My Journey Through Fitness Wearables

Here's the thing about fitness wearables: everyone's got an opinion, and most people will swear by whatever they're currently using. Ask ten people and you'll get ten different answers. Apple Watch. Garmin. Oura. Fitbit. Whoop...

I've been on my own winding path through the wearable tech landscape, and honestly? It's been a journey of trial and error, figuring out what actually matters to me. Not what the marketing says. Not what the influencers are hyping. Just... what works for the way I actually live and move.

So let me take you through it.

The Beginning: Catapult and College Basketball

My first real introduction to wearable fitness tech wasn't something I bought—it was something I wore as part of a research program during college basketball at UC San Diego.

We were part of a one-year study using Catapult Vector devices. These things weren't exactly consumer-friendly... we wore them in the back of adaptive sports bras during practices and games, and they tracked every jump, every cut, every sprint. The data was incredibly granular—acceleration, deceleration, player load, all of it.

What made it especially interesting for me was that I also interned for the San Diego Sports Performance department at the time. So I wasn't just generating the data—I was helping process it, building dashboards, working with force plates and other performance tech. It was my first real glimpse into how powerful wearable data could be when you actually knew what to do with it.

But here's the catch: this was all high-level sports performance stuff. Not exactly something you wear to track your morning run or log a weightlifting session. When college ended, so did my access to that kind of tech.

The Apple Watch Era (2020-2021)

Fast forward to 2020-2021. I started working somewhere with a health and wellness subsidy, and like many people, I went straight for the Apple Watch.

Look, I know for most people, the notifications and smart features are a pro. But for me? It was too much. I didn't want my wrist buzzing every time someone sent me an email or a Slack message. I wanted a fitness tracker, not a second phone.

So I stopped wearing it. For a while, I just... didn't track anything. And honestly, that was fine. Until I started getting curious about the stuff that wasn't just activity-based.

The Ring Phase: Ultrahuman (2024)

By 2024, I was getting more interested in the bigger picture of health—sleep, recovery, strain, all the things that happen when you're not working out. I'd been hearing about the Oura Ring, which seemed perfect... except for that subscription fee. At the time, I just wasn't sold on paying monthly for data that should be mine anyway.

Enter Ultrahuman Ring. No subscription. Solid metrics. I gave it a shot.

After about a year and a half, I'd gotten what I could from the Ultrahuman. I understood my sleep patterns, learned some recovery basics, but the device just couldn't keep up with how I was actually moving through life.

Grabbing weights with a ring on your finger? Not ideal. Rolling in jiu-jitsu with a ring? Potentially dangerous. And when your two main activities are things you can't even wear your tracker for... what's the point?

Where I Am Now: Whoop

Which brings me to my current setup: Whoop.

I'll be honest—I was hesitant about another subscription model. But Whoop offered a full free month trial, which gave me actual time to test it in my real life (not just a week where I'd still be figuring out how it worked). And more importantly, it solved the problems I'd been running into.

The game-changer for me was jiu-jitsu. I train almost every day, and it's high output—rolling, drilling, sparring. None of my previous trackers could handle it, either because I couldn't wear them safely or because they didn't register the activity properly.

Whoop has different wearing options, including a bicep band and even clothing with built-in pockets (sports bra, compression shorts). I can actually wear it during training, and it actually captures what I'm doing. That alone made the switch worth it.

Plus, and this is key for me: no screen. No notifications. No smart features. It's just data. I check the app when I want to, not when my wrist tells me to.

What I've Learned

After going through all of this—from research-grade sports performance tech in college to consumer wearables I've tried and abandoned—here's what I've figured out:

The "best" tracker is the one you'll actually wear. Sounds obvious, but it's true. If you can't wear it during your primary activities, or if it annoys you enough that you stop using it, it doesn't matter how good the data is.

Know what you actually care about. Do you want activity tracking? Recovery insights? Sleep data? Notifications and smart features? Different devices excel at different things, and there's no one-size-fits-all.

Your needs will change. What worked for me during my weightlifting phase didn't work once I started jiu-jitsu. That's fine. It's okay to switch devices as your life and priorities shift.

Subscription models aren't inherently bad. I resisted them for a while, but if the device actually delivers value and fits your lifestyle, the monthly cost might be worth it. For me, Whoop's subscription is worth it because I'm using it every single day in ways that matter to me.

The Bottom Line

I'm not here to tell you which wearable to buy. What works for me might not work for you, and that's the point—we all move differently, have different priorities, and use these things in different ways.

But if you're on your own journey through the wearable tech landscape, struggling to find something that actually fits your life... you're not alone. It's a process. And sometimes the best way to figure out what you need is to go through a few things that don't work first.

Right now, Whoop is working for me. Will it still be my device in two years? Maybe. Maybe not. And that's okay too.

The journey continues.