We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source.

When I first unboxed the Hydrow Arc Rowing Machine, I was cautiously optimistic. While rowing machines always sounded great in theory—an efficient, low-impact, full-body workout!—when I tried them in the past, I felt like reality fell far short of the hype, but my initial impressions were promising, and the machine itself is really nice.

And now, after 30 days of consistent rowing, I can confidently say that my legs do indeed feel stronger than ever. Moreover, I've yet to get tired of this workout. Here's how my last month of workouts went, and how I'm feeling now.

Hydrow Arc Rower

$2,295.00 at Hydrow

Shop Now

Shop Now

$2,295.00 at Hydrow

Week one: Getting acquainted with rowing

To be honest, my first few sessions with this machine were humbling. Despite having rowed before, those first 20-minute workouts reminded me that rowing is much more challenging than it looks. Your quads burn, your hamstrings engage in ways you forgot were possible, and your glutes? They're doing work. The Arc's electromagnetic resistance (or "drag setting") feels incredibly smooth, and that fluid motion meant I could focus on form without the jarring stops and starts of cheaper machines I'm used to at the gym. But that also meant being able to truly focus on the burn.

When it comes to the machine itself, the Hydrow's 24-inch pivoting HD touchscreen immediately became my favorite feature. It's the company's largest display yet, and when you're mid-workout, staring at an instructor rowing through scenic waterways in Croatia or the Charles River, that immersive quality actually matters. It helped pull me in enough that I was able to forget I was suffering through the last two minutes of a power interval.

Weeks two and three: Starting to build strength

I was already familiar with the benefits and challenges of running and lifting, but just weeks into my rowing regimen, I felt a unique and surprising strength starting to build—not just bulk, but functional power that translated to everyday movement.

The HydroMetrics system (Hydrow's proprietary tracking feature) became oddly addictive during this phase. It measures your performance across three key areas: Precision (how consistent your stroke is), Endurance (how well you maintain output), and Power (how much force you generate). Watching those scores improve gave me concrete proof that I wasn't just feeling stronger—I was getting stronger. As my 30-day HydroMetrics Index climbed, that gamification kept me coming back.

The Arc's workout library is massive—you can choose from thousands of classes, ranging from 10-minute quick sessions to 45-minute endurance challenges. I found myself gravitating toward the 30-minute scenic rows in the morning and shorter, high-intensity sessions in the evening. The variety meant I never got bored, and the on-demand format meant I could work out at 6 a.m. or 10 p.m. without planning around a studio schedule. The machine's quiet operation also meant I didn't have to plan around my roommate's sleeping schedule.

Week four: Feeling the full-body difference

Rowing is often referred to as a full-body workout, and after a month, I certainly understand why. If you haven't committed to it, you might assume rowing is more of an upper body workout. But one of the first things I learned with my Arc is that I needed to be driving power way more from my legs than I previously realized. After a month, my core felt more stable, my posture had improved (from all that engagement during the drive phase), and my arms—while not the primary focus—definitely were more toned.

Beyond the physical gains—which can really only be anecdotal after just a monthlong trial like this—I noticed a mental benefit I hadn't anticipated: The personalized workout recommendations made it feel less like I was forcing myself to exercise and more like the machine knew what was needed to motivate me. Some days it suggested endurance rows; other days, it served up power intervals. That intelligent guidance removed the decision fatigue that often kills my workout streaks.

The bottom line

After 30 days with the Hydrow Arc rower, my legs feel stronger than ever—not in a "I can't walk up stairs" way, but in a "I feel powerful and capable" way. The machine delivered on the promise of building what Hydrow cutely refers to as "Fluid Strength": that sort of full-body, functional fitness that makes everyday life easier.

Is the Arc a perfect workout solution? Well, it's a high-quality machine with a large footprint and a premium price tag, so it's not for everyone. But if you're serious about building strength efficiently, want a low-impact workout that actually challenges you, and appreciate smart technology that adapts to your progress, it's worth considering, despite the substantial investment necessary. After 30 days, I'm not just stronger—I'm hooked on rowing.

MSNBC Political Analyst Molly Jong-Fast said Jimmy Kimmel’s brief suspension and return to ABC showed Americans are not ready to sit back and accept President Donald Trump’s “autocracy.”

Jong-Fast shared her thoughts on the matter while appearing on Alex Witts Reports on Sunday afternoon, after guest host Erielle Reshef asked her for a “vibes check” on “The Resistance” to President Trump.

“You’ve said recently that ‘The Resistance’ to Trump is working. How so, and what is your reason to be optimistic?” Reshed asked.

Jong-Fast chuckled initially over what her reason for being “optimistic” before saying the reaction to the Kimmel suspension gives her hope.

