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Life Fitness adds Samsung Galaxy Watch integration to cardio workout machines

The new standard allows for better sharing of fitness data

Life Fitness wants to make it easier for Samsung users to track their health and fitness. The company has announced that its full line of premium cardio equipment, including treadmills, ellipticals, and more, can now connect with Samsung Galaxy Watch devices through the Discover SE3 HD console that’s built into the machines.

With the Samsung integration, users will be able to simply tap their Galaxy Watch to the console to sync their data. When connected, the watch will send heart rate data to the machine, and when the workout is finished, users will be able to see details about the workout on their watch. Information includes workout duration, heart rate, and calories burned. Of course, users will have already been able to see that information through workouts on their device, but thanks to the integration, the data should be a little more precise.

“Wearable technology, including fitness trackers and smartwatches, continues to be a top trend among exercisers around the world. By partnering with Samsung, we are providing better results to exercisers by integrating their workouts with the technology they use every day to help them reach their fitness goals,” said Anthony Radek, product director for consoles and software at Life Fitness.

“To further enhance our connected fitness offerings, Life Fitness continues to invest in meaningful digital partnerships that create new and personalized experiences for our customers and exercisers on our truly open API platform.”

Of course, this isn’t the only smart integration on offer by Life Fitness machines. The Discover SE3 HD console already supports Apple’s GymKit standard, which was first launched in 2017. The rollout of services such as GymKit has been a little slow — thanks largely to the fact that it might take years for gyms to replace their machines with newer models. Companies such as Life Fitness, Technogym, and more have announced integrations with Apple GymKit.

Life Fitness says that the Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Watch Active, and Galaxy Watch Active 2 are compatible with the new Samsung integration.

In general, Apple, Samsung, and other tech companies are more heavily emphasizing health and fitness. Most modern wearable devices are already able to track things data such as steps, calories burned, and more, but actual workout machines are generally able to provide more accurate data.

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