Did you close your rings today?

I didn’t realise how much of a motivator numbers are for me as a runner. Not just for keeping tabs on my runs and pushing myself to run further and faster and longer, but also to get off my butt and into my running gear. A few years ago, for safety reasons, I started leaving my phone at home on my runs. But as my running became less frequent and shorter, by the time lockdown hit I had to remove “avid runner” from my bio, for shame. I was no longer running as much.

Once the tighter restrictions were lifted I would find myself fighting to get out of bed, convincing myself I “deserve the break” and to “listen to your body”, and soon months had gone by with no activity. Staring at a significant portion of my wardrobe that no longer fitted, I couldn’t figure out how to “flip that switch” and pound the pavement again. 

Turns out, all I needed was a fitness band on my arm — a Huawei Band 6 to be precise —  more discreet than a bulky phone in my pocket. I set off for my first run after three months just two weeks ago. Hitting that “go” button on a running app and clocking kilometres, speed and stride is a fix I mistakenly thought I could live without. 

The Huawei Band 6 works with iOS too, if you were wondering. You just download the free Huawei Health app onto your phone and then pair your devices. Using the smart sensors on the band, the app tracks your exercise history (supporting 96 sports modes), how many calories you’re burning, sleep patterns, stress levels, and heart rate using TruSeen 4.0 technology, which also helps monitor your blood oxygen levels or Sp02.

Post-run and back within Bluetooth range of your phone, the app syncs with the band to give you a good overview of your activities. A few gentle swipes of your band reveals a snapshot of the date and time, your steps and your heart rate.

Another swipe gives you the weather, and my personal favourite: the rings. The objective is to do enough exercise for the day so that your steps, active hours, and the intensity of your activity create a full circle of colourful, eye-catching rings when you’ve achieved your goals. That’s what people on social media are referring to when they ask: “Did you close your rings today?”

There are two cool features I really like. One is the gentle reminder you’ll get to move your body if you’ve been sedentary for too long. I’ve set the band to vibrate gently and every now and again it will vibrate and tell me: “Get up and move. Get up often.”

The second is the option to use your band as a way to interface with your phone. You can view incoming calls and messages from your various apps such as Telegram, Twitter and Instagram.

And because I’m now curious to learn more about my sleep patterns I’ve taken to sleeping with the band on — its silicone rubber strap is comfortable enough to do so.

The TruSleep 2.0 technology detects when you’re in four different sleep states — deep, light, REM and falling asleep — and records how much and how well you’ve slept. Once it's collected enough data and identified your sleep problems (from six major ones, including insomnia and excessive dreams), you’ll have an overview of your sleep patterns over the course of a day, a week, a month, and a year and receive more than 200 sleep improvement suggestions.

After two weeks of use I noticed this morning that the battery was on 2% and almost found an excuse to cancel my run. But all I needed to do was charge it for five minutes to have enough juice for a couple of days’ use. 

No more excuses.

This article was paid for by Huawei.