The best fitness tech for college students

When all you want to do is track your activity and workouts, a smartwatch can be overkill. Fitness trackers, on the other hand, cost less, have a longer battery life and aren’t as bulky. The Fitbit Charge 6 is the one we recommend in our guide. We loved its predecessor, the Charge 5, for its low profile, lovely full-color AMOLED display and perks that make it feel more robust than a typical tracker — like Google Wallet and built-in GPS with Google Maps integration. New features for the latest model include a physical side button for easier interface navigation and the ability to pair with some exercise machines.

If you think the additional features of a smartwatch might come in handy, you should consider the Apple Watch — it’s our pick for the best smartwatch overall. We’ve long appreciated Apple Watches for their robust health monitoring and fitness tracking abilities. Its sensors can monitor heart rate and the compass, altimeter, accelerometer and gyroscope help accurately track your workouts. 

The latest edition of the Watch introduces a Double Tap feature that lets you do things like start a workout (once the watch detects one) just by tapping your thumb and forefinger together — something I really appreciate on bike rides when touching the screen isn’t an option. With watchOS 11 coming this fall, a feature called Training Load will give you a score on how hard you pushed yourself during your last workout. It will also allow for skip days when you just need a rest, without counting against any streaks you currently have in the Activity App.

Getting healthy is not about the number on a scale, but you can use that number as one way to monitor your progress towards your fitness goals. One of our favorite smart scales on the market, the Smart Scale P2 Pro by Eufy tracks not just pounds and kilos, but also your heart rate, BMI, and muscle and bone mass. It can even detect things like your basal metabolic rate and offers a bevy of stats and data in its companion app. Despite being one of the more feature-rich scales we tested, the P2 Pro typically comes in around $80, which should make it affordable for students on a budget.

This gadget shows up in many of our gift guides because it’s such an excellent self-care item. After a hard workout, the Theragun Mini can ease some soreness. Our UK bureau chief, Mat Smith, who does five HIIT and/or weight training classes per week, finds that it works nearly as well as Theragun’s much pricier Elite flagship percussive therapy gun. The triangle shape of the Mini is small enough to control with one hand so you can easily direct the massage. While it’s not exactly quiet, Theragun’s latest motors tamp down the noise a bit so you’ll annoy your roommates slightly less when you put it to work.

Mat is also a fan of TriggerPoint’s Foam Massage Ball and recommends it in his fitness recovery guide. The rigid balls can be used nearly anywhere you feel tight or sore. You can stick them on a yoga mat and roll over them to target places on your shoulders and glutes, or roll them between your back and the wall to ease tightness. They come in different sizes and firmness levels as well: the smaller ones are better for the muscles like your calves, and the larger versions are best used for bigger areas like your hips. Since they’re more compact than foam rollers, they should be easy to stash in cramped apartment closets or dorm room storage spaces.

If you like your AirPods for studying and daily listening but want something designed to handle movement and sweat, check out the Beats Fit Pro. They’re our top recommendation for workout earbuds in our guide thanks to their balanced sound that delivers plenty of hard-hitting, butt-motivating beats. The wing helps them stay in place and they’re surprisingly comfortable, according to our audio expert and senior news editor Billy Steele. 

Despite being made by Apple, there’s a good amount of support for Android devices as well, but they are a little pricey at $200. For something more budget-friendly, check out the Jabra Elite 4 Active; we recommend them in our workout headphones guide and they usually sell for around $100. For those on an even tighter budget, we also like JLab's Go Air Sport and recommend them in our guide to budget earbuds thanks to their water resistance, good battery life, secure fit and very affordable price at around $30. 

With sleep and health being so intertwined, I’d be remiss not to mention the Hatch Restore 2 here. I tested it for many weeks and found it helped me get to sleep faster and woke me up more gently than any alarm I’ve used. 

It’s a sleep machine and sunrise alarm in one, relying on a vast library of original content to help you get better rest. The sleep stories are relaxing and the ambient music is perfect for nodding off to. A variety of white, pink and brown noises can play all night if you want them to, and there’s even motivational morning stretches and talks to get you going. 

The caveat is the price: it’s $170 for the unit and $5 each month for the membership — but if a new living situation, noisy roommates or the stress of coursework has you struggling to get a good night’s sleep, it could be worth it.

Being in school can make it tough to fit in a trip to the gym, even if you have one on campus. Fitness apps make it easy to squeeze in a workout wherever it makes sense — most don’t require much beyond a small square of space and maybe a mat. One app we prefer for workouts like yoga, pilates and barre is Alo Moves. 

The service dropped to $13 per month from $20 monthly making it a little more affordable and the huge, ever-updating cache of workouts make the app feel continually fresh. You can pick sessions based on duration, difficulty and intensity. For consistency (and to eliminate decision fatigue), you can also try different "series" made up of similar workouts to do over a few days or weeks. Alo Moves also includes meditation classes, which could come in handy when class, or life in general, gets overwhelming.

For those with an iPhone, Apple Fitness+ is a little cheaper than Alo Moves at $10 per month. It also has a wider variety of classes to choose from, with yoga, HIIT, dance, kickboxing and at least eight more categories available. I like to stick with a particular instructor for a while before moving on to someone else and I'm becoming a fan of the Meditation sessions as well.    

There’s great interplay between the classes and the playlist, no doubt thanks to Apple’s expanding music rights. Class durations range from 5 to 45 minutes, so you can get in a quick workout in between classes or carve out time for longer sessions. You don’t have to have an Apple Watch to use Fitness+ either, but the on-screen, real-time stats like heart rate and burn zones can be pretty motivating.

Running, hiking and cycling are perfect low-cost, high-return workouts that can actually help you get to know the areas outside your campus. Strava’s app not only tracks your stats, but there’s also a robust social feature that can help keep you motivated, particularly when you challenge others. 

Our former weekend editor, Igor Bonifacic, said using the app helped him realize he was steadily improving as a cyclist — even when it sometimes felt like he wasn’t. Recording your rides and runs is free, as is access to the social network and use of the Beacon safety feature that lets you share your location with another person during your activities. Other features, like goal setting and route planning, require a subscription that’s currently $12 per month or $80 annually.