How the cloud interacts with your workout

Its that time of year again, beach season is here and its time to get back in shape. Whenever I am at the gym I seem to notice more people have extra devices attached to them collecting all kinds of information about their workouts. It is a daily reminder of how entwined data and the cloud is becoming with our lives.

I think its a great thing that people are so invested into tracking their exercise. However, today we are going to take a brief look into the different fitness apps out there and how all of this data integration could get out of hand.

First we will start with the foundation of any fitness regiment, the diet. Many use MyFitnessPal on their smartphones to track what foods they eat and their caloric intake, this data all gets synced with the Runtastic cloud.

Now we can't forget the cardio, there are many bluetooth heart rate monitors out there and a few utilize the Runtastic app. This app gathers info on time, average heart rates, how to improve your cardio ect. This then syncs with the same cloud as MyFitnessPal so you can track how many calories you burn compared to your intake, giving you a full diagnostic on your diet plan.

There are also WiFi enabled scales such as the Withings scale. This can sync with MyFitnessApp as well as Runtastic, keeping track of your weight and BMI.

This is only scratching the surface of the fitness cloud. There are apps for everything you do: Running, biking, sleep, yoga, you name it you can track it.

Even though all of this info and tracking is very cool it  leads to a potential data overload. All of these different services are syncing with separate clouds and are trying to talk to each other. You can picture how complicated and confusing this could all become.

The thing is, these apps are not going to stop coming. We need to figure out how to manage all of this complex tracking and integration before it gets completely out of hand and all comes crashing down.

For now though, enjoy your workout and make sure to optimize your glycemic index!

Written by: Sam Watkinson