New Year. New You. New Tech.

Your guide to the best health and fitness gadgets.

If like most people, one of your New Year’s resolution is to eat healthier, exercise more and get fitter, then you could get the right tech for assistance, however choosing what works best for you can be a tough decision.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help. In this article we’ve picked out some of our favourite gadgets designed to help get you in the shape of your life and they’re all available through our Technology Benefit.

Fitbit Versa 2

• Beautifully designed and looks great
• Tracks heart rate, steps, active minutes and sleep
• Impressive 6+ days battery life

First up, we have the Fitbit Versa 2 health and fitness smartwatch. This stylish looking watch is similar in design to the Apple Watch and comes with hundreds of clock faces and strap variations, so you can customise your look until your heart’s content. And the battery life is great, meaning you won’t have to take it off every night to charge it back up.

The Versa 2 comes packed with all the apps and features you could ever want to help you get fit. You can select from over 15 pre-programmed exercise modes to record your workout and if you forget to press go, the Versa 2 will automatically record any activity that lasts 20 minutes or more. It is also water-resistant up to 50M, so you’re safe to wear it in the pool. It’s worth mentioning that the Versa 2 doesn’t include a GPS chip, so you will need to keep your phone on you to see your location information.

There’s lots of other useful stuff too, including 24/7 heart rate tracking, step counter, guided breathing sessions and more, but it’s sleep tracking where this watch really excels. The Versa 2 monitors how deep you sleep, your resting heart rate, duration of sleep and more to provide you with a Sleep Score and allows you to compare the last 30 days, so you can see your sleep pattern.

What separates the Versa 2 from your standard fitness trackers is the added smart features. You can receive call, text and calendar alerts, control your Spotify playlists, make secure purchases using Fitbit Pay, as well as accessing all your favourite apps for weather, sports and more. Plus, with Amazon Alexa now built-in, you can control it all just using your voice.

Apple Watch Series 5

• New Always-On Retina display
• Stream over 60 million songs with Apple Music
• Fall detection and advanced heart rate monitoring

The Apple Watch Series 5 is one of the most popular smartwatches on the market, especially if you’ve already got an iPhone. As with the Fitbit Versa 2, you can personalise the Apple Watch with a range of different straps and watch faces. You can even have your favourite Toy Story characters as an animated screen saver, or have Mickey Mouse tell you the time. The new Always-On display is great for when you just want to glance at the time without having to raise your wrist.

Apple Watch does everything you’d expect – count steps, track calories burned, monitor your heart rate and it also comes with a host of built-in exercise modes for you to choose from, including Yoga, Boxing and two specific workouts for wheelchair users. The Activity app is great for encouraging you to stand and move, although sometimes it can feel like a nagging parent telling you to get up every hour.

There’s a lot of great features on the Apple Watch that you don’t get with other wearables. Fall detection can detect when you’ve had an accident and automatically contact the emergency services, notifying them of your location. You can also download an ECG app and by touching the Digital Crown for 30 seconds the watch can look for signs of an irregular heartbeat.

The battery life on the Apple Watch Series 5 isn’t the best, meaning you will have to charge it most nights, but if you’re looking for a premium smartwatch that can do everything you need and a bit more, then look no further.

Nintendo Switch Ring Fit Adventure

• Progress through the game by completing different exercises
• 20 different worlds with over 100 levels, plus 12 mini-games
• Numerous difficulty settings for all levels of fitness

If you want to add a bit of fun to your workouts or maybe you just like gaming more than exercising, well now there’s a way to do both. With Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure, the idea is to guide your character through a series of mystical levels whilst working up a bit of a sweat along the way. You’ll need to jog, run and high knee to move your way around the map and when you encounter enemies you’ll need to defeat them using a variety of exercises including squats and yoga poses. There’s also a few mini-games and other game modes to help keep things interesting. Our verdict is a big thumbs up – it’s a great way to make your workouts feel less like hard work.

Apple AirPods Pro

• Connect to your device instantly
• Active Noise Cancellation to block our background sounds
• Audio Sharing

We all love a bit of motivational music when we’re working out which is why Apple’s new AirPods Pro are the perfect accessory to your iPhone or Apple Watch. These truly wireless headphones connect to your device like magic – simply put them in your ears and start enjoying your music instantly and they will automatically pause your song when you take them out. The new design means they are more comfortable than the previous AirPods and fit better in your ear, so they won’t fall out if you’re doing a workout or a run.

The sound quality has also improved from previous versions and with the new Active Noise Cancellation you can block out any background noise and focus on what you’re listening to. Another new feature worth highlighting is Audio Sharing which allows you to share a song between two sets of AirPods – perfect if you want to work out with a friend.

Fitbit Aria2 Smart Scales

• Measures weight, body fat and BMI
• Syncs wirelessly to your Fitbit app
• Can be used by up to eight individuals

The Fitbit Aria 2 is a smart scale that not only measures your weight, but also your body fat percentage and BMI (Body Mass Index). It wirelessly syncs these stats to your Fitbit account so you can track your progress over time and it has the ability to recognise up to eight individual users, so it can be used by the whole family and keep everyone’s data separate. This is a great little accessory for those of you already using a Fitbit device or the Fitbit app.

Salary Sacrifice Technology Benefits are a fantastic way to access the latest technology products, allowing employees to spread the cost direct through their salary. At Let’s Connect we strive to bring you the latest, exciting products, constantly updating our product catalogue throughout the year. If you’re a interested in finding out more about how to implement a scheme for your employees, or you’re an employee looking to take part in a technology benefit yourself, please get in touch by filling in the form below…