A step too far: the psychological impacts of fitness trackers on mental health.
The prevalence of technology in fitness has been incredibly rapid. This is what makes studying how it impacts our psychological health so invaluable. Fitness trackers such as watches are used by athletes of all levels.
These devices utilise biological feedback such as heart rate in addition to movement to provide users with insight into their health (Wright and Keith, 2014). Those just getting into fitness love these devices as they provide quantitative feedback into how they are progressing towards their goals. Moreover, having this constant recall and reflection about daily activity (and inactivity time) has been thought to promote positive behaviour change over a prolonged period of time (Stagier et al, 2016).
However, there are growing concerns over the negative psychological impacts of using fitness trackers. Research suggests that some individuals appear to become obsessed over the data and numbers, which may not always be accurate, but lead to negative long-term psychological effects (Blackstone and Hermann, 2020).
Blackstone and Hermann (2020) asked university students to report on their experience with their fitness trackers, 70% of the students reported engaging in certain compensatory behaviours to reach a step goal while 50% reported doing compensatory behaviours to reach a caloric goal. Experiencing these maladaptive patterns as a result of fitness trackers in combination with increased internal stress also removes one of the principal purposes of doing exercise, which is to feel good internally and externally. Compensatory behaviours observed in these students involves increasing exercise the next day as well as decreasing food intake.
This finding was also observed in a study involving 200 women (Duus and Cooray, 2017). This internal pressure to reach daily targets was so prevalent, that many reported that their ‘daily routines were controlled by their watch’. Additionally, participants felt internal pressure due to worrying about what others would think about their run when they uploaded it to various platforms, and in turn, finding exercising less enjoyable. Concurrently, if they did not have their watch on, they felt like it ‘didn’t count’ or just felt less motivated in general.
Experiencing these maladaptive patterns as a result of fitness trackers in combination with increased internal stress also removes one of the principal purposes of doing exercise, which is to feel good internally and externally. Compensatory behaviours observed in these students involves increasing exercise the next day as well as decreasing food intake.
These studies highlight a critical problem with fitness trackers in the sense that there are addictive. We get attached to the numbers and to what others think, but forget about the whole purpose of why we exercise in the first place. Intentionally changing routes to accumulate more steps, or eating less because we didn’t quite manage to hit our daily goal, seems a bit ridiculous when one really reflects on it.
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In addition to these studies, I conducted my own survey on Instagram asking my followers about their own personal relationships with their fitness trackers. Whereas a lot of people reported how they were motivating, great for tracking progress and seeing what others do, a lot of people reported that they had detrimental effect to their mental health (see images below).
One answer I would particularly like to highlight is the individual who says they feels like the tracker is great during her ‘hard block’ of training; but hates it during the ‘off season’. This again highlights this dependency to receiving positive feedback from the tracker instead of being active for our own health/goals. It also suggests that we may be using them as a comparison, and when we do more than others, we feel better about it. However, research on this is yet to be done, thus no conclusions can be drawn from this.
In conclusion, fitness trackers provide users with awareness of what is going on inside their bodies, however they may not always have positive outcomes. Findings suggest that some individuals create a dependency to their fitness trackers that result in executing compensatory behaviours. Moreover, this may lead to creating a negative relationship with exercise in the long run as well as negative impacting the individual psychologically. Although fitness trackers are not inherently bad, and lay actually be really valuable to certain athletes, this all depends how they are used and critically, on individual differences.
By Anne-Sophie Pierre – @annesophie.pierre
30th November 2021
References
- Blackstone, S. R., & Herrmann, L. K. (2020). Fitness wearables and exercise dependence in college women: considerations for university health education specialists. American Journal of Health Education, 51(4), 225-233.
- Duus, R., Cooray, M., & Page, N. (2017). Agentic technology: The impact of activity trackers on user behavior. In Creating marketing magic and innovative future marketing trends (pp. 315-322). Springer, Cham.
- Stragier, J., Abeele, M. V., Mechant, P., & De Marez, L. (2016). Understanding persistence in the use of online fitness communities: comparing novice and experienced users. Computers in Human Behavior, 64, 34-42.
- Wright, R., & Keith, L. (2014). Wearable technology: If the tech fits, wear it. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 11(4), 204-216.
Psychotherapy in Sport: a standalone discipline or a supplement to Sport Psychology?
Sports psychotherapy and sport psychology can work in unison to improve the outcomes for athletes.
