Screen-Free Wearables: More Than Just a Step and Sleep Tracker

When we think about fitness trackers, we tend to think about steps and sleep. But wearables are becoming so much more interesting than that. I'm much more excited about how the data can help us understand our workouts, strength, cardiovascular fitness, recovery and, particularly for women, changes throughout the month.

WHOOP is probably the OG of this screen-free approach and it's the wearable I use. I love that it has such a fitness and longevity feel to it. There's also a strange little community around it — I genuinely love meeting someone else wearing a WHOOP because there's instantly something to talk about. How's your recovery? What do you track? What have you learnt from yours?

But WHOOP isn't alone anymore. Oura has made the screen-free smart ring incredibly popular, particularly for sleep, recovery and women's health, while Google/Fitbit, Garmin and newer smart-ring brands are all pushing wearable technology towards much deeper health and fitness tracking.

And that's the part I find exciting. It's not just about hitting 10,000 steps anymore (although I am obviously tracking this).

Wearables can bring together your daily movement, sleep, heart rate, HRV (heart rate variability), workouts and estimated VO₂ max to give you a much bigger picture of your fitness and recovery. If I'm strength training, for example, I’m interested in whether I'm training consistently, challenging my body, recovering properly and maintaining the cardiovascular fitness and strength I want as I get older.

For women, the data can be even more interesting. Things like HRV, resting heart rate, temperature and sleep can change throughout the menstrual cycle. A wearable isn't there to diagnose your hormones, but over time it can help you recognise your own patterns. Maybe your sleep regularly changes at a certain point in your cycle, or you notice differences in recovery and training. I’ve noticed my sleep quality drops around the end of my cycle, so I account for this when planning my week and workouts and being more intentional with my wind-down routine. It’s less about chasing a perfect score and more about understanding your own normal.

Perhaps my favourite thing about screen-free wearables, though, is simply not having another screen on my wrist. Although I blog and run businesses through social media, I want more autonomy over when I access it. I’m trying to limit my time online and be more intentional about when I check it. If I wake up and the first thing I see is an email about work, it can get my day off to a bad start. I’d rather choose when I’m ready to engage with it.

For me, that's where wearable technology fits into longevity. It's not just a sleep tracker or step counter. It's a tool for understanding how you move, train, recover and change over time — without adding another screen to your day.

The Screen-Free Wearable I Use

I wear WHOOP to track my training, sleep and recovery. If you're interested in the wearable I use:

→ Take a look at WHOOP here

Prefer a ring? → See the Oura Ring on Amazon

Looking for a more affordable option? The new Google Fitbit Air brings the screen-free concept to a much lower price point, with activity, sleep, heart-rate and recovery tracking — a great option if you like the idea of going screen-free but don't want to invest as much initially. → Google Fitbit Air

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