Smartwatches, watches, and fitness wristbands are increasingly popular. They all promise pretty much the same things at prices that vary widely. More often than not, however, the promised features are more like items on a checklist, poorly implemented, with little real usefulness. That's why it's important to choose a quality companion if you're truly dedicated to improving your fitness status and your health in general. The HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro is a top model with many useful features that can have a real positive effect on your body and well-being. Here are seven ways it can do that, based on real-life experiences:

1. Tracking physical activity and improving general fitness

One of the best things about the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro is that it can be used to monitor over 100 physical activities, from the classic walking, running, hiking, or cycling, to very serious sports like rugby, rowing, and ice hockey or fun activities like dancing, ballet, and beach volleyball.

HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro can help you track over 100 physical activities

Furthermore, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro is one of the few smartwatches that can be safely worn while swimming and used to track your swimming sessions in the pool or in open water at depths not exceeding 30 meters (or 98 feet) and a water pressure of 5 ATM.

In addition to monitoring yourself, with the Huawei Health app, you can create workout plans according to your level: beginner, intermediate, or advanced. And then, you can easily see if you're sticking to the plan or not, how you're progressing, the metrics that matter, and so on.

Make your workout plan with Huawei Health

2. Monitoring heart rate and blood oxygen levels (SpO2)

We live in an increasingly stressful society: we have faced a pandemic, there are conflicts all over the world, inflation is on the rise, and the prices are rising. If we also have a family with young children, we might feel more stressed than ever during this time. All this is impacting not only our finances and our careers, but also our bodies. That's why it's important to be aware of how we're doing in terms of key metrics like our heart rate, both during the day and while sleeping, as well as our blood oxygen levels. How can such measurements from the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro help us? Well, in several ways:

• If you’re passionate about sports and want to be as fit as possible, you may have a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) training program and want to train at certain pulse rates. The HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro also helps you assess the fitness status of your heart and see what impact your workouts are having.
• If your pulse tends to be elevated constantly, it may be both an indicator of an unhealthy lifestyle and a sign that you may be suffering from tachycardia and should talk to a cardiologist.
• On the other hand, if your heart tends to have a very low number of beats per minute, it may be a sign of other types of problems that require an urgent medical assessment.
• A blood oxygen level (SpO2) below 90% and a rising body temperature (the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro has an included thermometer), may indicate a medical condition (e.g. a covid-19 infection greatly reduces your SpO2 level) and may be a sign that you should make a doctor's appointment.

Heart rate monitoring is useful for assessing your health

3. Detailed sleep monitoring and analysis to get more quality rest

Lots of fitness devices claim to offer sleep analytics, but very few do it as detailed as the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro. Until recently, I was using the Fitbit platform precisely because they offered detailed sleep analysis compared to other platforms. Well, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro showed me there's room for improvement. After a few days of use, I have new data about myself that will help me improve my lifestyle. For example, I discovered how my deep sleep continuity is not ideal and I need to adjust my bedtime and increase the number of weekly sports activities. Furthermore, a weekly or monthly analysis of my sleep has revealed that I fail to maintain a regular sleep schedule and tend to go to bed at different times from one night to the next, which decreases the restfulness and overall quality of my sleep.

The HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro offers exceptional sleep analysis

When I was 20+ years old, sleep was not exactly on my priority list, but after crossing the 30-year-old threshold, sleep quality is something I actively monitor and want to improve. With the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro, I can do that even better than before.

Another important aspect is that the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro is tracking many things during sleep, which can help you discover possible serious health problems. For example, if you see that you regularly have poor sleep quality and a pulse below normal ranges, with poor blood oxygenation, you may be suffering from obstructive sleep apnea. It's a surprisingly common problem that many people are not aware of, and it can be treated with the help of a sleep pathology specialist, who is often a pulmonologist.

4. Guided breathing for stress reduction

Guided breathing exercises, which consist of repeating cycles of breathing in and out for one minute to reduce stress and restore a state of balance in the body. At the end of each exercise, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro displays your initial heart rate, the one you had before starting the exercise, and the final one. It also uploads statistics gathered in the Huawei Health app on your smartphone.

Guided breathing helps you calm down

5. Fluid intake diary

Earlier this year, I had a pretty big set of medical tests done. The results continued to reiterate that I tend to have a dehydrated body, and two different medical specialists recommended that I pay attention to my fluid intake levels. I needed to increase it to a minimum of two liters of water a day. Unfortunately, doing this isn't as simple as it sounds, and the Huawei Health app together with the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro can help me keep a log of how many glasses of water and other fluids I drink each day. You drink a glass of water, open the app, and quickly enter it into the diary.

How much water did you drink today? Find out from Huawei Health

Drinking a minimum of two liters of water each day helps speed up my metabolism and burn calories faster, which then improves my overall health.

6. Default alerts and personalized reminders don't let you procrastinate

You are probably like me: when you sit down in front of your computer and start working, you enter a focus zone that keeps you glued to your chair for hours on end. During which time you don't move, don't drink water, don't rest your eyes. Unfortunately, such a routine has many long-term negative effects, and the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro helps us avoid falling victim to our own habits. By default, the watch reminds you that you haven't moved in a while and you should get up, do some stretching exercises, and rest your eyes. You can also set your own personalized reminders for things you want the watch to monitor reminding you not to be lazy.

Set reminders to keep track of your health goals

7. Reports that provide you with stats on your progress

To keep motivated on the journey to achieve a healthier body and lifestyle, we need to feel that we are evolving. The Huawei Health app helps us with this, providing comprehensive weekly reports on our activities and most important metrics: find out average daily steps compared to the previous week, average daily calorie consumption, sports activities broken down by type, etc.

Weekly reports provide an overview of your progress

So, if you've had a tough week with little fitness activities, the reports will point this out and help motivate you for next week. Or, if you're doing a workout to reach a big goal, like running a marathon, Huawei Health will show your progress week-by-week and let you know what you need to improve.

What do you look for in a smartwatch?

The HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro is a watch that I really like both in terms of the build quality and materials used, as well as the features offered, which have a real impact on my well-being. If you're curious to learn more about it, feel free to read my detailed review, found here: HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro review: Excellent design and health tracking!

Everyone has different health needs and goals, so I'd love to find out what features are important to you. Do you want more of a smartwatch or a fitness bracelet? Which features interest you most and why? Tell me what your preferences are in the comments.