In this post, we are going to take a look at the best fitness tracker for seniors and the elderly in 2022. Fitness trackers are a great tool for monitoring and improving activity. It can be hard to pick the right one because of the choice these days.
IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY HERE ARE THE RECOMMENDATIONS:
Affiliate Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links to online stores. If you purchase through the links, I will earn a small commission. This helps to keep the site running and there is no cost to you. This affiliation does not affect my recommendation as virtually all products offer similar affiliations. So these recommendations are my honest opinions.
- Huawei Band 4 Pro (affiliate link)
- Garmin Vivosmart 5 (affiliate link)
The trackers available these days range from simple pedometers to extremely sophisticated smartwatches that can monitor everything from heart rate to geographic position through GPS.
To most seniors, most of the features in these high-performance sports watches are unnecessary and quite frankly unwanted. So it can be hard for seniors to choose a good fitness tracker or activity bracelet. The same goes if you are looking to buy an activity bracelet for grandma as a Christmas present.
Nevertheless, fitness trackers are very valuable tools in monitoring your activity levels and to an extent your health. The greatest benefit comes from the fact that they motivate the wearer to achieve higher activity levels, something that is extremely important for most senior citizens.
Let’s start by looking at what fitness trackers actually are before jumping to the best options on the market at the moment.
What Are Fitness Trackers?
Fitness trackers are essentially small computers you wear on your wrist like a watch. They are also referred to as activity monitors, activity bracelets, sports watches, smart watches, or simply as wearables. All those have different nuances and the classification depends mainly on the features and main function of the wearable.
The fitness trackers have several different sensors depending on the model and most have smartphone functionality as well. Generally speaking, the wearables referred to as activity bracelets have the least sensors, and the simple ones don’t even have a screen, so you need a smartphone to read them.
Activity bracelets usually come equipped with a simple accelerometer that works simply as a pedometer. You input your weight, gender, and age and the bracelets estimate your overall activity based on that data. Activity bracelets generally cost around $50 to $100. I talked more about this type of device in the article How Many Steps Per Day For Seniors? and Free Pedometers for Seniors (Simple Guide).
Wearables that are referred to as fitness trackers usually offer some added sensors and a screen that offers functionalities like workout timers, distance and pace information, and heart rate.
Different Types Of Fitness Trackers
Most fitness trackers come equipped with at least a heartbeat sensor these days and many are implementing a SpO2 (also known as pulse oximetry) sensor that monitors your blood oxygen levels. This is a useful feature for monitoring sleep apnea as pauses in your breathing will lead to a lowered blood oxygen level. The Fitbit Charge 4 has this feature and I think it’s the best Fitbit for seniors.
Fitness trackers usually cost around $100 to $200 and they are generally the best bang for the buck when you are looking for a casual wearable to track your overall activity and workouts.
The most expensive wearables are smart watches and sports watches. Smartwatches usually resemble more like a traditional premium watch and they have a large, high-quality screen that will display information from your smartphone. Some even allow you to take calls through the watch. You can read more about the in the article Best Smartwatch For Seniors [5 Recommendations].
Sports watches resemble high-tech watches and they usually come equipped with high-quality heart rate monitoring (with a chest band in most cases, due to the accuracy), high-precision GPS, altimeter, and data recording. They are designed for serious athletes that can’t carry around expensive and cumbersome smartphones during their workouts.
What makes a good fitness tracker for seniors
So what makes a good fitness tracker for seniors? There isn’t a simple answer as the needs are different for most seniors. I’m going to go on a limb here (partly from experience) and say that most seniors would appreciate the ease of use above everything else.
This means the tracker should have a large, easy-to-read screen that doesn’t need a smartphone for the basic functions. Long battery life is a must so you remember to keep it on your wrist instead of the charger and it doesn’t run out of juice in mid-workout.
Every, if not most seniors these days don’t have a computer so it would be good if the wearable wouldn’t rely on a computer at all.
If you think you need a computer I suggest getting a laptop as they are much more convenient for most seniors than tabletop computers. Check out my suggestions for the best laptop for seniors.
So an easy-to-read fitness tracker that doesn’t need a computer and has long battery life and is resistant to water would be the optimal wearable for seniors. A heart rate monitor would be a nice add-on because it can offer valuable information about heart health and in some cases even warn about possible heart problems.
If you are a senior citizen looking for a fitness tracker on your own your needs are clearly different than if you are someone who is looking for an activity wearable or an emergency watch for an elderly relative for example. You see, there are wearables that offer valuable emergency locating and reminder features for the elderly. These are especially useful for seniors with memory issues.
The Best simple activity bracelet for seniors
My recommendation for a simple pedometer or activity bracelet would be the Huawei Band 4 Pro (affiliate link). It’s a relatively cheap fitness tracker with a lot of useful features.
Features:
- Step tracking
- Sleep tracking
- GPS support through a smartphone
- Swim proof
- iOS and Android compatible
The Band 4 Pro is very slim which makes it comfortable to wear but means the display is a bit small and hard to read. The other features more than makeup for that considering the price. This bracelet is enough for tracking activity in most seniors.
Best fitness tracker for seniors
My recommendation for a more advanced fitness tracker is the Garmin Vivosmart 5 (affiliate link). It’s a very small form factor fitness tracker with top-of-the-line sensors.
Features:
- Step tracking
- Sleep tracking
- Constant heart rate monitoring
- GPS support through a smartphone
- Waterproof
- iOS and Android compatible
- SpO2 sensor for monitoring sleep apnea
The greatest feature of this fitness tracker is the ability to track constant heart rate and the ability to track blood oxygen saturation at night. The constant heart rate monitoring makes the workout and activity measurements and caloric consumption estimates much more accurate compared to a simple step counter.
The SpO2 is very useful for monitoring your sleep quality and potential sleep apnea. Many older adults and seniors suffer from sleep apnea without knowing it as I mentioned in the article How To Improve Sleep In The Elderly.
A fitness tracker like the Vivosmart 5 can point out if your blood oxygen levels drop during the night due to breathing obstruction. It’s not a valid medical diagnosis tool but the function is definitely useful and something your treating physician would likely be interested in.
The only downside of the Vivosmart 5 is the small screen just like in the Huawei bracelet. It means you will have to read the data from your smartphone if you have vision problems and can read the small screen.
Best smart and emergency watch for seniors
Most seniors aren’t interested in high-tech gadgets like premium smart watches but if you happen to be one that is, my recommendation would be the Apple Watch, series 4. If you like high-end technology and have the wealth to buy the latest gadgets, you likely already own an Apple smartphone.
The Apple Watch is a state-of-the-art smartwatch that comes with a special feature that can be life-saving for seniors. If the user of the watch fall, the sensors of the watch will pick this up and a message on the watch will prompt the user to select “Emergency SOS” or “I fell, but I’m OK”, if the user doesn’t move in a minute, a call is automatically sent to emergency responders and emergency contact with location information. Definitely a neat and potentially life-saving function for technology-savvy seniors.
The Watch naturally comes equipped with top-of-the-line sensors for monitoring heart rate, Spo2, activity, sleep, and location.
Conclusion
We hope you found our recommendations for the best fitness tracker for seniors useful. If you have any questions about fitness trackers and wearables, you can ask them in the comments section below and we will promise to get back to you as soon as possible.
Getting a fitness tracker is an investment in your health as it has been shown to motivate users to increase activity and improve their lifestyles. They are also a great gift for active seniors.
You don’t have to have the latest and the most expensive wearable to get useful suggestions for your sleep, activity, and workouts. Most affordable trusted brand fitness trackers will do just fine for the casual user.
That said, some of the more sophisticated fitness trackers can follow everything from your blood oxygen levels to automatic recognition of activities ranging from running to kayaking and even recognizing tennis racquet swings.
Just beware of cheap small brand activity bracelets and step counters. They are usually very low quality and won’t have any software updates or technical support. So invest at least $50 and get one from a trusted technology manufacturer. Any from the major smartphone manufacturers are usually good.
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See you next time!
Elder Strength.
Good article, a little too much to read every word. Hate to hear that Vivosmart 5 has small screen, but better to know before buying than after.
Glad you found the article useful, even though a bit long. I’ll try to see if I can make it a bit more concicse. The Vivosmart is definitely a good device. I don’t think the screen is that much of issue for most seniors, just something to beware of if you have trouble with your sight.