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Day 4
In answer to your question, yes. Yes, I’m in tremendous amounts of pain from the cardio boxing, despite not actually hitting anything.
The very motion of flapping one’s arms has left me in intense pain whenever trying to extend a limb.
I should have expected that.
It was time to go back into the Moov training to see if I’ve improved at all, jumping up to level eight and extending to 338 reps… and again, I was impressed with the accuracy of the tracking on offer, with very few reps missed until the crunches at the end (I now know that this is me not doing them properly, rather than the Moov Now missing the motion.)
It’s not perfect - there can be some mistaken reps counted or not - but it’s still one of the most accurate systems I’ve used.
However, there’s some bad news today - when I go to check my ‘daily activity’ it’s no longer tracking it effectively.
Moving some garbage back and forth from the car and a long run in the afternoon weren’t noted, so I ended up with minimal stats for the day, giving me just 6 minutes of activity when I’ve been on my feet plenty of times.
Day 5
OK - I’ve cheated this format a little bit. I decided to let the Moov Now disc function as a daily fitness band and see how well it worked: would I use it enough to want to pop it back on my wrist or would it eventually fall away to boredom?
It’s somewhere in the middle. I became addicted to looking at my activity once I realized something that Moov doesn’t tell you: you have to wear the strap the same way up each day.
I’d started wearing it ‘upside down’ at one point, and once corrected it started functioning perfectly, noting every little bit of exercise I did.
I loved syncing and looking at my daily stats, trying to hit that magic ‘two hours active’ badge and keeping an eye on my calorie consumption.
Then I did a 35 mile run for a charity challenge and the wheels started to fall off a little bit. I’d hit the top level badge of activity, so I suddenly felt I’d ‘completed’ the Moov.
I still really liked that I got sleep tracking every night though… except I started to realize the Moov Now is mega generous.
It’ll tell you that you spent a majority of the night in restorative sleep, when other sleep trackers (like that found on the Garmin 735XT) painted a much more disturbed story.
Given I knew that some nights I woke a couple of times and the Moov didn’t notice, I’m going to assume that it’s too generous over how well I’ve slept.
Verdict
The Moov Now is incredible value for the breadth of things that it offers - for the low price you can run, swim, cycle, box and do crossfit with accuracy.
It lacks things like GPS and heart rate monitoring to put it in the same league as other trackers, but it’s really unobtrusive and if you’re looking for a complete view of your fitness it’s presented in a really simple way with Moov.
What’s great?
The Moov Now’s design and range of activities will give any budding fitness fan a chance to sample enough activities to keep them interested, having fun while boosting their fitness.
The price is so low that it’s almost worth buying two so you can properly enjoy cardio boxing, and it’s easy to wear without looking ugly or constantly catching on clothing.
The app is clean and clear too, with easy access to your fitness and sleep stats - both of which are really great and presenting numbers of minutes active and properly slumbering.
Is there anything to look out for?
The Moov Now, while capable of offering terrifically hard workouts that will push even hardcore athletes, isn’t useful for those that are obsessive about their fitness, as a lot of the data is too woolly.
Sleep tracking isn’t the most accurate, and the continued jingling in the ears when running to signify that everything is OK, along with the terribly robotic voice, do grate after a while - and there’s not enough variation to the offered workouts (although that will improve soon).
And both new and experienced fitness fans will mourn the lack of a training plan - there’s no cajoling to improve your fitness by doing certain workouts on certain days, which would help those just starting out stay fresh and make maximum gains.
Verdict
The Moov Now excels at one, very important thing: it’s a fitness tracker that actually tracks the things that make you fitter.
You get guided workouts for major activities that are well thought-out, or just good, broad tracking for daily activities.
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A six month battery life is immense, and if your goal is to spend more time in bed each night and move more each day, this little wearable is an affordable and accurate way to do it.
There’s more Moov can do now with it, and fingers are crossed more activities are added and training plans are created too.
The accuracy of the sleep tracking and the fiddly design are the only elements that niggle, but otherwise this is the kind of fitness tracker that all brands should aspire to create.
