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No matter what your workout looks like, doing a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout can help you get the most out of every second you spend sweating it out in your home gym; logging miles on your favorite running route; or powering through your favorite bodyweight exercises at home.
Timing your intervals, keeping track of how many intervals you’ve done, and being able to constantly check in on key metrics like heart rate, blood oxygen levels and more are all key. That’s why a great fitness tracker or smart watch with fitness-tracking capabilities can be a powerful ally. Instead of checking your phone, setting new timers for each interval or just guessing at your intensity level, a fitness tracker gives you instant access to all the tools you need. You can get in the zone and focus on your form. Here are the best fitness trackers with the features you need for a flawless HIIT workout.
Best overall: Garmin Venu 2
Amazon
The Garmin Venu 2 boasts an upgraded touchscreen display compared with the previous generation. It’s larger and more responsive, so you can easily check metrics and navigate through features mid-workout. The fitness-focused smart watch can track heart rate, respiration, blood oxygen levels and more. But what really sets it apart is the ability to customize the display to show you the metrics you care about during your workout.
Speaking of that workout, the watch comes preloaded with routines that target different muscle groups or performance goals. When you pick one and tap start, the watch not only starts a timer but shows an animated display of how to perform the exercise you’re doing in each interval. As you cycle through your intervals, the watch will show you which exercise you’re on and alert you when your interval ends. So there’s no need to look at your phone at all. Just tap start on your watch and focus on your workout.
If you don’t want to use a preloaded routine, the Garmin app has a database of more than 1,400 exercises, categorized by which muscle groups they work. Build your own custom routine in the app on your phone. Then download it to your watch and get moving. The smart watch has a 4.5-star rating on Amazon. It’s on sale for $350 on Amazon right now (regularly priced at $400).
Key features:
Preloaded workouts let you jump right into a session with no prep needed
Create your own custom workouts in the Garmin Connect app and then access them from your watch
Follow along to animated workouts on your wrist
Set custom HIIT timers or choose from multiple preloaded timers
Track heart rate, respiration and more during your workout
Pros:
Built-in HIIT timers guide your workout
Custom or preloaded workouts keep your training fresh
GPS tracking logs your routes even when you leave your phone at home
Convenient extra features like Garmin Pay and music storage let you do more without bringing your phone
Cons:
Limited ability to connect third-party apps
Best for iPhone users: Apple Watch Series 8
Amazon
The Apple Watch Series 8 is one of the most powerful fitness trackers you can choose — especially if you have an iPhone to pair it with. It tracks all the essential metrics like heart rate, blood oxygen levels, body temperature and more for a clear picture of how hard your body is working during each exercise.
It even lets users take an electrocardiogram (ECG) whenever they want. Unlike the heart rate sensor, which measures beats per minute using an optical sensor (that green light on the bottom of your watch), an ECG measures electrical activity. This gives you a more accurate read on beats per minute and can add additional layers of info, like how strong your heart rate is and whether it’s beating consistently or irregularly.
Plus, it’s crack-resistant and swim-proof, so you can wear it confidently no matter what your HIIT session involves. And right now, the Apple Watch Series 8 is on sale at Amazon so you have a chance to grab it for $329 instead of the regular $399 price. The latest Apple watch has earned a 4.7-star rating after over 11,500 Amazon reviews.
Key features:
Crack-resistant and swim-proof design can withstand any workout
Call, text, stream music and use Apple Pay from your watch even when you leave your phone at home
Access to thousands of apps so you can use your favorite fitness apps with your Apple Watch
Access tons of workouts through the Apple Fitness+ app and follow them from your watch
HIIT workout mode lets you create custom interval timers
Pros:
Personalize the fitness features by connecting the watch to your favorite apps
Advanced tracking features give you a clearer picture of key health metrics
Follow workouts, listen to music and more without keeping your phone on you
Cons:
Preloaded fitness features are limited so you will need to connect it with an app to get the most out of it
Some features aren’t available if you don’t have an iPhone
Best for all-in-one training management: Coros Pace 2
Amazon
The Coros Pace 2 is the only fitness tracker on this list that can actually count your reps for you during your workout. Using data from the gyroscope, accelerometer and other sensors it can detect repetitive movements and count how many repetitions you do.
For the most accurate results, do the same exercise at least four times so the algorithm can recognize the repetition and pay attention to your form. The more consistent you are, the easier it is for your watch to tell what exercise you’re doing and when each rep starts and finishes.
While the rep counting might be its coolest feature, the Coros Pace 2 also offers tons of extra built-in fitness tracking features that are hard to find in other smart watches. Runners will love the race predictor. It analyzes the performance data and environmental conditions of your past runs and compares them to the conditions you’re in right now. So you can predict average pace and finish time for distances ranging from a 5k to a full marathon. The sleek, lightweight smart watch has earned a 4.5-star rating on Amazon and is priced at $199.
Key features:
Preloaded workouts give you pro-crafted routines you can follow from your watch
Create custom workouts on your phone and download them to your watch
Create a training calendar to get reminders from your watch when it’s time to work out and what your goal is for that day.
Sync logged workouts to that calendar to easily see how your performance is improving over the course of your training plan
Recovery timer tracks your fitness and energy levels to tell you when your body is still in recovery and when you’re ready to push yourself to the limit again
Pros:
Tons of advanced training features to manage your entire training plan in a single hub without the need for any third-party apps
Training load monitors volume and intensity during your workout to warn you when you’re overdoing it or nudge you when you’re not giving it your best
Fitness test mode gives you a baseline measure of current fitness level to design a more personalized training plan
Automatically count reps so you don’t have to keep track in your head
Cons:
For leg, hip and core training, the rep counting can be a little off unless you add in arm movements to help the watch detect repetitions
Shop more top-rated fitness trackers on Amazon
Best for heart rate zone training : Fitbit Charge 5
: Fitbit Charge 5 Best lightweight fitness tracker: Whoop 4.0
Whoop 4.0 Best waterproof fitness tracker for swimming: Garmin Forerunner 735XT
The benefits of HIIT
Instead of pushing yourself to maintain peak intensity for an entire session, or giving up and opting for an intensity level way below what you’re capable of, HIIT involves short periods — usually 60 seconds or less — of high-intensity activity where your heart is pumping at between 80% and 100% of your maximum heart rate. Those short bursts of intense exercise are followed by short periods of rest or low-intensity activity — like slowing from a sprint to a walk.
This approach makes your workout less daunting since you just have to focus on getting through the next 60 seconds of high-intensity exercise, rather than the next 30 to 45 minutes. It’s also super easy to adapt to even if the busiest schedule. Even if you don’t have time to get to the gym every day, you can probably find a few windows of time during the day to squeeze in one or two 5-minute HIIT workouts.
From a health perspective, it’s even more beneficial. Research shows that it can increase metabolism, increase muscle mass, improve endurance, and provide all of the other benefits of regular exercise but in a fraction of the time that you would need to spend on steady, moderate-intensity exercise.
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Best fitness trackers for HIIT
