The Best Fitness Tracker for Ankle: Find Out Which One is Right for You

Fitness trackers have been a revolution of this decade and are continuously motivating the world to stay disciplined on the path of good health and peace of mind. With consistent research and evolution, the accuracy of many fitness trackers is clinical.

However, on the part of the users, they have figured out ways to improve the accuracy of certain features of the fitness trackers by unconventionally wearing them on the ankle rather than the orthodox wrist.  So this post is for you! If you are looking for a reliable and accurate fitness tracker for your ankle, read through the end of this article.

Why wear fitness trackers on the ankle?

Well, most fitness trackers use wrist-based sensors to measure the step counts. These accelerometer-equipped devices assess or measure your hand movement rather than your step count which leads to a deficit of accuracy in the counting.

On the other hand, pedometers recognize the tilt angle of your body while walking to measure the step count which is much more accurate than accelerometers.

So, fitness band or activity tracker owners have tried to use their bands as pedometers for greater accuracy. The whole purpose is accurate step count which leads to better calorie data.

Fitbit Alta HR- Fitbit Ankle Fitness Tracker

If you have decided to wear a fitness tracker on your ankle, you should consider buying Alta HR from Fitbit. It is one of the most robust fitness trackers with a bunch of cutting-edge features that can be worn on the ankle. It is minimalistic in look, and lightweight and you won’t be bothered much about it when you wear it on your ankle.

Features of Fitbit Alta HR

• Fitbit Alta HR comes with Fitbit’s trademark PurePulse Heart Rate measurement technology. It can measure continuous heart rates and classify them into rate zones.
• Tracks all of your activities all day long. It will count your steps along with calories burnt, active minutes or periods, hourly activity, and sedentary time.
• It will also notify you with gentle reminders to move so that you can reach your hourly goal of 250 steps.
• Comes with the feature of showing smartphone notifications. You will be able to see calls, texts, and calendar alerts when your phone is at a proximal distance
• Fantastic automatic sleep tracking and analysis. It will also wake you up gently at the end of your sleep cycle with silent alarm features.
• Assessment of stages of your Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep and tries to recognize light, deep, and REM sleep hours.
• With the proprietary SmartTrack feature, Fitbit Altra HR is capable of automatically recognizing selected activities and logging them into the exercise section of the Fitbit App
• Comes with a high-resolution OLED display with customizable clock faces. All you need to do is tap and you can see all the stats, notifications, and of course TIME.
• Capable of saving 7 days of movements in detail (every minute) and daily stats of the past 30 days
• The facility of wireless syncing of all the data and stats with computers and mobile devices (iOS, Android, and Windows devices)
• Long battery life of up to 7 days with continuous tracking of all your movements
• Interchangeable accessories are available in metal, leather, and other materials.

SPECIFICATIONS FOR FITBIT ALTA HR

• Colors Available – Black, Blue Gray, Fuchsia, Coral, Black Gunmetal, Soft Pink 22k Rose Gold Plated
• Sizes – small, large, extra-large
• Battery Life – 7 days (rated)
• Compatible Devices: iOS, Android, and Windows

Pros of Fitbit Alta HR

• Accurate Heart Rate Tracking
• In-depth sleep tracking and analysis
• Tracks floor climbing
• Great battery life

Cons of Fitbit Alta HR

• Fitbit Alta HR is not water-proof so cannot be used for swimming
• There is no respiratory or breathing tracking
• Absence of timer or stopwatch

Garmin Vivosmart 4 – Garmin Ankle Fitness Tracker

Garmin is one of the world leaders when it comes to premium and feature-packed fitness trackers. You just cannot make a list of awesome fitness trackers without including one or many Garmin products. This list too has one- The Garmin Vivosmart 4. This slim and smart fitness tracker can be used on your ankle and it will monitor movements and energy most scientifically.

Features of Garmin Vivosmart 4

• Advanced sleep monitoring and analysis with REM sleep reading
• When worn on the wrist, the trademark Pulse Ox Sensor will monitor the blood oxygen saturation levels (SpO2) throughout the night
• Features like all-day tracking of stress, relaxation breathing timer, and heart rate monitor make it a handy fitness tracker
• Body Battery Energy Monitor is another trademark feature that analyses the energy level in the body throughout the day.
• Garmin Vivosmart 4 comes with dedicated activity trackers for walking, running, strength and body-weight training, yoga, and swimming.
• You will get extra features like alerts for incoming notifications, calls, and text messages. Android users can reply to incoming texts.
• Counts calories, floors climbed, intensity minutes, and distance traveled with utter accuracy
• While doing exercises, it can count reps automatically
• Bunch of training, planning, and analysis features for fitness regimes.
• Exclusive features include TRUE UP and MOVEIQ, and Fitness age makes it different from the rest of the bunch.

Specifications for Garmin Vivosmart 4

• Colors Available – Midnight With Black Band, Rose Gold with Berry Band, Rose Gold with Gray band, Silver with Azure Blue Band
• Sizes Available – Large, Medium, and small
• Battery Life – Up to 7 days (excluding Pulse Ox tracking feature)
• Compatibility – iOS and Android

Pros of Garmin Vivosmart 4

• Body Battery Energy Monitoring
• Swimproof
• Impressive battery life
• Inexpensive
• Slim and almost weightless

Cons of Garmin Vivosmart 4

• Generic design and nothing sort of attractive
• There is no GPS and cycling mode

Fitbit Flex 2

Like Garmin, Fitbit has multiple fitness trackers that are bang for buck. It is amazing to see how much a small and weightless device the Fitbit Flex 2 can accommodate when it comes to features and sensors. This is a screenless activity tracker with a minimalistic design but impressive performance.

