Moov Now Review: How This Fitness Tracker Helps You To Be A Better Runner

Ever heard of the Moov Now wearable? I bought this fitness tracker a few weeks ago because its features promised some benefits for runners. So after using the Moov Now several times now I though I’ll write a Moov Now review and tell you all about it.

So let’s dig right in!

Introduction

Moov Now: Key Features

So what is the Moov Now? It’s a lightweight fitness tracker that collects 3D motion data and gives you instant audio feedback through the mobile Moov App. Moov Now is the successor of the Moov and focuses on acting as a virtual coach for endurance athletes.

So these were a few introductory words from me but check out the promotion video from the manufacturer to get you started:

As most trackers available today the Moov Now is not only a device but also an App for your smart phone. So let me give you a quick overview about these two pieces that work hand in hand together to help you improve in your favorite sport.

Moov Now Hardware

In the small package you’ll find a small round device about the size of a coin. You can choose from four different colors: blue, red, white and black. This little device mainly consists of the motion sensors, a small storage, the bluetooth module to connect to your smart phone and the battery (CR2032) that will work for about six months.

The Moov Now tracking device

So that you have this little thingy in your hand you need to strap it around your wrist or ankle. For that purpose an elastic strap is included. It holds the tracking device in its middle and is adjustable so it fits all sizes.

The device is very easy and comfortable to wear, you won’t recognize it much when working out. However there’s room for improvement on the strap especially the clasp. It’s not that easy to close the strap but it also might open quickly. On my first workout when I was wearing the Moov Now on my ankle I lost it after about a mile. Luckily I noticed it and found it a bit later.

Moov Now tracker and wrist/ankle strap

The Moov App

The tracker on your wrist doesn’t help you much you also need a Smartphone to connect with your Moov Now. You can download the App for your iOS or Android device free of charge. From the App you start the workouts and it saves your activity and training data for later review. You can also check your progress or connect with friends.

You connect your tracker with bluetooth. However for energy-saving reasons you need to reconnect your device before each workout. To synchronize your daily activity data from your device to the App you also need to connect regularly. In my opinion the long battery life is worth it.

I’ll get into the specifics of the App’s functionality later in this article.

General Features Of The Moov Now

The new Moov is obviously great for runners and has a focus on endurance sports. However you can do more with it for example track your daily activities and even your sleep. I’ll go into more detail what the Moov Now can do for you as a runner later. Let’s first have a look on the general features.

Daily Moov

The everyday activity tracking is called Daily Moov. It combines not only activity tracking throughout the day but also helps you to analyze your sleep. The functionality is pretty basic and well known among other fitness trackers or smart watches like the Apple Watch.

Your daily goal is the known 30 minutes of increased activity like a brisk walk or any kind of sports. In the App you have a log for each day that shows your activity minutes, calories burned and the workouts you did that day.

You can also check your sleep in the Moov App. In a graph it shows when you were awake and the different sleep phases “light” and “restorative” as well as the percentages of your total sleep time.

What you see and get with the Daily Moov

Run & Walk Coaching

Probably the main sport that the Moov Now is for is endurance running. Combined with walking there are five different training types for that sport. I don’t want to go into more details about the running workouts here, as I will cover it in-depth further below in this post.

Cycling Coaching

If you wanna use Moov Now for your cycling training you can choose between two types of workouts. The first one is “Ride outdoors”. You wear the Moov around your ankle and perform an open distance outdoor ride to increase your endurance. You get ongoing audio coaching feedbacks on your distance, cadence and route. It’s recommended to have a cadence between 90 and 120. Make sure you only use your headphones on one side. You don’t want to lose the focus on your surrounding when you train outdoor on the streets.

The other training option for bikers is to track and analyze indoor rides. This workout is actually pretty similar to the outdoor one but the Moov coach pushes you a bit harder to achieve a personal best.

I haven’t used the cycling workouts myself but you can get more information on that in this post.

Swim Coaching

For swimmers there are no different workouts. You can just track and analyze swimming trainings. However the tracker supports different types of swim styles like backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle. Obviously there’s no audio coaching here as most swimmers don’t wear headphones when they swim 🙂

I also haven’t used Moov Now for swimming but read this article if you want to know more about it.

At Home Coaching

There are two additional workouts you can do at home:

Circuit Training
This one coaches you though a high intensity strength workout. You’ll perform some basic strength exercises like jumping jacks, squats, crunches or planks. In a workout you do a number of repetitions and repeat the circuit three times. The number of repetitions is defined by the level (1 – 12) you are training in. The great thing here is that Moov Now can recognize the repetitions and the App will count for you. Instructional videos show you how you should perform each exercise.

Moov Now circuit training

This one is pretty fun and you can track your improvements – as with all other workouts – over time in the Moov App. This one is great as a cross training if you are a runner.

Cardio Boxing
Another fun endurance workout is cardio boxing. The Moov App will show you different punches. Ideally you have two Moov Now trackers for this exercise, one for each wrist. For the training session you should place your smartphone in front of your eyes as it shows the punches you should do. There’s also audio feedback on how you’re doing during the workout.

