TomTom has announced that it is adding two new features to its sports-focused watches, called Fitness Age and Personalized Workouts. The two features center on customizing the fitness tracking and workout experience for each user, and make use of a large volume of data collected by the watch. Things like oxygen levels, average activity levels, heart rate data are just some of the data sets that go into determining a user’s Fitness Age. This data comes together to help determine a user’s Fitness Points. Individual strengths and weaknesses are considered, along with user-set goals, to create personalized workouts using that data. These new features should be live in the TomTom app some time in September.
In order to calculate the fitness age, many bits of data are distilled to one key metric; VO2, or the amount of oxygen an individual can take in and use up per minute. That data is compared to averages for the user’s age and gender, and the result determines the user’s Fitness Age. That, in turn, determines things like recommended workouts, optimal intensity, and recommended workout frequency. This all comes together to award the user Fitness Points for each workout, which goes into helping to optimize their Fitness Age. Data collected during this process is used to figure out what a user’s strengths, weaknesses, and limits are, which is enough data to create personalized workouts. These consist of 50 different running and cycling workouts per week, with the workouts modified by a user’s Fitness Age and goals. The goal is to calibrate things to where a user earning 100 fitness points per day can maintain their current shape, while users shooting for improvement can improve their fitness age by earning 500 Fitness Points on at least three days each week.
Sports & Exercise Medicine professor Urho Kujala was involved in the research behind the creation of these new features for TomTom’s range of sports wearables. Professor Kujala stated that the research that went into TomTom’s fitness watch lineup allows the products to go beyond normal fitness and exercise measurements like steps and sleep tracking, providing users a full, personalized experience that knows their body and goals. Along with all of these advanced features, TomTom’s watches also feature Autopause, keeping short breas from corrupting data, and can link to a user’s smartphone to provide notifications on the watch.
