Gadgetory

voice assistance like Amazon's Alexa and the Google home do a lot more than claim music and control your connected gadgets they can also help you work up a sweat without ever stepping foot in a gym let's take a look at the current state of smart speakers as personal trainers the google home has just two main workout integrations five-minute plank and fitstar Amazon's Alexa speakers on the other hand have more than 30 while there are time more options through Amazon the vast majority of the integrations aren't helpful what I'm looking for during a guided workout is an explanation of the various moves as well as at least five minutes worth of continuous content here's one of Amazon's more disappointing fitness skills fitness helper Alexa open fitness helper here's your exercise do squats for 30 seconds as you can see fitness helper tells you one thing to do doesn't explain how to do it and then immediately turns off which really isn't helpful both of the Google homes workouts give you actual guidance welcome to 5-minute plank workout take a push-up position and stay ready to start a five-minute plank for example will guide you through the entire 5 minute workout and give you instructions along the way my one gripe with fitstar though is that I had to repeat myself way more than you usually do with the speaker for it to understand ok Google start fit star sure here's fit star let's start the seven-minute workout up next jumping jacks 1 instructions or ready to begin ready to begin let's start the seven-minute workout up next okay Google stop see what I mean unless you say one instructions it'll just keep going in a continuous loop so while most of Amazon's integrations aren't useful and Google's fitstar integration doesn't always understand commands you can still find options among them that help you get a solid workout in just a few minutes