“The Kimmel debacle is a great example of how it can work… you had Brendan Carr on Benny Johnson’s podcast saying like, ‘We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.’ They pull him off the air [and] the public outcry is such and it’s so huge, and people, you know, unsubscribed and drop their Disney+ subscriptions. And so he comes back and he’s put back on the air. And even the Sinclair affiliates put him back.”

She continued: “I do think it’s important to remember, like, all of this is quite scary. But the truth is, Donald Trump is a lame duck… his polling is underwater on almost everything. And the American people are not used to this kind of autocracy.”

If you somehow missed the drama, ABC and Disney suspended Kimmel on Sept. 17 for implying the man who killed Charlie Kirk was a supporter of President Donald Trump — contrary to reports. Here is the comment from his Sept. 15 show that led to his suspension:

The MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

The comment led to swift pushback from Nexstar and Sinclair, which control a large chunk of ABC affiliates, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr on Sept. 17 said he felt Kimmel’s comment warranted a suspension.

Hours later, Kimmel was suspended — leading to some critics saying ABC and Disney caved to Trump’s administration; White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that the president put “pressure” on ABC to suspend Kimmel.

Following all of that, ABC announced on Sept. 22 it was lifting Kimmel’s suspension and he returned to his program the following evening.

Kimmel did not apologize for his comments — leading Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, to rip the host as an “unrepentant liar.” 

The late-night host enjoyed a massive ratings jump for his first show back, but his ratings have since dropped to about what he averaged before his suspension.

You can watch Jong-Fast discuss the topic above, via MSNBC.

The post Trump’s ‘Autocracy’ Is Being Rejected By Americans After Kimmel ‘Debacle,’ MSNBC’s Molly Jong-Fast Claims first appeared on Mediaite.

Dan Abrams, Mediaite founder and host of On Patrol: Live had a “hot take” for his co-host as they celebrated the show’s 300th episode.

“Don’t forget everybody, happy 300th!” Abrams exclaimed — during Saturday’s episode of On Patrol: First Shift, which airs immediately before OPL each week on Reelz — while pointing to the “OPL 300” patches on his vest.

The two-day celebration took a look back of some of the reality show’s most memorable moments, but as it turns out, Abrams was about to make his own “memorable moment” on the set.

In his enthusiasm, pointing at the OPL 300 logos, Abrams managed to knock over an entire tumbler of hot tea that spilled over the desk and onto law enforcement analyst Curtis Wilson, who tried to dive out of the way.

“300! 300! There it is!” Abrams exclaimed as Wilson added, “It’s such a hot show!”

“Sorry, Curtis!” Abrams said as Wilson surveyed the mess, claiming, “I’m good.”

“Can we keep that?” Abrams asked the production crew.

“Yeah, let’s keep it,” Wilson agreed.

On Patrol: Live debuted in July 2022 as a revival of Abrams’s original show, Live PD, which aired on A&E. The show utilizes more than 50 live cameras to follow police and sheriff’s deputies as they respond to calls from departments across the country. The show also features “Citizen Ride-Alongs,” that give locals a chance to ride with officers in their cruisers, as well as “Citizens On-Set,” which invites community members into the studio as guests.

To mark the 300th episode milestone, Abrams told Variety that the show would revisit classic segments that highlight its “most memorable and intense moments, from the shocking and dramatic to the bizarre and sometimes humorous.”

“This show has come to be more than just a job for me,” Abrams told the outlet. “Yes, it’s a really fun series to work on, but I also think it’s so important to offer a window into what police officers do and see across America on a daily basis. It’s the only show in the country that regularly gives viewers a true sense of what a night out on patrol really looks like.”

On Patrol: Live airs every Friday & Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern on Reelz.

The post WATCH: Dan Abrams Accidentally Gives Hot Take By Spilling Scalding Tea on Analyst on Live TV first appeared on Mediaite.

A group of Catholic priests and hundreds of congregants marched about a mile to an ICE facility in Cook County, IL, to pray for the detainees and offer Holy Communion, but were barred from going inside the facility, Fox32 Chicago reported on Saturday.

Nearly 200 people from Saint Eulalia Catholic Church in Maywood, IL, gathered outside the Broadview processing facility for the blessing as state troopers and other authorities looked on.

A viral video captured the prayer.

“Lord, you told us to love our neighbors as ourselves, but you never told us to ask where they were born, the language they speak, or what papers they carry in their hands,” one priest said. “You simply told us to love.”

Many of the congregants carried signs, with one large banner reading, “God Stands With The Oppressed.”

Authorities denied the priests entry into the facility to offer Holy Communion to the detainees.

The contingent says they had notified ICE several days ago about their plans to share communion, but were turned away nonetheless.