The role of the mind in either facilitating or hindering performance in sport has been well documented since the turn of the century. Popular streaming services like Amazon and Netflix have each released documentaries like Andy Murray: Resurfacing and Untold: Breaking Point, detailing the mental battles athletes face during their careers. Further to this point, many coaching related courses in the United Kingdom have introduced sport psychology modules for the future cohorts of coaches to engage with. Mental skills training is now seen as integral to the development of a coach’s philosophy. As a hopeful Sport and Exercise Psychologist, it is a question I ask dauntingly: Will there be as much need for Sport and Exercise Psychologists in the future?
The differences between sports psychotherapy and sport psychology are covered as part of the “Introduction to Sports Psychotherapy” online course delivered by Sports Psychotherapy Academy which is now available to enrol onto. Click here if you would like to gain more information.
Could the future landscape of player care in sport could see the merging of the two cousin disciplines? Not all athletes issues come on the pitch/track, often it is their performance that is impacted due to issues away from their sport. A key tenant of the use of Psychotherapy within Sport is to develop the person first and the athlete second. (Martens, 1987; Campbell et al, 2021). With athletes occupying a plethora of roles distinct from their role as an athlete, the amount of pressure socially and professionally linked to them is astronomical.
Due to these pressures and the many more challenges athletes face. It is clear that psychological support is needed for individuals. Nesti (2004) expressed that it is common for younger athletes to have not yet developed the repertoire to express how they are feeling. Therefore, individuals must be emotionally literate for them to best utilise the benefits of talking therapy (Psychotherapy).
For those individuals who are not emotionally literate, the addition of sport psychology educational sessions within an academy environment, will help the ability for individuals to better understand more about psychological principles. Allowing them then to fully benefit from the use of a working psychotherapist within their sporting environment. There is an agelong argument first brought to light by Greenspan and Feltz (1989) that professional athletes already possess the mental skills which has enabled them to separate themselves from amateur level athletes. If this is true, then surely practitioners’ efforts should lie away from training mental skills when consulting athletes at the top of their game.
A recent report revealed that Olympic and Paralympic sports, excluding sports like football and rugby union, contributed £25 billion to the UK economy for the year 2017, the greatest ever figure (Sport Industry Research Centre, 2021). The financial pressure sports teams endure can be diffused onto their athletes as there is a lot riding on their success. Sports organisations can help ensure that athletes’ varied needs are attended to by bringing a sport psychotherapist on board (Bloom, 2021).
The acceptance of psychological principles is covered across the footballing hierarchy with the notoriety of the four-pillar model: Tactical, Technical, Psychological, Physical. However, educating individuals on psychological theory, and applying the workings of a Sport Psychologist may be the first step in what else can be achieved. In order to better equip players, coaches, parents and other key stakeholders in higher psychological awareness, more can be done.
By implementing the work of a Psychotherapist with experience of the workings within sport, understand that the impact and support that can be achieved and offered through education and available professional services can enable athletes and individuals a greater ability to manage the challenges and difficulties they may face when entering a professional sporting environment, whether that be on the pitch or off the pitch.
It is practitioners’ responsibilities to decide where to draw the line when it comes to how best their competencies can help individuals. Those in a helping profession are morally obliged to provide a duty of care to the highest possible standard. Dealing with problems which practitioners are not well versed in risks endangering the athlete. To avoid this occupational hazard, sporting organisations should look to harness the capabilities of both Sport and Exercise Psychologists and Psychotherapists to work in collaboration so that the correct referrals can be made if necessary.
By – John-Paul Kerfoot
Twitter – @jp_kerfoot
24th November 2021
References
- Bloom, G. (2021). Taking psychotherapy into sport—A clinical perspective. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research.
- Campbell, N., Brady, A., & Tincknell-Smith, A. (2021). Developing and Supporting Athlete Wellbeing: Person First, Athlete Second. Routledge.
- Greenspan, M. J., & Feltz, D. L. (1989). Psychological interventions with athletes in competitive situations: A review. The sport psychologist, 3(3), 219-236.
- Martens, R. (1987). Science, knowledge, and sport psychology. The sport psychologist, 1(1), 29-55.
- Nesti, M. (2004). Existential psychology and sport: Theory and application. Routledge.
- Sport Industry Research Centre. (2021). The Economic Importance of Olympic and Paralympic Sports, an update (2017). https://www.uksport.gov.uk/-/media/files/investment/uk-sport—olympic-and-paralympic-sports-satellite-account-2017.ashx