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I’ve already done a preview video for the Atlas Wristband Strength Training Fitness Tracker so you can check that video and article out for more basic overall info about the Atlas Wristband Strength Training Fitness Tracker.
In this review video I am going to focus more on how the Atlas Wristband Strength Training Fitness Tracker worked for me and if it does what it claims to actually do.
Before I get into my results I do want to go over the key points of exactly what the Atlas Wristband Strength Training Fitness Tracker claims to do and what it does not do.
What the Atlas Wristband Does:
- The Atlas Wristband is an exercise tracker you wear on your wrist .
- The Atlas Wristband automatically figures out what exercise you are doing and counts each rep as you do it.
- The Atlas Wristband has a built in Heart Rate Monitor for tracking your heart rate during workouts.
- The Atlas Wristband has 3-axis Accelerometer and a 3-axis Gyroscope built into it for motion tracking.
- The Atlas Wristband App will figure out approximately how many calories you burn during a workout.
- The Atlas Wristband does have a built in watch feature that displays the time and date.
- The Atlas Wristband has a built in motor to allow for vibration alerts.
- The Atlas Wristband is water resistant to 30 Meters.
- The Atlas Wristband Syncs to your Smart Phone via Smart BT (BT LE) and syncs your workout data to the Atlas App.
What the Atlas Wristband Does not do:
- The Atlas Wristband is not an all day fitness tracker.
- The Atlas Wristband does not track your steps or sleep.
- The Atlas Wristband does not automatically figure out how much weight you are lifting.
- The Atlas Wristband does not currently have an online cloud based interface.
- The Atlas Wristband does not pair or sync with any other devices or Apps at this time.
More Details for the The Atlas Wristband:
- One of the better Optical Heart Rate Monitors I have tested. It was actually able to read my heart rate for the most part but lagged somewhat.
- The Atlas Wristband Currently recognizes about 50 exercises, however you can only place 15 of them in the Atlas Wristbands memory at any given time.
- After each set you will have to confirm the exercise type, how many reps and how much weight you used, the Atlas Wristband will remember the last weight you did from your previous set.
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Let’s take a quick look at the Atlas Wristband:
The Atlas Wristband has a two piece design with a wrist strap and removable module. The module is held in place securely using strong magnets and it works very well.
The wrist strap is fairly rigid but not overly so and uses a standard watch clasp. There is some texturing on the back of the strap but not so much on the front which helps to keep it fairly lint free.
The main module has a White PM OLED touch screen, a USB charging port on one side, a kind of on/off button on the other side and the Optical Heart Rate Sensor on the back.
Once the screen is on you can toggle using the touch screen between different options: The main watch, your Programed Workouts, your Freestyle Workouts, your Heart Rate, Device Tips and Power Off. Within Device Tips you can see your battery Power Level, select which power saving mode you want to use and see a few quick tips on how to use the device.
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The Atlas App:
Home Screen: The Home Screen has three main areas: “My Workouts”, “Plan Workouts” and the “Sync” Icon. Pressing the Sync Icon will Sync your data back and forth between the Atlas App and the Atlas Wristband. “My Workouts” shows you your completed workouts, the Summary window shows you the type of workout you performed along with how many calories you burned, your average heart rate and how long your workout was. The Cardio Window shows you a diagram of your Heart Rate Activity and the Velocity Window let’s you know if your rep speed was where it needs to be. When you use the Atlas Wristband Exercise tracking feature you will also see the exercises you performed along with their reps and the weight used for each set. You can make changes after the fact in this area of the Atlas App. “Plan Workouts” has a several pre-programed workouts that can be loaded on the Atlas Wristband, you can also create your own custom workouts and have access to the list of Freestyle Exercises that you can sync to the Atlas Wristband.
My Profile: The “My Profile” area is of course where you would setup your personal information.
Freestyle: This area again is where you have access to the 50 or so available exercises the Atlas Wristband is currently able to recognize. Again you can select 15 at a time that can be transferred to the Atlas Wristband for any given workout.
Exercise Guide: This is essentially the instructional area where you can watch a video of supported exercises. You can also select to view a brief description of how to perform an exercise and view a graphic of the muscles that are utilized in this exercise.
User Tips: This tab sends you to an online reference where you can access tips on how to use your Atlas Wristband.
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Comparisons Between other Strength Training Tracking Options:
I wanted to show some side by side comparison of the same workouts being tracked using three different methods (The Atlas Wristband, My Garmin VivoActive, and Gym Hero Pro stand alone App).
My Garmin VivoActive does not track exercises, reps, sets or weights used. It tracks your weight lifting workout activity level based strictly on your heart rate activity (while wearing an additional Heart Rate monitor). All other workout details are not recorded but in terms of calories burned this method is very accurate.
Gym Hero Pro is an App for the iPhone that is software based only and all data must be manually entered in by the user. Gym Hero Pro is however very clever and will auto fill your past data in for you which can be helpful not only by saving time but also being able to see exactly how you performed during your last same workout. Gym Hero Pro does a pretty good job of figuring out how many calories where burned and has a lot of other very useful data that you can review either on the iPhone App or online using (fitty.co) cloud based web services.
Overall the Atlas Wristband was in the ballpark in terms of Heart Rate measured but was a little on the low side which is pretty common for Optical Heart Rate Sensors and in terms of claoreis burned I felt it tracked a little bit low. I did find it was pretty good at recording what exercise I was doing and usually got the reps right. I did notice that every once in a while the Atlas Wristband would think I was doing a workout set when I was simply moving around the gym getting ready for a set. This can throw things off a bit if you don’t catch it before you start your next set. I did like that the Atlas Wristband preloaded the last weight I used from my previous exercise set which made it pretty easy to adjust quickly if I went up or down 5 or 10 pounds between sets.
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Is the Atlas Wristband Strength Training Fitness Tracker the Real Deal and does it live up to all it claims to be?
I am a bit on the fence here. I have know doubt this technology will get better and better to the point that any objections I have now will be taken care of, perhaps even sooner than later since I know for a fact that Atlas is working feverishly to improve the user experience on their Atlas Wristband.
What I think is really cool about the Atlas Wristband is that it does do a fair amount of the work for you so in a way you only have to enter in some of the data, but it is not fully automatic and either the Atlas Wristband can get confused or sometimes it’s me to blame for not interacting with the Atlas Wristband at the right time. This can lead to some missed data and if you really screw up, you may even kick yourself out of a session and not be able to get back in again.
There are around 50 pre-programed exercises you can pick from but I found there where many exercises I regularly perform that where not listed and so I either had to change those exercises or leave them to the end and skip them on the Atlas Wristband. I know Atlas is working hard to bring more and more pre-programed exercises to their Atlas Wristband but as of right now this is a big limitation for me. Atlas has said that in the future, you will be able to create your own exercises using a type of monitored user programming mode.
I was really impressed with the optical heart rate monitor since most of them simply do not work with me at all, completely failing and sometimes thinking I’m dead when my heart rate becomes elevated. So for me, at least for now I can choose the Heart Rate option for tracking my workouts but that is really not what the Atlas Wristband is all about. Once a few of these limitations are taken care of I really feel the Atlas Wristband will come into its own and I think a revisit may be in order at that time. Unfortunately for now I will have to stick with my Garmin VivoActive and Gym Hero Pro for tracking all my workout data.
Watch my Full Review Video for the Atlas Wristband Strength Training Fitness Tracker: