Health & Fitness Technology: Can you believe these things didn't exist 10 years ago?

Ten years ago, the idea of wearing a device that tracked your sleep, monitoring your health from your finger, exercising in virtual reality or asking AI for personalised health advice would have sounded futuristic. Today, we barely think twice about it.

Technology has transformed the way we exercise, sleep, monitor our health and manage our everyday wellbeing. Some of these changes have been so gradual that we've almost forgotten how unusual they seemed when they first appeared.

1. Fitness Trackers Turned Walking into a Competition🚶‍♀️

Remember when walking was just something you did to get somewhere? Then fitness trackers arrived.

Suddenly, 10,000 steps became a daily target, and people everywhere started checking their wrists to see whether they had "done enough" walking.

The humble fitness tracker has evolved considerably since then. Modern wearable technology can monitor steps, distance, heart rate, workouts, sleep and much more.

The strangest part? Walking around the kitchen at 11pm just to hit your daily step goal suddenly feels completely reasonable.

2. Sleep Became a Data Collection Exercise 😴

We used to go to bed and wake up. Now we apparently need a report and to track the quality of that sleep.

Sleep tracking has become one of the biggest trends in wearable health technology. Smartwatches, smart rings and other devices can analyse sleep duration and patterns, giving us detailed information about what happened while we were unconscious.

For many people, this information can be useful for understanding their routines. For others, discovering that they had a "poor" night's sleep from a device can be enough to make them wonder whether they actually slept badly or simply weren't given a good enough score.

3.  Smart Rings Put Health Technology on Your Finger 💍

Smartwatches have become commonplace, but smart rings have taken wearable technology in a different direction. Small enough to look like ordinary jewellery, these devices can monitor various health and fitness metrics without a screen constantly demanding your attention.

It is a fascinating development because the technology is becoming less visible. Perhaps the future of wearable health technology isn't about bigger screens. Maybe it is about technology that quietly works in the background.

4. Fitness Mirrors Made the Living Room a Gym 🪞

Why go to the gym when you can turn your living room into one? Interactive fitness mirrors became one of the more futuristic home fitness trends of the decade. These devices combine a mirror with a screen, allowing users to follow guided workouts while seeing themselves exercise.

It sounds incredibly high tech. Although there is something slightly strange about looking into a mirror while being told by another person on the mirror to do more squats. At least there is nowhere to hide.

5. Virtual Reality Made Exercise a Game 🥽

Exercise and gaming have traditionally been two very different activities. Virtual reality started changing that. VR fitness can transform exercise into an interactive experience, from boxing and dancing to cycling and virtual adventures.

Instead of thinking, "I really should exercise," users can find themselves thinking, "I just need to beat this level." And if technology can make people move more without feeling like traditional exercise, that may not be such a strange idea after all.

6. Smart Scales Got Very, Very Detailed ⚖️

The scales used to tell you one thing -> your weight.

Smart scales decided that wasn't enough. Modern devices can provide additional body measurements and connect to smartphone apps, allowing users to track changes over time.

The result is a fascinating example of how health technology has shifted from occasional measurements to continuous personal data. Of course, there is still one thing smart scales cannot do, it’s making you feel better about stepping on them after Christmas.

7. AI Started Joining the Health Conversation 🤖

Artificial intelligence has become one of the biggest technology trends of the decade, and health and fitness have not escaped its influence. AI can help analyse data, personalise fitness plans, identify patterns and provide recommendations.

It is an exciting area of digital health, although there is an important distinction between technology helping us understand our health and technology attempting to replace medical professionals.

The most useful applications of AI may ultimately be those that help people organise information and make better use of the data they already have.

8. Everything Became an App 📱

There is now an app for almost everything.

Exercise? There's an app.

Sleep? There's an app.

Food tracking? Definitely an app.

Meditation? Lots of apps.

And, inevitably, there are apps to help you keep track of the apps.

This has been one of the biggest changes in health technology. Our phones have become central hubs for managing different aspects of our health and wellbeing. The challenge isn't necessarily finding another app - it is finding the right ones.

What Will Health Technology Look Like Next?

If the past decade is anything to go by, the next ten years could be very interesting.

Wearable health technology will probably become smaller and more sophisticated. Artificial intelligence will continue to develop. Virtual reality may become more mainstream. And we can probably expect a few completely unexpected gadgets along the way.

Some will be genuinely revolutionary.

Some will be wonderfully weird.

And some will probably make us wonder how we ever managed without them.

But perhaps the most important development is not how much technology can measure.

It is how technology can make everyday health management easier.

Looking After the Everyday Things

Not every aspect of managing your health needs futuristic technology.

Sometimes, the most useful tools are the simple ones that help you stay organised. That’s where KeepTrackMed comes in.

KeepTrackMed is designed to help you keep your important health and medical information organised, so you can spend less time trying to remember everything and more time getting on with your day.

Ready to make managing your medication a little easier? Try KeepTrackMed today and take control of your health and medical data.