In the Olympic questions series, researchers from the University of Twente explore how technology, data and human behaviour come together in elite sport. The series offers a scientific perspective on what we see on the Olympic stage, and what it means beyond top-level performance. In this story, UT researcher Matthijs Noordzij reflects on the growing role of wearables and what data-driven insights can mean beyond elite sport.
According to UT researcher Matthijs Noordzij, the real value of wearables lies not only in becoming faster, stronger or fitter. “The biggest gain is in living more consciously: better understanding what’s happening in your body and learning to respond to it more intelligently.”
From Olympic data to everyday life
While elite athletes use wearables to optimise training schedules, the same sensors can help with something else entirely: recognising stress, recovery and overload. “We now wear this technology en masse on our wrists,” says Matthijs. “But often we only use a fraction of what it can actually do.”
Most people mainly look at steps, heart rate and sleep. That’s not wrong, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Wearables can also detect changes in heart rate variability and skin conductance, signals that say something about how your autonomic nervous system responds to stress and relaxation. “That makes visible what you normally only feel,” Matthijs explains. “When are you tense? When do you really recover? And what do work pressure, exercise or poor sleep do to your body?”
Do wearables really help people live healthier lives?
Scientific research shows that wearables can indeed have an effect. Large review studies indicate that users move more on average: around 1,800 extra steps per day and 40 additional minutes of walking per week. There are also small but measurable effects on weight and BMI.
But Matthijs immediately adds a caveat. “More data doesn’t automatically lead to better behaviour. A watch can help you, but it won’t change your life by itself.” Moreover, not all measurements are equally reliable. Step counters are generally accurate, heart rate varies by device, and energy expenditure often turns out to be unreliable. “Validation is an ongoing process,” says Matthijs. “That’s something we actively research at the University of Twente as well.”
More data doesn’t automatically lead to better behaviour
Measuring stress is one thing, dealing with it is another
Matthijs’ research mainly focuses on the psychological side. How can wearables help people deal better with stress, emotions and mental strain? Studies involving, for example, patients with emotion regulation difficulties show that wearables can help recognise signals at an earlier stage. Your body may already be tense while your mind hasn’t noticed yet, or the other way around, when you’re physically calmer than you think.
“In that sense, technology can become a kind of mirror,” Matthijs says. “Not to tell you whether you’re doing things right or wrong, but to raise awareness. So you take breaks earlier, use breathing exercises, or organise your day differently.”
Don’t trust your watch blindly
Still, Matthijs warns against a pitfall that’s also visible in elite sport: over-measuring. “We know that subjective assessments, how someone feels, are sometimes better predictors of well-being than objective data,” he says, referring to sports psychology research. “If your watch says you slept badly, but you feel fit, which do you trust? Technology should support you, not take over.”
According to Matthijs, the future lies in what he calls ‘compassionate technology’: wearables that don’t just push for ‘more steps’ or ‘better scores’, but help people treat themselves more kindly and make wiser choices.
Not just faster, but wiser
Whether you’re an Olympic athlete or someone juggling a busy job and family life, the promise of wearables is not perfection, Matthijs believes, but insight. “The real question isn’t: what do you measure? It’s: what do you learn about yourself, and what do you do with that?”
With the Olympic Games approaching, elite sport shows how far measurement can go. UT research shows where it becomes relevant for the rest of us: in living healthier, more consciously and more resiliently.