Features of Fitbit Flex 2

• The slim and light Fitbit Flex 2 can do all-day activity tracking like step and calories counting, distance recording, hourly activity record, and logging sedentary periods
• Automatic tracking of your sleep quality with gentle and silent alarms to wake you up
• There is no screen but a few LED lights that flash with different colors
  • Blue LED flashes when there is an incoming call
  • Purple LED flashes for texts and other notifications
  • Different color flashes for reminding you to make a move
  • A signal indicating you are close to your personal goals of the day
• It can further recognize popular exercise and fitness activities automatically and enter them into the exercise section of the Fitbit app, credit to the SmartTrack feature
• Automatic reminders to walk around 250 steps every hour to reach your step goals
• This Fitbit Flex 2 is swim-proof up to a depth of 50 meters and can automatically detect swimming
• Battery life of 5 days with continuous tracking of all of your movements
• Wireless syncing of data to different devices including iOS, Windows, and Android
• Can be accessorized with different accessories to match your personality

Specifications for Fitbit Flex 2

• Colors Available – Black, Lavender, Magenta, Navy
• Battery Life – 5 days
• Compatible with – iOS, Android, and Windows

Pros of Fitbit Flex 2

• Automatic and accurate movement tracking
• Thin, stylish, and weightless
•  Water resistance
• Accessories available

Cons of Fitbit Flex 2

• The pendant accessory will limit the capability of Fitbit Flex 2
• Glitchy with texts and notifications with Android devices

Moov Now  – Moov Ankle Fitness Tracker

Moov Now is another uprising fitness tracker which can be worn on the ankle and it will do an excellent job of activity tracking. You will feel like wearing nothing and it will be capable of doing everything an activity tracker does and probably even more. Moov 3D is insanely sophisticated with dedicated sensors and it is hard to notice it with the simple design it has. So, let us jump to the features section to unravel the details.

Features of Moov Now

• Moov Now is popular for its high-quality and state-of-the-art Omni Motion Sensor which is a 9-axis sensor that can handle and analyze your motion inaccurate 3D.
• To compare, Omni Motion Sensor uses 4 times more sensors than other fitness trackers which increases the sensitivity and accuracy of the device to many folds
• Omni Motion Sensor can track detailed aspects of your different activities and movements like –
  • Running – Pace, cadence, distance, height, range of motion, and impact
  • Cycling – speed, distance covered, cadence, and elevation
  • Swimming – SWOLF, Stroke counts, lap counts, rest and turn time, recognizes 4 strokes, and distance covered per stroke
  • Cardio Boxing – Power, timing, technique, velocity, and duration
  • Bodyweight training – Range of motion, rep counts, progress, and pace of the exercise
• With Moov Now, you will have additional features like High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) tracking, well-planned workout video, instructions, road and route maps at your disposal
• It can further generate data about heart rate, calorie count, and sleep analysis, and sends the information directly to your smartphone
• It will start counting your reps of an exercise for workouts once the workout period exceeds 7 minutes
• Other features like Bluetooth connectivity for wireless tracking
• You will also get real-time coaching activities like running, swimming, and walking with well-designed audio and video steps
• Water and dust resistance and 6 months of insane battery life

Specifications for Moov Now

• Colors Available – Fusion Red, Stealth Black, Blizzard White, and Aqua Blue
• Battery Life – 6 months
• Compatible devices – iOS and Android

Pros of Moov Now

• Compatible with both Android and iOS devices
• The Omni motion sensor is amazing
• Price is reasonable
• Aesthetic and unique design
• Battery life of 6 months
• The coaching app is a bonus

Cons of Moov Now

• You need to check for the compatibility of your device
• The data syncing is slow and can be tedious
• Might be loose on fitting

Garmin Dynamic Pod

Another Unique Garmin device is Garmin Dynamic Pod. Well, it is not exactly for your ankle but it achieves the purpose of tracking steps and other metrics with increased accuracy compared to other fitness and activity trackers. Garmin Foot Pod goes on your shoes rather than on your ankles. Garmin Dynamic Pod is a pedometer with a twist.

Features of Garmin Dynamic Pod

• Garmin Dynamic Pod is capable of monitoring your cadence and distance when your work out indoors using a treadmill or track in your gym.
• When worn outside, it syncs with the GPS of your wrist smartwatch or band and measures steps and distances accurately
• It is small and thus can be attached to your shoelaces. It can also fit in the mid-sole pockets of some selected shoes
• It can be powered by a small watch battery and it will last for almost a year with continuous training
• The twist mentioned above is the MEMS inertial-sensor technology which is the main USP of Garmin Dynamic Pod
• This unique and capable sensor can analyze your motions with cutting-edge sensitivity and can respond to stride-length changes. The overall accuracy can be as close to 98 percent for speed and distance covered

Specifications for Garmin Dynamic Pod

Colors – Black and Light Green

Compatibility – Selected Garmin Watches

Battery Life – 1 year approx

Pros of Garmin Dynamic Pod

• Easy to use
• Specific for athletes
• Long-lasting battery

Cons Garmin Dynamic Pod

• Accuracy can be compromised
• Needs a smartwatch to work with
• Expensive for the features it has

Is there a Fitbit for the ankle?

Not exactly. Fitbit fitness bands or activity trackers are not designed to be worn on ankles. They are designed and optimized for wrist-based wearing.  However, there are some special ankle bands designed by third parties that make it possible to wear Fitbit on your ankle. This of course defeats most of the purpose of the device and strictly focuses on step counting while running and walking. Some of these special ankle bands are –

• Chofit bands
• B-Great Ankle Bands

Fitbit activity trackers have been found to work great on ankles as accurate pedometers are –

• Charge2/3
•  Flex2
•  Inspire
•  Inspire HR
•  Alta, and
• Alta HR

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)