Tech Talk: The Jawbone UP3 Review (Part 2)

Hey guys, hope your week has been really great and your activity level has been high. Today, I’m here to share 2 more really cool functions in the Jawbone UP3 that I love.

For you guys who have yet to read part 1 of the review. Click here!

     1) Advanced Multi – Sensor (Tracking Heart Rate)

Whenever people talk about the heart rate monitor on a fitness tracker, they will be talking about tracking of heart rate when working out. But what many fail to notice is that knowing your resting heart rate is actually a more important function on a tracker. It is also really important to track your resting heart rate when you’re asleep as there are tell-tale signs that the fitness tracker will pick up.

The Jawbone UP3 uses their advances multi senor technology to take your heart rate throughout the day. It will even show you your readings throughout the day too! My average resting heart rate when I’m asleep is around 65bpm and when the reading went up to 75 bpm on one night, it prompted me the next morning that my resting heart rate was higher than usual and its guess is that I was dehydrated. 

And true enough, I lowered my water intake that day as I was preparing for a photoshoot. 

I’ve been wearing the Jawbone UP3 for 1 month now and here’s a graph plotting my heart rate.

2) Food logging

I seldom track my marcos but when I’m prepping for a show or a photoshoot, I’ll turn to my trusted food logging app; My Fitness Pal. I’ve been using this app since my uni days and it’s really cool to know that the Jawbone UP3 app is able to link with a big number of independent app. This helps to have all my health & fitness information holistically tracked in one app.

Here’s a sample of my day’s food intake:

I’m currently eating at a slight caloric deficit so as to lean down for a photoshoot. Still keep my protein intake high so that my muscles can recover from all my workouts.

After using the Jawbone UP3 for 1 week, I’ve found out a lot more about my life outside the gym and how to improve in those aspects of my life. I have to continue to work on the kind of sleep I’m actually getting as well as to get myself abit more active throughout my weekdays. I personally find the Jawbone UP3 very useful when you’re using it with friends or loved ones. Not only will you be able to challenge each other in different health & fitness tasks, you’ll also be able to know their lifestyle better and eventually help one another to improve.

A big thank you to Ban Leong Pte Ltd for choosing Limaran & I to review the Jawbone UP3. Visit their webstore at http://banleong.com/sg/jawbone

Ban Leong is also throwing in Free Express Delivery when you enter “Freeshipping” at the checkout page.

Thanks for reading guys!

Tech Talk: The Jawbone UP3 Review (Part 1)

Being in the health & fitness industry, I’ve had the privilege to do product testings for different sports products. But the one thing that always interests me the most is fitness trackers. 2014 was said to be the year of the fitness trackers/wearables and true enough, many players came in to try competing in this new “space”. And I’m sure you’ll agree with me that many of these players are not found in this market anymore.

But for brands that are committed to improve their products continuously, some pretty amazing things start to happen.

This year, Jawbone launched their most sophisticated fitness tracker yet, the Jawbone UP3.

I will be dedicating 2 blog posts for the Jawbone UP3 as there are a good amount of functions that is worth looking at =) Lets go!

If you have been following the Jawbone UP line, you’ll know that the UP is already having some pretty cool functions that some of the other well-known fitness trackers still do not provide. For example, the Sleep Function.

Before I go into the details of the product, let’s have a look at the new UP3.

The Jawbone UP3 comes in a nice clean packaging with the user manual & charging port nicely hidden away. And rightfully so, the main product is the band itself. This band is a one size fit most with an ultra-light weight of only 29grams.

       1) Activity Tracking

Like most activity trackers, the Jawbone UP3 tracks the number of steps that I take. I am able to set daily goals and even have a challenge with friends who are using any Jawbone UP products.

As Limaran and I are both testing out the Jawbone UP3, I sent her a 3 DAYS DUEL. The person who takes the most amounts of steps in 3 days wins. And here’s the result after 3 days =(

Limaran leads a super active lifestyle as a person trainer. She’s always up on her feet as she’s training clients throughout the day. During her free time, she’ll be getting her workouts in and preparing her meals in the gym. She hardly sits down!

As for me, I spend a good amount of time sitting in the office settling business proposals and maintaining my clients’ accounts. And I’m really ashamed to say that I can be sitting down for 2-3 hours without getting my butt off the chair! Plus I drive and Limaran doesn’t, so that all adds up.

The Jawbone UP3 not only tells you how many steps I take a day, it takes this data to the next level by explaining to me my level of activity:

I especially like the function where it plots on the graph showing the level of activity at different time of the day. And looking at the daily overview, I seem to be able to hit my daily activity goals only during the weekends.

Like the rest of the Jawbone UP products, there is an idle reminder function. When you’re idling for duration of time, the tracker will vibrate and prompt you to move about. This is particularly useful for desk bound workers. =)

      2) Sleep tracking

The one function that I find Jawbone surpassing its competitors will be none other than the sleep tracking function. The Jawbone UP3 has the advanced sleep function where it tracks your heartrate throughout the night and tells what kind of sleep you’re actually getting.

Light Sleep – During the transitional stage of sleep, you tend to move more and can be easily awakened.

REM(Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep – Characterised by dreaming, REM sleep is essential for consolidating memories and replenishing mood boosting chemicals like serotonin.

Deep Sleep – Deep sleep’s many benefits include boosting your immune system and aiding in repair of muscles and tendons.

This function gave me a huge shock when I saw my sleep results after the 1^st night:

Out of the 6hr15min of sleep, I only had 13min of deep sleep and 0min of REM Sleep!!!! I was basically getting zero quality sleep. This explains why I tend to feel tired even after a long night’s sleep, feeling like I have never rested at all.

I will like to show you how a good night’s rest look like:

As my account is linked to Limaran’s, I’m able to see the kind of rest she’s getting every night. Limaran gets good quality rest  as compared to mine. This made me start to read up on the things I should and shouldn’t do to promote Deep & REM sleep.

After making 2 small changes to my pre-bedtime regime, the quality of my sleep improved slightly.

I’m probably still a long way to reach the ideal good night’s rest but I will keep trying!

That’s all I have for you in this post. If you’re already wanting to know where you can get your hands on the Jawbone UP 3, Visit Ban Leong’s Webstore at: http://banleong.com/sg/jawbone

Ban Leong is also throwing in Free Express Delivery when you enter “Freeshipping” at the checkout page.

Till the next post……….