If like me, you recently got your hands on a shiny new Fitbit to track your health statistics and reach your goals, then you may be wondering – like I was – how to wear Fitbit with Boxing gloves on?
To wear a Fitbit with Boxing gloves, you can use the larger strap provided in the box by attaching it to your forearm on the last hole in the strap and turning the Fitbit face to your inner forearm for the most comfortable experience.
I’ve tested out my Fitbit Charge 5 with my boxing gloves on, so you can see exactly how well it fits with a standard pair of gloves. So keep browsing to see how it went!
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A Note On My Experiment
I recently bought myself a Fitbit Charge 5 to maximize the potential of my Boxing workouts. I wanted to know my heart rates at resting, fat burn, cardio, and peak levels to discover how to perform better in martial arts.
I had the same consideration as you probably do, which is whether you’ll be able to wear this wrist health tracking device and Boxing gloves simultaneously.
The short answer is: well, kind of.
I tested out a few different ways of wearing my Fitbit and Boxing gloves simultaneously to see what was possible and whether it was reasonable to do it during an intense session.
It’s essential to get these health statistics out of your Fitbit but not so that it gets in the way of your Boxing session or feels uncomfortable.
Wearing Fitbit With Boxing Gloves Out Of The Box
The first thing I tried was wearing the Fitbit out of the box and putting on my Fairtex BGV14 Boxing gloves simultaneously.
Even though it seems like good boxing gloves mainly protect your fists and wrists, the length of a boxing glove travels pretty far up your forearm, too.
This becomes a problem because the default wrist strap with the Fitbit Charge 5 is barely long enough to go much further than my wrist. And I have particularly slim wrists as wrists go.
When fixing my Fitbit strap onto the last hole of the default wrist strap, it sits too close to my wrist so that when wearing a Boxing glove, it easily gets surrounded by the velcro strapping section of the glove.
The main problem with this is that it’s just uncomfortable to wear the Fitbit under the boxing glove like this. The strap feels OK as it has a rubber-like material that flexes around the wrist.
But the plastic object sitting on top of your arm and being squished down by the glove strapping into your wrist is the uncomfortable part. And I don’t recommend training while wearing the Boxing glove and Fitbit with the standard strap.
Wearing Fitbit With Boxing Gloves And The Larger Strap
The good news is that in the box with my Fitbit Charge 5 was an entirely extra strap in a larger size. It’s considerably longer and has punch holes further down the strap, allowing the Fitbit to be tightened on a much wider body part.
With the larger strap (included in the box), I was able to fix the Fitbit on the largest size possible and move the device much further up my forearm.
When I put on my gloves again with the Fitbit simultaneously, the Boxing glove still reached as far as the Fitbit on my forearm. It didn’t entirely cover it up this time, but in strapping the glove to tighten for training, it’s still pushing a bit of pressure into the Fitbit and the forearm.
However, the pressure with the larger strap is much less than with the default strap. So I think it has the potential to be worn like this during a Boxing session. But I think it’s still going to be a bit irritating as it gets sweaty and shifts around at the edge of the glove. This still doesn’t seem ideal.
An alternative that offers a slightly better comfort is to spin the Fitbit around to your inner forearm, where it sits more evenly flat against your arm (unlike the top of your forearm, which has bumpier muscles).
In this way, the velcro strap from my boxing glove could be tightened fully and not cover the Fitbit entirely.
But there is a slight “push” between the Fitbit and the glove, making the glove sit higher up your arm instead of being entirely snug around your fist. Once again, not the perfect solution.
Can you wear a Fitbit on your ankle?
The larger strap provided with the Fitbit allows you to comfortably fit it around your ankle, but it was on the last hole for me, and someone with thick legs might not be able to try this at all.
The only potential alternative to ensure that your Fitbit doesn’t interfere with your Boxing glove is to wear your Fitbit around your ankle.
It begs the question of whether the Fitbit will continue to be accurate or not on the ankle or even work at all.
Fitbit officially doesn’t support the Fitbit being worn on the ankle, and the intelligence of the software is designed entirely around it being worn on the wrist. So wearing your Fitbit on your ankle is very likely to give inaccurate data, for starters.
There’s also the issue that the wrist is a more accessible spot for the Fitbit to record your heart rate through the veins that are closer to the skin on your wrist. On your ankle, there’s much more dense muscle tissue and skin to battle with, so it simply won’t be able to do its job correctly.
So, sadly, wearing the Fitbit on your ankle is probably a bad option for Boxing, too.
Final Word: Best Solution To Wear Fitbit With Boxing Gloves
From my research and experimenting, it seems that the best solution for wearing the Fitbit with Boxing gloves is to use the larger strap on the last hole around the forearm. Then spin it around to the inner forearm before putting your Boxing gloves on.
This feels like the best way to continue getting accurate readings from your Fitbit and with the least amount of resistance and discomfort against your gloves or forearm and wrist.
So far, I’ve been enjoying my Fitbit Charge 5, but you have to remember that it is targeted at the mass audience of regular people who want to get more in control of their health and fitter. It doesn’t yet have the variation necessary for martial artists and combat sports athletes like you and me!
What to read next
That’s covered how I like to wear my Fitbit with boxing gloves, next you’ll probably want to read more like this: