It’s not remarkable — but that’s the point

(For Runner’s Life on Medium)

It’s been 4 weeks since I pulled off my sports watch. I say pull because, these days, there is some sort of force keeping our sports watch (or smart watch) on our wrists, wouldn’t you agree?

And the remarkable thing about it all is that there’s nothing really to remark about what happened in those 4 weeks.

My hand didn’t fall off, nor did my hand slap me to say, “Hey, dummy, you forgot your watch.”

My brain didn’t cry about it, which I take as a sign it never really needed the external validation of what my run looked like on paper, as it were.

My legs didn’t go on strike, didn’t complain that “No, we do actually need to know at what cadence we ran,” and they still moved when I told them to.

My left arm was glad for the shed weight, and my right arm was simply happy for the left.

I’m not on Strava anyway, so there was no need for my friends to text me to make sure I was still alive, that I didn’t get stuck in a trail-side ditch somewhere, that I didn’t sustain some injury that would explain why I wasn’t gracing their feed with how many miles I ran, how long it took me to run those miles, and how I felt about it (so that they can secretly compare).

I wore my sports watch as just a watch (I know, wild!) for the first couple of weeks before I dug my vintage (read normal) watch from storage.

During those before weeks, the only time I felt the urge to click through those little silver side buttons of my sports watch was the day after I vowed to take on this experiment, and the urge was to check my resting average heart rate while I was on the toilet, a habit I picked up when I first got the watch. Some people watch Instagram while they poop, I watched my heart rate. Okay, fine, I looked at my sleep score too.

So when I finally got to put on my vintage watch, a slender-faced Shinola with a reddish-brown leather band, I felt really great. Really. I was so excited for that transition. Because, frankly, I thought it showed I was different, an outward mark, albeit a subtle one, of my internal motivation to not be too attached to technology.

I sometimes made the point of checking the time in the grocery store checkout line as if to say, “Hey, look at my watch, it doesn’t know anything about me.” I started clocking (no pun intended) who was wearing a smartwatch (everyone) and who wasn’t (and here I thought I would say older people, but that wouldn’t be accurate… smartwatches have affixed the wrists of all generations).

But also, going through this transition (dramatic, I know) was exciting because it felt like running a little experiment. What would happen if I didn’t log my runs? My core workout? My hike? Leg day? God, would I forget to do a workout without my watch telling me what I should do that day?

I dramatize to make a point. Because, sure, having something keep track of my workouts might be good if I were working toward some sort of training goal and needed the data to show my progress. But, if you’re like me and just run because you like to run and otherwise exercise so that you can keep being active, then I would challenge you to ask yourself why, really, do you log everything on your watch?

There are plenty of blog posts to tell you the benefits of not wearing your sports watch for running: that it “allows you to be more connected mentally with your run,” that it “boosts your running confidence,” and that it can actually improve your “stress levels and enjoyment of running.”

I don’t think it’s that difficult to imagine what data-free exercise can do for mental health, seeing as most, if not all, of us know how bad obsession with technology and the appsappsapps can be for our mental health.

But, being a health writer, I was curious what research there was on the subject. And while it was a struggle to find articles, there were a few that stood out.

While medical reasons aren’t what most people use a sports watch for, there are some potential medical benefits of wearing a smartwatch, which help them redeem some value. For example, a 2020 study showed that respiration rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability (HRV) as measured by FitBit devices helped predict the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. A 2023 case study reported that peak V02 measurements can help clinicians monitor cardiac rehabilitation in people with cardiovascular illness.

Other studies have highlighted social and health issues with smartwatches. A 2021 study showed that alongside the benefits of self-monitoring that fitness watches provide in helping people achieve health goals, there are also significant concerns when these devices lead to obsessive tracking of calories and exercise, which may be especially triggering among people predisposed to disordered eating, eating disorders, or obsessive-compulsive disorders.

The study also argued that while the built-in features to facilitate competition can work as motivation (e.g., sharing activity rings through the Apple watch, setting competitions for steps in a day via FitBit), such competition can result in unhealthy comparisons, unrealistic and unattainable goals, and decreased self-efficacy.

While I did find a few studies to demonstrate concerns around the overreliance on sport or smart watches, research on this is certainly limited, and more research is needed to dig into the physical and mental health risks of relying on these watches/wearable devices too much.

My sense is that the lack of scientific articles on the benefits and risks of wearing sports watches reflects the fact that we’re obsessed with them. Many of the scientists that might research these watches are probably wearing one now.

We love these watches.

They are Really Good Things.

They motivate us to get off our butts, but they also suck our attention with stats that don’t really mean much for the average runner, turn on unhealthy comparing mode in our brains, or make us forget what it’s like to focus on how our body feels, not what our watch says about how our body feels.

This isn’t a persuasive essay, by the way. At least I don’t intend it as one. I just wonder why we (myself included) are so attracted — attached — to these watches.

It’s not surprising to me that research is lacking on the risk-benefit ratio of wearing sport watches for the average person, and that the research that is available highlights concerns around relying too much on the data and it triggering obsessive tendencies.

And for as attached as I was to my sports watch, one thing that struck me about not wearing it was how easily I kept forgetting to put it on before going for a run, simply to know the time and when I should make my way back.

So, no, nothing to remark, really.

The only thing that really stands out about this process of going data-free is how glued I was to my watch, for when I pulled it off and kept it off, its imprint was so clear, and it was approximately the color of Elmer’s glue.