We all know that exercising your body is key to a longer life and having a body that will be able to do the things that you're used to doing in your 80’s as you did in your 50’s, 60’s and 70’s! And yes, this is possible if you go about it the right way. Which means eating right, staying active on a daily basis, both physically and mentally!

We’ve all heard that old adage, at least I’m pretty sure most of us have, that “If YOU don’t use it, YOU LOSE IT!”
The above statement can’t be truer. If you want to be able to continue to do the things you do now, (whatever your current age is now) then you need to adopt a healthy lifestyle which means getting regular exercise every day. One of the ways you can do this without having it become a chore to you is to vary your activity levels and what you do, to be active.

There are many ways to do this. If you’re not an active exerciser, one who looks forward in the morning to lacing up their running or walking shoes and heading out on the road or trail. Or that person who likes to head to the gym when the sun starts to lighten the sky. There are still things you can do throughout the day to be active. Yard work can be very physical if you set yourself on maintaining a great looking yard. With all that bending down pulling weeds, to edging the driveway and flowerbeds. You usually will find people planting new flowers or shrubs to accent their yards. This all takes physical work, not to mention the grass cutting in the spring, summer, and fall and raking those leaves in the fall as well as shoveling snow in the winter.

Have I made you tired yet? Well its all part of being physical and that’s just around the house on the outside. The inside has its own share of household duties to perform and if all done properly, they can provide a good healthy dose of exercise that will help to keep you going for years to come.

But sleep is also important. The amount of sleep you get at night can let you know just how much activity you're going to be able to do the next day. If you think you need more sleep or better sleep? Then you may be looking into wearable devices and apps that track sleep.

Are they worthwhile? “Yes, they are,” says sleep medicine expert Colleen Lance, MD.

“While digital apps and devices can’t replace formal testing, they can give your doctor a general idea of your total sleep time, your sleep/wake cycle and how disruptive your sleep may-be.”

When to consider tracking your sleep
Many people who rely on wearable technology to count steps, or measure the miles they run or cycle, stumble upon the sleep-tracking function accidentally.

Here are three good reasons to track your sleep, says Dr. Lance:

You frequently wake up at night. Environmental noise (think snoring partners and crying babies) can interrupt overnight sleep. Sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea or a periodic limb movement disorder, can also wake you up frequently. Along with the occasional car backfiring!

You’re too sleepy during the day. Insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea are the most common reasons for not getting enough sleep at night and feeling tired by day. Less common causes include narcolepsy, which robs you of normal REM sleep so that you nod off throughout the day.

You want to optimize your performance. If you compete as an athlete, or simply want to beat your personal best, a good night’s sleep will help you. Women approaching menopause may also want to optimize sleep to improve mood, memory, and concentration.

A great device that does just this is the new arrival from Polar who just announced the new Polar Ignite Advanced Fitness Watch with GPS  

Designed from the outset as a true 24/7 device, the Polar Ignite’s scientifically validated "Smart Coaching" features not only analyzes your exercise results but also interprets your recovery during the night allowing you to choose from ready-made exercise workouts the next day that matches your daily readiness.

Integrating Polar’s advanced wrist-based Precision Prime heart rate technology, GPS speed and distance tracking, color touch display, and 5-day battery life, the Polar Ignite offers the essentials needed to help you realize your true potential.

Benefits:
Polar Precision Prime Heart Rate - Polar redefines the gold standard in optical heart rate accuracy by combining the latest in bio-impedance electrodes and optical sensors.
Daily Training Guide - Unsure what type of workout to do that best suits your fitness goal? Let Polar’s Fitspark™ daily training guide provide the input needed to help you get there.
Improved Sleep Tracking - Get the valued insight you need to get a good night’s rest with

Sleep Plus Stages, is the first building block. This functioning basically takes Polar’s existing sleep tracking and gives it a solid boost. Now it tracks your specific sleep phases (Deep/Light/REM), sleep cycles, your interruptions, and then gives you both continuity and overall sleep scores.

