STEP UP YOUR ANALYSIS
We know our phones double up as pedometers – and increasing your daily steps has the potential to dramatically improve your long-term cardiovascular health. But that’s not all. ‘Our smartphones can measure a number of walking metrics that you’d otherwise need to go to a biomechanics lab for,’ says strength and conditioning coach Mitch Raynsford at digital coaching app p3rform.co.uk
✢ TAKE STRIDES
‘The motion sensors built into the iphone 8 and later provide data on step length, double support time (see below), walking asymmetry and walking speed,’ says Mitch. You can access this data in the Apple Health app. Step length naturally varies with pace, but tracking it over time will expose any trends – a decline could be linked to ageing or injury.
✢ KEEP YOUR BALANCE
Double support time is the percentage of time walking in which both feet are on the ground; the lower the value, the better. ‘It is related to a rise in an individual’s fear of falling, be that stemming from inactivity or injury,’ says Mitch. ‘If this value has begun to increase, try some simple balance exercises a few times a week.’ You can also ask your iphone to send you a notification if you’re at an elevated risk of falling within the next year.
✢ SIT LESS
With activity graphs produced by both Apple’s Health app and Android’s Google Fit (if this isn’t already on your Android phone, just download it from Google Play), you can see how your steps are distributed throughout a day. Reducing sedentary time by one hour per day was linked to a 26% lower risk of heart disease, according to a US study – and it’s just as effective to build this up through short, lightintensity interruptions to sitting.
Many fitness watches send movement alerts – use your smartphone alarm to do the same.
✢ PACE YOURSELF
Walking requires strength, aerobic fitness and coordination. If any of these are declining, you might see your walking speed fall, too. Check your Apple Health app to see how your walking speed has changed over the past six months.
Meanwhile, Google Fit uses algorithms developed with the American Heart Association and will award more Move Minutes and Heart Points for brisk over slow walking. Set yourself a goal and let your phone do all the maths!