8 Wellness Devices to Charge Up Your Mind, Body, and Sex Life | Goop
What’s cool about the emerging world of wellness tech is that it’s full of devices, apps, and tools that put new intelligence behind your health goals. These devices aren’t meant to replace other well-being practices completely—but they can help you hone your skills and achieve greater returns on the time you invest.
FOR THE MIND
TRAIN OF THOUGHT
Regular practice with FocusCalm can help you train your brain toward mental focus and a calm mind. You put on the headband, a wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) that measures electrical activity in the brain, and connect it by Bluetooth to the FocusCalm app. Through the app, you play brain games and relax with guided meditations. All parts of the FocusCalm system work together to provide you with neurofeedback: a score that represents your brain activity during these exercises. That neurofeedback helps you identify what practices best get you into focused and calm states. Over time and with consistent practice, that’s a serious step toward mental self-regulation.
MIND GAMES
The Core Meditation Trainer is as good for someone new to mindfulness as it is for those with a long-held practice. This simple piece of tech helps guide and deepen your meditation session. You choose from the library of practices on the corresponding app, hold Core in your hands, and just follow along. Core guides you with gentle vibrations and easy audio instructions. The built-in ECG tracks your heart rate and heart rate variability to show you how your body responds to each session.
FOR THE BODY
TRACK STAR
Sleeker and more compact than most wearable health trackers, the Oura Ring also measures more than your average step-counter-slash-heart-rate-monitor. You can wear the ring on any finger and it picks up data on your body’s natural signals—things like heart rate, heart rate variability, and body temperature. It spits out clear, actionable insights via the Oura app, where you’ll find cumulative scores for sleep, readiness, and activity. Oura also helps you learn your body’s individual needs so you can set goals that are appropriate and achievable for you. (Ten thousand steps a day does not fit all.) And an in-app mindfulness program called Moment helps track your precise heart rate during guided and unguided meditation sessions. For a perfect fit, get the sizing kit first.
SWEAT LODGE
The first thing to know about the Infrared Sauna Blanket V3 from HigherDOSE is that it’s an at-home sauna, but instead of being a hot little room, it looks like a giant heating pad that folds around your body. The second is that it’s probably the easiest and most accessible way to experience infrared. You just set it up on your bed or couch, preheat the blanket, wrap yourself up like a burrito, and let the power of infrared—plus internal layers of tourmaline, amethyst, and charcoal—do its magic. Emerge half an hour later feeling glowy, loosened up, and satisfyingly sweaty.
PERCUSSION SECTION
The newest model of Therabody’s professional-grade percussive massager, the Theragun Pro, is a step up from whatever you’ve been using. It has all the standard features of a Therabody massager, like an ergonomic body you can grip from all sorts of angles, a swiveling head, six attachments for different parts of the body, a long battery life, and durable mechanics that will last well into the future. What’s new: The Pro is quieter than previous models. It’s easier to adjust than ever, with a small screen on its body that displays its current speed and a responsive force meter. When you pair the device with the accompanying app, it can guide you through preset routines—which is as helpful if you’re new here as it is for those who’ve been using percussive massagers forever.
FOR BETTER SEX AND PELVIC FLOOR CARE
HEATING UP
vFit fits in the vagina, and it does vibrate. Powerfully. But it is much more than a vibrator. The theory behind vFit is something called multimodal vaginal toning. That is: a combination of light, heat, and vibration meant to stimulate cells and boost circulation. Gentle heat boosts blood flow (biologically, this makes perfect sense), and red light is used to spur cell metabolism. The goal is to promote healthy cells and tissues. In preliminary clinical research, using the vFit for just ten minutes every other day resulted in better bladder control and improved pelvic muscle strength. It’s easy to integrate into your routine—it takes just ten minutes three or four times a week.
LIFT ME UP
Elvie is a small, smooth, waterproof pod that you slip in just as you would a tampon. Via Bluetooth, the pod links to the Elvie app, which tracks your progress through five-minute gamelike pelvic floor exercises. If you’ve ever been interested in strengthening your pelvic floor but you’ve been unsure how to do it consistently, this makes it pretty simple. (It comes with a sleek, portable case that you can take anywhere.)
STROKE OF GENIUS
Made to mimic touch, Onda is a perfect companion for exploring internal stimulation. What sets this toy apart from others is that it makes a come-hither motion like a finger against the vaginal wall. See that subtle bump along its length? When you turn Onda on, that bump lifts up and moves back and forth under the soft silicone surface. You can pick from four positions—long and short strokes included—and ten stroking speeds. It does have an option to add vibration, too: Onda vibrates at ten speeds that are great on their own, or you can couple any one of them with a stroking pattern for the best of both worlds.
This article is for informational purposes only. It is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice. To the extent that this article features the advice of physicians or medical practitioners, the views expressed are the views of the cited expert and do not necessarily represent the views of goop.
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