Polar’s Sleep Plus Stages™ analysis.
This is where the activity tracker takes sleep on and measures just how well your sleeping at night and what effects not getting the right amount of quality sleep can affect your performance the next day!

Nightly Recharge™ - Exercise can have a positive effect. It can also leave you fatigued and worn down. The introduction of Polar’s Nightly Recharge™ measures your recovery during the night so you can make the right decision in the morning. The Polar "Nightly Recharge" feature, looks at three core things:
Heart rate
Heart rate variability
Breathing rate

Polar’s adding another dimension to the data they collect. Which they describe as being ANS (autonomic nervous system), which is designed to measure how quickly your body calms down in the first few hours of sleep. Once you’ve slept three nights, it’ll start giving you nightly recharge scores, including the underlying ANS score as well.

The next level of differentiation is what Polar does with the 3rd new feature, “FitSpark”. FitSpark is basically a virtual coach that has no overarching fitness/seasonal goal in mind, except to give you a workout of the day. But the biggest and most important take away is that it looks at your nightly recharge scores and underlying sleep data to determine whether or not you should be doing anything at all.

Next is the app named Serene. It simply guides you through breathing exercises. The default is to do 3 minutes of breathing, inhaling and exhaling each in 5-second phases. Which you can choose to re-select and repeat. Now that’s calming!

Integrated GPS - Speed, distance and route tracking. No phone needed!
Color Touch Screen – High resolution, touch screen navigation.
Swimming Metrics – Capture key metrics like stroke, distance, and pace, both indoors and out.
3rd party compatibility - Exercise and activity data is automatically sent and is available to be used in services where you allow it. Connect your Flow account for example to Apple Health Kit, Google Fit and MyFitnessPal.

Smart Coach Features
GPS - Track your speed, distance, route and altitude.

Wrist Based Heart rate - Polar Ignite tracks heart rate with the Precision Prime™ sensor fusion technology.

Smart Calories - Know exactly how many calories you’ve burned based on your weight, height, age, gender, your individual maximum heart rate (HRmax) and how hard you’re training

Continuous Heart Rate - Get a comprehensive view on how your heart behaves during your day. Continuous heart rate monitoring gives you even more accurate calorie burn and activity data and tells you the lowest and highest heart rate of your day

Nightly Recharge - See how well you recover from your day during the night

FitSpark Training Guide - Get ready-made daily workouts that match your recovery, readiness and training history.

Activity Guide - Keep moving. Polar Ignite gives you a personalized daily activity goal that motivates you to keep moving throughout the day. You’ll see how active you’ve been, and

Polar Flow gives you practical tips on how to reach that 100%

Sleep Stages - Follow your sleep stages and get insights to your sleep quality.

Serene Breathing Exercise - Relax your body and calm down your mind with the help of a guided breathing exercise

Running Index - Get an estimate of your running VO2max and see how your running performance is developing.

Running Program - Training hard is good, training smart is better. Polar’s scientifically-validated Smart Coaching delivers the tools you need to achieve your goals with efficiency and precision

Phone Notifications - Stay connected with notifications from your phone. You’ll get alerts for incoming calls, messages, emails and calendar events.

Swimming Metrics - Follow your progress in the pool – Polar Ignite automatically detects your heart rate, swimming style, distance, pace, strokes and rest times.

Training Benefit - Get motivating feedback immediately after training describing the effect of the session

Training Load - Quantify the strain of your training session and see how your training strains your body.

With all the above features at a price that is low compared to other brands that offer more or less the same functionality. The Polar Ignite  is one to grab a hold of and use the data supplied by it to develop an increased active lifestyle that will help to take you into your golden years so that they are “Golden” and your ability to enjoy them the way we were all meant to.

We're going on out for a run in the sun, maybe we'll see you out there as well, after all, YOU are going to be living a more Active lifestyle, right?  See you out there!