Smartwatches can hinder your athletic performance

Smartwatches can hinder your performance by distracting you from how your body feels, reveals new research from Aalto University School of Business.

The study, conducted by Tatsiana Padhaiskaya and Henri Weijo, investigated how ultra-runners learn to tune into their bodies and found that many participants felt that their devices were limiting their ability to do this. This is because the advice given to them, especially in the early stages, are based on standard rules and not always tailored to each individual. This standardisation can lead to wrong pacing and overtraining.

In addition, smartwatches can lead to a sensory overload for runners due to their notifications about pace, feedback, and constant reminders to move.

One runner in the study abandoned their watch race predictor as it was distracting them from what their legs were telling them.

“Consumer culture does nearly everything in its power to estrange people from their bodies. Digitalisation, social media, and the cultural obsession with outward appearances have pushed us away from sensing what is actually going on with our bodies. Businesses ‘sell’ the cure to this, which actually makes things worse,” says Tatsiana Padhaiskaya, Postdoctoral Researcher at Aalto University School of Business.

By reducing reliance on their smartwatches, runners learned to turn their attention inwards. They noticed subtle signals like a ‘little niggle’ in the knee before it became a serious injury, or sensing their precise heart rate without checking the watch.

At the most advanced stage, some runners were able to anticipate their problems before they occurred, adjusting their pace or hydration based on how their body felt that day.

These gains in body awareness made people more sceptical of recommendations and advice from businesses, and resulted in brand prestige becoming unimportant.

The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

/ENDS.

For more information, a copy of the report, or to speak to one of the researchers, please contact Katie Hurley from BlueSky Education on khurley@bluesky-pr.com.