In the past 33 years of training, I’ve worn wearable tech for less than 6 months. back in 2010 I purchased a FitBit watch – the purpose of which was to track my steps, but ended up tracking my ability to break pretty much anything I own.
Looking back, it was a blessing. I remember never really wanting to own it, but back then I was less in tune with my intuition, and so on my wrist it went.
I’m going to sound like a proper dad now, but, the more I see tech encroaching on our everyday lives, the more I am certain that tech in fitness should be removed.
The final straw was asking someone in the gym, “How did you sleep last night?” They immediately looked at their watch and said, “It says I only got…”
Fuck me!!!! When did we become so dissociated from our own bodies?
We need to go back to being in touch with knowing our body. We need to stop outsourcing our health, outsourcing our intuition, and we need to start getting back in touch with what it’s like to take ownership of our own health.
The Great Disconnection
Your body has been developing sophisticated feedback systems for millions of years. These systems are infinitely more complex and accurate than any piece of technology you can strap to your wrist.
Yet we’ve convinced ourselves that a £200 device knows more about our bodies than we do.
Think about it:
- Your heart rate variability changes based on stress, recovery, hydration, and dozens of other factors your watch can’t measure
- Your sleep quality depends on mental state, room temperature, what you ate, relationship stress – none of which show up in “sleep scores”
- Your energy levels fluctuate based on hormonal cycles, emotional state, and life circumstances that no algorithm can capture
But somehow, we’ve handed over the authority to judge our health to a device that measures movement and heart rate.
The Anxiety Economy
Wearable tech companies have built their entire business model on making you anxious about your health metrics. They need you to believe you can’t trust your body’s signals.
“Did you close your rings today?”
“You’re behind on your step goal!”
“Your sleep score is poor!”
This creates a constant state of external validation seeking. Instead of learning to read your body’s signals, you’re learning to read your watch’s signals.
I’ve watched clients become stressed because their watch said they had poor sleep, even though they felt refreshed. I’ve seen people push through workouts when their body was screaming for rest because their device said they needed to hit their activity goal.
This isn’t health optimization. This is health anxiety.
What We’re Really Losing
When you outsource your body awareness to technology, you lose:
Intuitive Eating: Instead of eating when hungry and stopping when satisfied, you eat according to calorie counters and macro trackers.
Natural Recovery Patterns: Instead of resting when tired, you rest when your recovery score tells you to.
Authentic Energy Rhythms: Instead of working with your natural energy cycles, you try to maintain consistent metrics.
Body Confidence: Instead of trusting your decades of life experience in your body, you trust a device you’ve owned for months.
The 33-Year Experiment
Here’s what I’ve learned from three decades of training without relying on wearable tech:
Your Body Tells You Everything You Need to Know:
- Tired? Rest.
- Energetic? Train harder.
- Sore? Focus on mobility.
- Hungry? Eat quality food.
- Thirsty? Drink water.
It’s that simple. Your body is constantly communicating with you. The question is: are you listening?
Progress Happens in Feel, Not Numbers:
The clients who make the best progress aren’t the ones with the most data. They’re the ones who learn to feel the difference between good fatigue and bad fatigue. Between productive muscle soreness and injury warning signs. Between genuine hunger and emotional eating.
Consistency Beats Optimization:
I’d rather have someone train consistently for 20 years without any tracking than obsess over perfect metrics for 2 years and burn out.
How to Reconnect With Your Body
Start Your Day Without Looking at Your Watch:
Before checking any device, ask yourself:
- How do I feel?
- What’s my energy level?
- Am I hungry?
- Did I sleep well?
Trust your answers.
Train by Feel:
Instead of hitting predetermined heart rate zones, ask:
- Can I hold a conversation? (Moderate intensity)
- Am I breathing hard but controlled? (Hard intensity)
- Am I gasping for air? (Maybe too hard)
Your body will tell you everything a heart rate monitor will, plus context it can’t measure.
Eat According to Hunger:
Put down the calorie counter. Instead:
- Eat when hungry
- Stop when satisfied
- Choose foods that make you feel good
- Notice how different foods affect your energy
Sleep by Circadian Rhythm:
Forget sleep scores. Focus on:
- Consistent bedtime and wake time
- How you feel upon waking
- Energy levels throughout the day
- Whether you need caffeine to function
Recovery by Body Signals:
Instead of recovery metrics, notice:
- Motivation to train
- Movement quality
- Mood and energy
- Muscle tension and soreness
The Mental Health Component
There’s something deeply therapeutic about trusting your body again. When you stop constantly measuring and judging yourself, you can actually inhabit your body rather than monitoring it from the outside.
This shift from external validation to internal awareness is profound. You stop being a data point and start being a human being.
For the Data Addicts
I get it. Some of you love the data. If tracking genuinely improves your life without creating anxiety, continue. But ask yourself honestly:
- Do I trust my body more or less since I started tracking?
- Am I more anxious or less anxious about my health?
- Do I feel more connected or less connected to my body?
- Am I training for metrics or for how I feel?
If tracking is making you less intuitive, more anxious, and more disconnected from your body, it’s time to consider a different approach.
The 30-Day Challenge
Try this: For 30 days, put your wearable tech in a drawer. Instead:
Week 1-2: Focus on noticing how you feel without checking any metrics. Just observe.
Week 3-4: Start making decisions based on how you feel rather than what devices tell you.
Day 30: Assess whether you feel more or less connected to your body.
I’m willing to bet you’ll be surprised by how much your body has been trying to tell you all along.
The Bottom Line
Your body is the most sophisticated health monitoring system ever created. It’s been fine-tuned over millions of years of evolution. It doesn’t need a software update.
The fitness industry wants you to believe you can’t trust yourself. That you need external validation for every decision about your own body.
This is nonsense.
You know when you’re tired. You know when you’re hungry. You know when you’ve had a good workout. You know when you need rest.
The only question is: will you trust what you know?
After 33 years of training, I can tell you with absolute certainty: your body’s wisdom is far superior to any algorithm.
It’s time to trust it again.
