Wearable Review: MooV Now

Our baby daughter was waking every 2-3 hours – what else would you expect from a one-month old? – and I had agreed to do all the night feeds allowing Tan, my wife, to sleep through. Looking back, maybe this wasn’t the best weekend to test a wearable! But, then again, this is real life and wearables are useless if they cannot withstand the challenges of reality. So how would the multi-functional MooV Now track my sleep in such a disturbed night? I was eager to find out and if you are too read on…

In this review we will look at what the MooV Now is and how it can help your personal performance in relation to the big four intelligences. The big four intelligences are mental focus, emotional intelligence, physical sustainability and purpose. In my experience, the most effective leaders devote attention to all four.

What is it?

The MooV Now is a slimline wearable for the wrist or ankle. (When tracking cycling, the device must be worn on the ankle; for some other activities you may choose.) It is a multi-functional device that tracks sleep and various forms of exercise including running, swimming and cycling. Few devices have the ability to do this. This unique combination of run/swim/bike/sleep/hotel room workout all in one device immediately intrigued me.

Sleep tracking: good but not great

Wear the device on your wrist while you sleep and it claims to log the quantity and quality of your sleep. However, during the night when I was up feeding our baby daughter it made two errors. Firstly, at bed time it did not count me as being asleep for about one hour, whereas I fell asleep immediately. Also, when I woke at 2am to feed her, it logged me as being awake for only 20 minutes (not the hour it took me to feed her). I think it made this second mistake because I was sitting so still it must have assumed I had dropped off. Perhaps a heart rate monitor (not just motion sensor) would improve its accuracy. Despite these anomalies, on other nights the Moov Now logged my sleep data as accurately as I can estimate.

Better sleep is associated with improved mental focus, emotional state and physical recovery. And the more you track your sleep, the better information you have about whether and how to take action.

Hotel room/indoor workouts: game-changing

A friend of mine once shared with me a workout that can be done in a hotel room. (For those of us that travel a lot, having a simple work out that is easy enough to do consistently and is challenging is very important, because when travelling it is very easy to eat badly.) This workout – given to her by her husband, a former marine – is called “Crazy Eights” and involves doing lunges, burpees, push-ups and five other exercises. When I had the motivation to do Crazy Eights I found it helpful, but I frequently found I lost motivation.

This is where the Moov Now comes in. When paired with your smartphone, the app includes an on-screen coach whom you can see doing the same exercises as you. There are six exercises providing a very good all body workout: jumping jacks, squats, plank, lunges, push-ups and sit-ups. Not only this but the audio coach encourages you, gives you technique hints, counts your reps, and alters what she says based on the reps you are actually doing. For all six exercises, the gyrometer and other technology built into the Moov enables it to know exactly how you are doing.

Here are reasons why the Moov Now works so well with the hotel room/indoor workout:

• The workouts are simple, quick and got my pulse up (and I’m fairly fit). Great for executives travelling in hotel rooms or busy people with only 15 minutes to do some useful exercise.
• It counts your reps for you. Yes, it is possible to trick it (e.g. my moving your arms in a certain way instead of lunging), but who are you really tricking? Also, I found there were many ways I couldn’t actually trick it. I tried to twist my sit-ups to get my lateral obliques working instead of a straight sit-up, and it gave me a targeted technique hint designed to keep my form straight. Similarly in jumping jacks when I didn’t keep my arms straight, it advised me to.
• It saves some new tips for higher levels. For example, it was level 6 before the coach told me about using my heel to push off from the bottom of a lunge.
• The video coaching is encouraging and varied, approximating the approach of a skilled personal trainer. For example, it does not always say the same thing at the same point during a set, selectively giving isolated technique hints such as “Keep your back straight”. However, occasionally the turns of phrase used by the Moov Now coach made me laugh out loud.

For someone like me who finds that minor injuries frequently keep me off sport, this range of regular low impact exercises were ideal. Not doing sport makes me more lethargic and less alert. After doing a hotel room/indoor workout I find myself more mentally focussed for hours later.

Running and cycling: while not a specialist device, some excellent features

 

My first run wearing the Moov Now was very valuable. It gives stride length, impact and cadence analysis, and I learned that my cadence is too low. This is something which wastes energy and can promote injury (of which I have had a lot). However, on one occasion the Moov coach told me that my pace was 7 mins 12 sec per kilometer. Usually I wouldn’t know to challenge this, but it had also just told me that I had run 2kms in 14 mins. I don’t know whether this was a mathematical error on the part of the Moov, or if the pace stats are from an earlier part of the run (in which case the coaching is confusing at that point).

As a newly converted road cyclist, I found the cycling cadence analysis excellent, not least because it meant I didn’t need to invest in a specialist device. My suggestion to Moov would be to add indoor cycling functionality – why is the cadence analysis only appropriate for outside cycling? Surely it is possible to add cadence analysis for a gym bike.

The Moov Now also failed what I call the ‘Superman test’ which refers to whether the wearable can recognise when I travel at more than 100 kilometres per hour (in my case by train). Last December according to the MooV Now I ‘cycled’ from London Paddington to Oxford, averaging over 100 kilometres per hour for most of the journey apparently!

Overall

I have labelled the Moov Now a breakthrough device because it fitted into my lifestyle very easily. It helped me improve my fitness and therefore my alertness, but without becoming cumbersome.

Positives

• Home based workouts are simple, motivational and build fitness to a high level for those who follow the programme
• Targeted coaching begins to approach the standard of a human personal trainer, being based on your actual cadence or reps, not just speed.
• Some pro features are standard, such as cycling cadence analysis, and running impact and gait analysis
• Excellent battery life

 

Negatives

• Oddities with some of the data
• Failed the Superman test (but then most wearables do)
• No mindfulness or mental focus elements. These relative simple additions would take it up a level.

My overall verdict: I loved it and would recommend it

What next?

Unsure what wearable to choose? I have studied the major wearables so you don’t have to. Use my guide to inform your decision about what to buy. Sign-up below and I will send you my FREE guide “How to choose a wearable that will help you lose weight, improve my mindset and become more productive”. This guide includes:

– the 3 key factors to bear in mind when choosing a wearable

– features and benefits comparison table that rates seven of the most important wearables today on factors including compatibility, ecosystem and how much they help you with each of the four intelligences.

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