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If you’re looking for motivation to get up off the couch, step away from your desk or start a new exercise program, you may want a source of encouragement. Yes, you could hire a fitness coach to get you going, but who wants to pay a lot of money for all that nagging?
Instead you could save your precious funds and use wearable tech to help you set fitness goals and stick to them. The Jawbone UP is a fitness band to help you keep track of your movement as well as your sleep. By wearing UP you can monitor how much exercise you get during the day and how restful your sleep is at night.
What is UP?
UP is a flexible fitness band you wear on your wrist that syncs with an app on your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch or Android device to track your activity and your sleep. Wear the UP 24/7 to monitor your movement and see your results on the app for your phone. The app suggests goals for you and lets you set your own goals for fitness and sleep. You can see how your actual activity matches both your goals and UP’s recommended 10,000 steps a day and 7-9 hours of sleep.
Syncing
The UP band plugs into the headphone jack of your phone to sync with the app. Syncing takes just a few seconds, even if you haven’t plugged the band in for a few days.
After your UP is synced, the app will show you graphs and give you loads of information so you can see how you’re doing. The UP doesn’t have a screen so you may find yourself plugging the band into your phone repeatedly throughout the day to monitor your activity level.
One downside of syncing is that you have to remove a cap to reveal the plug. Be sure not to misplace the cap or your plug will be permanently exposed.
Battery Life
Because UP physically connects to your phone (instead of using Bluetooth) and doesn’t have a screen to power, its battery life is extraordinarily long: 10 days. In my tests the 10 day life span of the battery turned out to be very accurate.
One very helpful feature is that when you sync the UP the app tells you how much battery life is left, both in percentage and in days/hours.
Fitness Information
If you’re a fan of data you’ll be impressed with all of the charts and information that the UP app provides. View your active time, calories burned, distance walked and number of steps.
You can see:
- Active time
- Longest active time
- Longest idle time
- Total burn
- Active burn
- Resting burn
You can view your information over days, weeks and months as well as identify trends over time. You can adjust the information shown in the graphs if there is a particular aspect of your fitness and/or sleep you want to track.
Sleep
A fascinating feature of the UP is the analysis it provides of your sleep. This feature is optional and must be initiated and ended manually. You can set sleep goals, similar to your fitness goals, to see if you’re achieving the optimal amount of rest.
To track your sleep, press the end of the band until you feel a click and the indicator light turns blue. Then doze off. When you wake in the morning, press the end of the band again and look for the green indicator light.
The next time you sync your band with your phone, the app will show you information about your sleep. You can find out:
- How long it took you to fall asleep
- How long you slept
- How many times you work during the night
- How many hours of sound vs. light sleep you had
Team UP
If you want to join others in achieving fitness goals, you can connect with them using the UP app. You can have the app search Twitter, Facebook and your contacts to see if any of your buddies are also using the UP app. Use joint goals and competitions to give you incentives to move.
You can also share your activity with others using the UP app if you connect your social media accounts.
Tracking Calories
You can monitor your calorie consumption using the UP app. Enter what you eat, by looking up food in the app’s database or by scanning bar codes. You can also sync the app to the My Fitness Pal app.
➩ See, My Fitness Pal Review
Other Apps
You can link your UP account to other apps beyond My Fitness Pal, including RunKeeper and IFTTT, to take your fitness to the next level.
➩ See, IFTTT- Tech to Make Your Life Easier!
You can also use the UP Coffee app to log your caffeine intake and see its impact on your sleep.
Extra Motivation
To give you added motivation, the app shows you cards with boosts such as fitness tips, added tracking information and inspirational ideas. You can save your favorites to refer back to them later.
The app also celebrates important milestones, such as you achieving your goals, reaching your millionth step and consistently getting enough sleep. You can also set an idle alarm so the band will vibrate if you’re resting for too long.
You can record your moods to see whether they may be affected by the factors UP tracks: movement and sleep. Getting exercise and sleep may do wonders for your mood.
Availability
The UP is available in seven colors and three sizes, currently on sale at Amazon for $99.55, marked down from $129.99, and from local Verizon stores.
You can download the free app for:
The app is available in many languages, including: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
Note that you do have to have either an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch or Android device to use the UP fitness band.
Summary
If you’re looking for a way to get incentive to exercise and monitor your fitness and/or sleep, check out the UP. Those who enjoy reviewing data will get plenty with the UP app and perhaps get insights into their moods.
Your Thoughts
Have you been looking for a fitness tracker to help you get motivated to move? Do you like the idea of monitoring your activity with an app? Would you use the UP to monitor your sleep cycles? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hey Carolyn
I have seen this more and more in the shops lately and was wondering what it could really do.
Thorough review!
I am still a fan of my fitbit thought. I like to be able to “see” what I am doing (step-wise). The sleep thing would be interesting, although it is not really an issue in my life, so not something I have needed.
But eht combination is powerful. My girlfriend said it would be a better option for her as she has trouble placing the fitbit depending on what she is wearing.
So it’s has that advantage too.
have a great weekend
ashley
Hi Ashley, Yes, I do miss having a screen on the UP. But if you always have your phone with you, then syncing is very quick. There is a difference, though, between a quick glance at the device when you’re exercising and syncing the device to see how you’re doing.
I really like the sleep analysis. I’ve never had my sleep analyzed before and I found the results fascinating. I will really miss using the UP when I send it back soon.
I’m glad you are still enjoying your FitBit, Ashley. If you’ve found something that works well for you, no need to change it.
Your girlfriend might like the UP, especially in one of her favorite colors. The band fits well, I played racquetball with it for many games and never worried about it falling off. The flexibility and light weight of the band make it very easy to wear.
Doing regular physical exercise make us feel good about our self and it have a number of benefits for health. And with exercise it’s necessarily important to eat healthy food. This is truly helpful for those who always curious about their health. it’s really heart touching to know that it grant many amazing features and the best one is tracking calories, i like it most.
Hi Surajjagoori, You’re right, physical exercise has many benefits so it’s helpful to get extra motivation to get moving. This band and app can help you monitor your activity and your calorie intake so you get a better idea of your fitness level.
Hey Carolyn,
Thanks for sharing this jawbone up with us. I never heard about it, but after reading this post it really seems interesting and helpful.
Everyone wants to be Keep fit and healthy and this band really help us to keep in size. It have amazing battery power and also have a great feature of sync with any device. I am thinking to use it.
Hi Sudipto, Yes, the battery life is very long, which is helpful if you have a lot of devices to charge. You just have to remember to charge it once every 10 days. If you can’t remember, the app can remind you.
The band is helpful for those who want to monitor their fitness. I hope you enjoy your UP, Sudipto!
Hi Carolyn,
Woah..
What a handy device, indeed! :-bd
Honestly, this is the first time I heard about this device. Since I continue to exercise regularly, sometimes I can monitor myself how my body state :)>-
I like the idea of this monitoring our activities, especially if dealing with the consumption of calories. I’m sure, a lot of people out there interested in this end, especially for people who are dieting 😀
Thanks for sharing this nice review with us, Carolyn.
Hoping you have a nice week ahead.
Nanda
Hi Nanda, Yes, people who want to monitor their activity for weight loss can definitely make good use of the UP. Even when they’ve reached their weight goal, they may be interested in tracking their fitness and sleep.