Add Physical Labor as an Exercise Category

[iten-kun]

It would be awesome if you could add a new exercise category for Physical Labor.

I work at FedEx (as a Package Handler) and each night my exercise is marked as Sport which works fine.. but it would be nice if it was more specific. I think some tracking algorithm work could be done in this area too as I think I'm getting too many steps while working since I'm moving my arms so much while picking up packages.

I'm sure many people who own Fitbit products perform some form of physical labor so I think this would be a worthwhile addition.

Also just an FYI I'm currently using the Charge 3.

Thanks and you guys are awesome! 🙂

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity.  

[YojanaFitbit]

Hello @iten-kun, great suggestion. Having this option might be really helpful to a lot of users doing same activities. We look forward to hearing what other community members think.

[RuralLife]

I agree that it would be helpful to have an activity or exercise option for physical labour.  I live in a remote community and much of my day involves activities such as shovelling/digging, chainsawing, splitting wood, brush-cutting, construction and other yardwork or chores.  There are currently no options to log activities such as these on my Versa app.  There is a substantial list of sports and exercises (and even "driving"!) but nothing that reflects good, hard, physical labour.  

[Kilt]

For RuralLife, you can change an activity from "Sport" to "Yardwork", that's what I've always done.

[RuralLife]

Thanks for your response, Kilt. What watch do you have? I have the Versa
and run the app on an iPad and, though there are many choices to manually
categorize an activity or sport, I have been unable to find any option for
"yardwork". How are you able to change sport to yardwork? My app doesn't
list yardwork.

[Kilt]

Sure thing.  I have Ionic with an old iPad.

1.  I open the iPad (or iPhone) app
2. I go to the "Track Exercise" widget
3. I click on the > and search for "Yard work" and it comes up.
4. Click on the > to change manually

[RuralLife]

Yard work does not come up as an exercise option on my app. The only thing
that comes up under "Y" is yoga. Do you know if there is some way to add
yardwork as a choice?

[FitJoe34]

I think for the large portion of the population that has physical labor in their job.  It may be beneficial to track their everyday work and body metrics.  You can use the info for many things including, to plan the nutrition needed to sustain you through the day.  There's "carpentry", "mowing lawn, "cleaning" etc. but why not include the more general activity of "work"?  I'd very much like to have that option.

[LuciaFitbit]

Hi @FitJoe34, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us. This feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here. Don't forget to add your vote!

[Nat1987]

I’d like to see housework or gardening added to exercise. I’ve just spent 30 minutes scrubbing cupboards and it hardly registered on the Fitbit. Next time I’ll try selecting workout when I vacuum...but it would be interesting to see the results of general labour in your stats

[Alaskan]

I'm almost 70. I just moved two tons of heavy snow off my large driveway here in AK. I am SICK of not being able to enter this work except as "weight-lifting."! The same is true of moving 50# bags of pellets, or cordwood, or hay bales. Fitbit's developers obviously all live in car-centric SoCal where one drives to the gym for exercise.

[SunsetRunner]

You an already add your own options for types of work out through the web dashboard. You just have to track it as a work out then change the drop down in the app.  I have things like Wim Hof Breathing, Cold Shower etc as options. It's done under the activities tab>create custom activity

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Alaskan, thanks for taking the time to share this suggestion about adding physical labor as an exercise category. I've moved it into a similar request. You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs. Click on the thumbs-up to show your support.

You can also add your vote on this other suggestion: Add Snow Shoveling as exercise shortcut.

Thank you again for your participation in the Feature Suggestions Forums.