heart rate for maximum metric tracking.
As if that weren’t enough, the Atlas waterproof up to 30 meters too. This coupled with the solid app support makes it a decent wearable for tracking swimming with.
Push Armband
Despite its funky name the push is actually a solid contender for the best weightlifting tracker. This is another tracker that is adept at analyzing your movements. The manufacturer claims that the device is able to calculate your one 1RM and your speed to give you real-time fitness tracking.
The manufacturer seems to have placed an emphasis on injury prevention, which is a nice thing to see especially where weightlifting is concerned.
I especially like that the push can calculate total work. TW is a methodology used to track the amount of stress that is being placed on your body when you’re doing a fitness related activity.
Moxy 02 Monitor
The Moxy is an interesting device that is able to measure your muscle oxygen level. Your oxygen level is important because it plays a role in things like your overall energy level and your muscles response to physical exertion. Many athletes use supplemental oxygen to improve their athletic performance so this may be a worthwhile device to own if you are someone who chooses to go this route..
PowerDot
As far as uniqueness goes, the Powerdot certainly stands out. The Powerdot isn't exactly a tracker, it’s more of a personalized fitness device.
Essentially, the Powerdot is an you electrical muscle stimulation device that you attach to whatever muscle group you’re looking to enhance. The manufacturer claims that these electrical signals mimic what your brain puts out when you exercise.
The device comes with a many different modes that can help increase your endurance and recovery time. There is even a massage mode for when you really hit the gym hard.
Skultp Chisel
Are you looking to do more than just track your reps or calories? Then look no further than the Sculpt Chisel. The chisel is a device that is able to measure your muscles to determine which ones are weaker and in the need of improvement. The tracker is entirely touch responsive, and simply touching a muscle group in your body will allow the tracker to get a reading. The device can display a heat map over 24 different muscle groups in your body and give a rating to each one.
The chisel also has the added benefit of being able to track your body fat percentage as well.
JetFit Weight Lifting App
Okay, it isn't a fitness tracker. But we decided to include the Jetfit app as it is one of our favorite programs. This is the go to for someone who doesn’t want to invest in a bulky fitness tracker. This is a good app for tracking all sorts of workouts, but is is especially adept at tracking weight training.
It’s biggest strength by far is its exercise database, which contains over 1500 different workout routines.
Apple Watch
Its may not be out yet, but we are excited to see that Apple may be entering the market with their very own weightlifting tracker. The US patent office has recently granted Apple a patent on a weight lifting tracker that utilizes an external sensor and can transmit its data back to the Apple watch.
It’s exciting to see what the future may hold for weightlifting trackers, especially with a big name like Apple entering the field.