This is also a great and fun cross training if you are an endurance athlete.

Moov Now For Runners

So let’s get into the main topic here. I gave you a short overview of all the different workouts you can do with Moov Now. As I tested this device I mainly used it for running and so I’d like to outline the running features and my experiences in more detail.

What The Moov Now Will Measure

This for me is one of the big advantages of the Moov Now. Usually smart phone apps like Strava measure your distance and pace and your heart rate if you connect a watch or breast-band to it. You can do this as well with the Moov App but there’s more:

Impact Score
This is a great indicator on how soft you are running. It measures how hard you hit the ground in multiples of the g-force. Moov suggests an ideal range of 1-12 g’s and states that above 20 g’s is to hard on your joints and can lead to injuries. I tried several times to run as softly as I could but never managed to get an impact score lower than 15. Also I didn’t see a big difference when running in different style. So I’m not too sure this measure is fully accurate. But it showed me to have a bigger focus on my running form which is a good thing!

Cadence
The cadence measures the amount of steps per minute. Analyzing this measure shows you if you should work towards a shorter stride. The optimum range is between 160 and 190 and I managed to run in the lower end of this range.

Range of Motion
The range of motion is another indicator on a proper running form. It measures the angle of your leg’s forward-back swing. A lower range of motion increases your running efficiency and you’ll have a higher range of motion when you increase your speed.

The Moov Now measures for runners

These three measures are awesome if you like to work on a proper running form and your overall biomechanical running efficiency. It’s definitely a great addition to measuring your pace and distance as well as your heart rate. Combined you have a great set of data that shows how you’re doing as a runner.

Workouts For Runners

After describing the new indicator that you can measure with the Moov Now it’s now time to have a deeper look at the different guided workouts you can do as a running. There are five different workouts for walking running and sprinting which looks like Moov had the runner’s in mind when building the device and App.

Walk to sweat

This is a brisk walking exercise that isn’t that easy. You most probably will sweat after this workout. It guides you through some intervals where you should achieve a certain cadence. The audio feedback let’s you know when you’re not in an ideal range so you can adopt. You can choose from 66 different levels. The higher the level the longer and faster are your walking intervals. This exercise is great as cross training or when you come back from an injury and don’t want to start running yet.

Run farther and easier

This workout is all about your running form and efficiency and helps you build endurance as well. You’ll go through several intervals that change in number and duration the higher level (16 in total) you choose. Again you get feedback if you’re in the desired cadence and range of motion. Training with this guided workout can have a nice impact on your form and can help you prevent common running injuries.

Improve my pace and distance

This one is the classic interval training and helps you to run faster and longer. It features 69 different levels for beginners and advanced runners. You get noticed when you need to go faster at the start of an interval and when the interval ends. It also let’s you know how you are doing while you run the interval so you can slow down or speed up if you’re running too slow. Two different sounds give you instant feedback if you’re over or under the target pace.

Push to the limit

These are short and fast sprint intervals and is the Moov Now HIIT workout. Depending on the level you train in you do sprint intervals with a duration of 30″ to 2 minutes. The goal is also to increase your cadence and range of motion with every level. Again you get regular audio feedback on how you’re doing. You should do this training to work on your leg and core strength and to get faster.

Run my own way

If you don’t want to train with one of the specific workouts you can track a free and open training. This is what I do most of the time. The robotic and sometimes annoying voice of the Moov App is not that active in this type of training. It just keeps you up to date on the distance and sometimes the other measures as well but not very often.

Check Your Progress

Of course you can review and analyze every workout you did with Moov Now. In addition to the analysis view of a single workout you can also track your progress for each workout type. You also have a view in the App where you can see your over all progress.

Review your workouts and progress with the Moov Now App

Summary And Conclusion

All in all I think the Moov Now is great when you’re looking for a device that can help you be a better runner. The big advantage is that it also measures your running form with the impact score, cadence and range of motion. It can therefore help you to run more efficient and do something to prevent an injury.

Also the automatic coaching with the audio feedback is great to guide you through the workouts. There are many different trainings you can do but there’s a strong focus on running. Of course you can use the Moov Now for your cycling and swimming workout but the benefit for runners is definitely the best.

On the downside let me just quickly note two things. First the strap and especially how to close it needs to improve in a later version. It’s pretty hard to close but opens very easily and you could lose it during an intense workout. Another great thing would be to design own workouts so you don’t have to stick to the predefined intervals and levels.

Wanna Buy A Moov Now?

In total I will recommend this fitness tracker especially for runners. It offers a great range of features and is not too expensive at all. If I convinced you with the advantages of the Moov Now and you like to buy it, just click the image or link below to shop it on amazon. I’ll get a small percentage as affiliate commission so you also help this blog stay active 🙂

Moov Now White	Moov Now Red	Moov Now Blue	Moov Now Black
Price: $ 59.99	Price: $ 59.99	Price: $ 59.99	Price: $ 59.99

Happy running
mikula