These 12 Health Wearables For Women Really Do. It. All.

Fitness trackers for women in South Africa have reached new heights. Gone are the days of needing the best smartwatch if you wanted to track your fitness and sleep. Now, health wearables available in South Africa are women-focused and take the form of screen-free rings, discreet chest bands and more. 

Signs A Fitness Tracker Is For You 

These gadgets – on our wrist or elsewhere – have become powerful tools that whip us back into shape and sometimes become better accountability partners than we realise. Through technology, smartwatches and health tracker wearables have been designed to clock our sleeping patterns, the steps we take, and can even alert us to dangerous health metrics like an unusual heart rate. 

A 2023 study in BMC Psychology found that among people who used technology to improve their health and fitness, the benefits included tracking features as motivation to keep going. The study also found that trackers helped with accountability and with personalised insights, a feedback loop from the device encouraged more movement. 

How to choose the best smartwatch or wearable for your goals 

You might be attracted to the allure of the buzziest new tracker, but if it offers features you just don’t need – or doesn’t have what you need – you’re wasting your money. So, which features are for which person? We’ve decoded a few key health tracker terms. 

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Fitness Tracker Features For The Adventurous Woman

If your lifestyle is part mud, part bush, you should invest in a rugged piece with all-weather protection and a solid GPS. Look for these specs when shopping: 

IP rating: This indicates how well your wearable holds up against dust and water. IP68 is a high rating and means that the device is sealed from dust, dirt and sand. It also means your device can be submerged in water for 30 minutes.   

ATM rating: If you’re a diver or watersports aficionado, you’ll want a tracker that resists water pressure. A 5ATM rating holds up against 50 metres of water. 

Battery life and charge time: A no-brainer, but the longer you can be out in the wild with your watch, the better. 

GPS: A built-in GPS system allows your smartwatch to track your location or outdoor route without a phone. Barometre: When hiking or exercising at high altitudes, this feature tracks elevation.

Smartwatches for outdoorsy women 

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Smart Wearable Specs For The Health-focused Woman 

If you’re looking to improve your health or are just interested in in-depth health metrics, the amount of acronyms and measurements can quickly become overwhelming. Most trackers use heart-based measurements to determine other factors. New sensors are also more accurate than before. Smartrings also claim to be the most accurate, because they’re positioned on the finger, where more blood flows. Here’s what to look for: 

SpO2 (Blood Oxygen Saturation): Tracks your blood oxygen levels, which can be used to inform sleep quality and respiratory health. 

HRV (heart rate variation): HRV is the time between heartbeats. These numbers shed light of stress capacity and recovery abilities. Any irregularities signal something’s up. 

ECG/EKG (Electrocardiogram): This medical-grade feature is not present in every health wearable, but is powerful, especially for anyone with health issues. ECGs detect heart rhythm irregularities and can alert the wearer when something is off. 

Skin temperature: A new-ish feature in the tracker space, the skin’s temperature is particularly revealing for women, because it helps track ovulation, making menstrual cycle tracking more accurate.

Health-focused wearables for women 

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For All-around Wellness Tracking 

Maybe you couldn’t be arsed to remember your HRV from your SPO2. Maybe you care more about the full package than any one key metric. Or maybe you’re just getting started on tracking your journey and you want a wearable health tracker that does it all. These are essential features. 

Heart rate monitoring: Almost every health tracker takes note of your heartbeat, but this number reveals a lot, from your fitness levels to overall heart health. 

Sleep tracking: Smartwatches that track sleep and delve into specific insights are helpful if you want to improve your nightly zzz’s. An overall sleep score with tips to improve your sleep are ace. 

Stress management: Combined sensor data can reveal stress levels. Some wearables offer tracking stress levels, with reminders to slow down when needed. 

Recovery insights: Metrics that show how well you’ve recovered from your workout or last night’s sleep are helpful for the next day’s work. 

Health wearables for women’s all-around wellness 

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Trackers & Wearables Specs For In-depth Fitness Tracking 

For serious athletes, technical specs help inform training decisions. These terms are the most useful when peering inside your body’s capabilities.

HRV: For fitness, HRV can indicate recovery levels; a high score means you’re ready to go hard. A low score means you should rest. 

VO₂ Max: Measures how well your body consumes oxygen, a key indicator of cardio capacity. You want this number to be higher, because it shows better fitness levels. 

Injury prediction: From tracking your training load, your wearable can predict risks, like overtraining before they happen. 

Performance indicators: Smartwatches offer different analyses depending on the sport. For runners, cadence, ground contact time and vertical oscillation can all be measured to pick up how efficient your running technique is. Other wearables can also measure body composition, including water weight, fat and muscle ratios and training readiness. 

Best fitness trackers for women serious about exercise