High Tech Workouts

Troy Aguila of Spry Society shares his top 4 tech devices for fitness 

Story By Shanee Edwards | Photo by Maria Martin

It’s a new year and a great time to hit refresh on your fitness routine. If you’re looking to try something new or shake things up a bit, accessible, affordable technology is here to help you out.

Wearable tech has grown more personalized as sensors are now more sophisticated. While there are endless gadgets, devices and smart phone apps, Troy Aguila, owner of Spry Society Academy of Fitness in Playa Vista, gives us an overview of his favorite tech assistants.

1. Whoop Strap

“Whoop is one of the coolest wearable devices that’s come out in a long time,” says Aguila. “It doesn’t track steps but it gives you tons of data.” Whoop measures your HRV, or heart rate variability, to track the variance in time between your heart beats which is an important marker of your physical stress level. This data can not only help you train, but recover and sleep better.

Whoop also has the ability to measure a person’s “strain” or “How much you have left in your tank,” says Aguila. “In college football, pretty much all the teams play on Saturdays so they usually hit practice really hard on Monday and taper it off as they get closer to Saturday’s game.” To know exactly how much to taper off the intensity of training before Saturday, they review the player’s strain level, which is what Aguila does with his fitness clients. “I basically have my own team in the gym.” He says people are also using data from Whoop to help predict and prevent Alzheimer’s disease. “It tracks your sleep and tells you how many hours of REM you got because there’s correlations between that and physical activity, which are two of the top five things that combat Alzheimer’s.”

2. Health App on iPhone

Aguila says the Health app on your iPhone is a close second to Whoop. “It’s good because I can look at different measurements from different clients just because they have iPhones. They can also log things as far as food and meals.”

3. Continuous Glucose Monitor

Another big wearable Aguila’s clients are interested in is a continuous glucose monitor – even if they’re not diabetic. “People are really dialing into how their bodies are reacting to things they consume. If people have a bagel or a sugary Starbucks, he says, “they’re off to the races. You just started on the Magic Mountain rollercoaster of glucose.” He says he’s recently had about 20 people ask about glucose monitors. “It’s the next wave of data markers, people are really biohacking information about their bodies.

4. Peloton Stationary Bike

Aguila says people are really into the Peloton bike. “People just love it. You can join classes where you’re in live with your instructor or they have them pre-recorded. The only negative I’ve heard is that most of the live classes are on the East Coast and they’re super early.” If you don’t want to purchase the pricy bike, there’s a workaround. “I have friends who have downloaded the app service and run the classes via an iPad and just do it on their bike with the trainer you can put your road bike.” The “trainer” is a triangular device you can affix to your real bike to use it like a stationary bike.