Activity Monitors For Weight Training

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans introduced in 2008 includes recommendations for both aerobic and strength training. Ideally, you should train all muscle groups twice a week. Those looking for a way to measure the effectiveness of resistance training workouts will be interested in a Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise study suggesting a wrist-worn activity monitor might be up to the task.
 
Researchers had 60 subjects perform 10 reps of 12 different exercises using dumbbells. The session hit both upper and lower body muscle groups. The activity monitor was 78% to 85% accurate, but had trouble differentiating between bench press and should press exercises. It also had a hard time separating squats from walking lunges, although the variances amounted to less than 10% between all 4 exercises.