How Healthy Are You, Really?

Good question! You have a fitness band. So you know how many steps you take each day. But you’re not much closer to answering the critical question, how healthy are you, really?

VO2max is a valuable metric for evaluating fitness and health. Unfortunately, it’s been a very difficult metric to gather, requiring extensive lab tests. That’s changing now, thanks in no small part to wearables metrics pioneer Firstbeat. The V02max metric is now available on Firstbeat-equipped wearables like the vivosmart 3 from Garmin, the Huawei Band 2 Pro and the Jabra Elite Sport hearables. That, in turn, is empowering wearables vendors to give us some good old-fashioned fitness assessment and advice.

In our latest FT Insight video interview, we speak with Aki Pulkinnen, who heads up Firstbeat’s consumer business, about the importance of VO2max, what it means for this new band of wearables – and for your health.