“I respect the state police with what they can do and all that. But that’s basically it, they are working through a middle man, they refuse to even talk to us,” Father Larry Dowling told CBS Chicago.

Another priest who marched with the group, Father Dan Hartnett, said of the detainees, “I’m sure they heard us singing, I’m sure they heard us talking, so hopefully they get strength from our presence.”

According to Fox32,”Fifteen people were arrested during the demonstration, which organizers described as peaceful but deeply emotional, vowing to continue advocating for immigrant rights.”

Fr. David Inczauskis told a reporter, “We were denied the fundamental human right given by God, which is to worship. And those who are inside have been denied that right. And so we leave today angry. But we also leave motivated in that we know we have a lot of organizing work to do to address the situation that we can only describe as evil.”

The march comes after President Donald Trump has sent ICE and Border Patrol agents to Chicago and its surrounding cities to deport people who entered the U.S. illegally. That plan has been met with firm opposition from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), with Pritzker this past week challenging the president, “If you come for my people, you come through me.”

Watch the clip above via Fox32 Chicago.

The post ICE Agents Block Detention Entry to Catholic Priests Wanting to Bless Detainees first appeared on Mediaite.

(Photo by Lenin Nolly/NurPhoto via AP)

Following President Donald Trump’s second physical this year, physician Sean Barbabella dropped gushing details about the president’s health, especially his “cardiovascular vitality.”

Trump traveled to Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday for the check-up, which was the first since the White House revealed he has chronic venous insufficiency, which accounts for visible swelling in his ankles and bruising on his hand.

The memo, addressed to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, said Trump “successfully completed a scheduled follow-up evaluation” as part of his “ongoing health maintenance plan.”

The memo continued:

Comprehensive laboratory studies performed in conjunction with the visit were exceptional, including stable metabolic hematologic, and cardiac parameters.

In preparation for upcoming international travel, President Trump also received preventative health screenings and immunizations, including annual influenza and updated COVID-19 booster vaccines.

President Trump continues to demonstration excellent overall health. His cardiac age — a validated measure of cardiovascular vitality with ECG — was found to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age. He continues to maintain a demanding daily schedule without restriction.

In summary, the memo said, “President Donald J. Trump remains in exceptional health, exhibiting strong cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, and physical performance.”

According to The Washington Post, Friday’s memo was described as a “comprehensive follow up evaluation” but did not include the same level of detail as the president’s assessment in April.

“Presidents are not required to undergo medical exams or reveal medical information to the public, and the amount of information shared in the past has varied,” The Post reported, noting that “Trump is the oldest person to be sworn in as U.S. president and has been subject to intense speculation about his health.”

Former President Joe Biden’s team was accused of covering up the former president’s alleged cognitive decline, a notion the team rejects. Biden was given a good health report by his doctor while in office, and has since been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Read The Washington Post article here.

The post Trump Doc Drops Gushing Details In New Medical Report first appeared on Mediaite.

When you’re working out and aiming for a particular goal,  it’s smart to pull the big levers first. Getting enough food, enough sleep, and enough training time will have the biggest impact on your results. But once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to learn how to properly time your nutrition throughout the day.

Timing doesn't matter for everybody, though. If your routine includes consistent meals and consistent exercise, and you basically feel fine, you may not need to mess with timing at all. You aren't "wasting" your workouts if you fail to eat afterward (even though everybody on TikTok may be telling you otherwise). You also don't need to nail down your timing to the precise minute. But there are some rules of thumb that can help you to have more energy during workouts or to fuel yourself better throughout the day.

What you need to figure out before you start messing with timing

The most important thing in nutrition is to make sure you are eating the right amount of food, before you worry about what's in those meals or when you're eating them. We measure the amount of food in terms of calories. Eat less than you burn to lose weight, more than you burn to gain weight (useful if you are trying to gain muscle), or if you don’t want to do either, simply hold your calories at whatever level keeps your weight stable. To figure out how your weight relates to your calorie intake, apps like Macrofactor (or free alternatives) do the math for you easily.

If changing your body size isn’t a priority, you don’t need to track this exactly; just make sure you’re not accidentally undereating when you don’t mean to. And if you want to be fitter but you keep running into roadblocks—fatigue, injury—consider increasing your calories. Sometimes your body just needs a little more fuel.

Next up is making sure you're eating enough protein. If you’re gaining muscle, it’s an important building block. If you’re losing weight, eating protein (and strength training!) helps your body to retain as much muscle as possible so that most of the weight lost is fat. And if you’re doing any amount of strength training or endurance training (like running), protein helps you to maintain the muscle that helps you do all of that.

Once you’re consistently getting enough calories and protein, you have a lot more leeway to adjust your diet to your liking. We should all get some amount of fat—0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight or more. And carbs may not be essential for life (as low-carb dieters like to point out) but people who eat a lot of carbs have a much better time in the gym than those who don’t. Carbs provide energy for activity, and they prevent your body from turning to muscle tissue for extra energy.

Finally, the rest of the nutrient content of your food matters, too. Fiber is important. Vitamins are important. Fruits and vegetables should be a big part of everyone’s diet. These things support health even if they aren’t the macros (macronutrients) you might be tracking.

I mention all this because what you eat is more important than when you eat it. If you aren’t getting enough protein or enough vegetables, fixing that situation is more important than getting everything timed properly. But if you’ve got the basics down, let’s talk timing.

Carbs before workouts help with energy

When we’re resting, our body fat provides most of the fuel our body needs. The body is constantly using fat for energy, which is why “fat burning” workouts or supplements are just silly. Fat is like a bank account: the amount is determined by how the deposits balance out the withdrawals, not by looking at withdrawals alone.

When we exercise, it’s hard for the slow and steady pace of our fat burning to keep up with what we’re asking our body to do. If we have carbs available, in the form of blood sugar or muscle glycogen, we use those as a source of fuel. If we don’t have enough carbs available, we can feel tired or sluggish. We might still be able to get the workout done, but workouts will often feel better if we’ve managed to get some carbs before or even during the workout.

So if you’re feeling sluggish during your workouts, consider having some carbs beforehand. Also consider this timing if your workouts start out well but you get unusually fatigued by the end, or if you’re in the habit of training before breakfast and want to test out whether nutrition timing could give you an extra boost you didn’t even know you were missing.

“Carbs” refers to anything with sugar, or anything that breaks down quickly into sugar, which mainly means starches. If you can eat a meal shortly before your workout, try classics like:

• A banana

• Toast or bread with jam, or just a thin spread of something else like peanut butter

• Oatmeal

• Skim milk, maybe with some cereal or granola

• Nonfat yogurt, maybe with some berries

• A smoothie made of carb-y foods like fruit

Proteins and fats can slow down digestion, so you don’t want too much of them in a meal you have right before your workout. That’s why you’d want to go with the lower fat dairy options, or keep the peanut butter on your toast to a thin layer. But if you’re eating breakfast a few hours before your workout, feel free to go for the slower digesting versions with full-fat dairy, or even throw some protein powder into your smoothie.

Sugar during long workouts helps you to keep going

When workouts go longer than an hour or two, you may need more than just a pre-workout snack. This is why marathon runners will suck down packets of gel while they run, and why powerlifters pass around bags of candy between sets.

If you’re having carbs during a workout, you’ll want something that digests quickly. This means you want something that is more or less pure sugar. Yes, you should arguably avoid sugar in general in a healthy diet, but in the middle of a workout, sugar serves a very specific purpose. It becomes available to your body very quickly, the better to fuel you in the moment. If you’re in the middle of an endurance event, like a long run or bike ride, you may want to consume 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour. Examples would be:

• Energy gels like GU

• Drinks like Tailwind or Gatorade

• Candy, like gummy bears (a favorite of runners) or Sour Patch Kids (a favorite of powerlifters and weightlifters)

Many of us don’t work out long enough or hard enough to have to worry about this. But if you’re training for a marathon or a half and you find yourself dragging toward the end of your long runs, or if your lifting sessions can extend well past an hour and you find yourself resting longer and longer between sets toward the end, try a gel or a snack mid-workout and see if you feel a difference.

Carbs after workouts set you up for your second workout of the day

If you're planning on doing two workouts in the same day, or if you have a late evening workout followed by another first thing in the morning, eating after that first workout will prepare you for the second. If you finish a workout and aren’t likely to have another workout until tomorrow or the day after, you don’t really need to worry about this; just eat normally.

To understand why, let’s take another look at muscle glycogen, one of those carb sources we use during exercise. After a workout, our glycogen levels are lower. Over the course of the next 24 hours or so, we’ll eat carbs as part of our meals, and those glycogen stores will get filled back up. Eating a diet high in carbs helps to fill those glycogen stores throughout the day and keep them full. (You may not get as much replenishment if you follow a low-carb diet like keto.)

But if you do two hard workouts a day, or if you just did a workout in the evening but you also want to be at your best for a run the next morning, you may want to replenish your glycogen more quickly. After a hard workout, your muscles are ready to store carbs as glycogen if they can get them, so consider a high-carb meal after your workout.

Protein works best in small amounts throughout the day

The most important factor in eating protein is the amount, as we discussed above. To meet the recommended daily allowance (the bare minimum that everybody should get, athlete or not) you want 0.36 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. That would be 54 grams for a 150-pound person. I have a guide here to apps that help you track protein even if you aren't tracking your overall calories.

But if you’re trying to build muscle, or if you’re trying to maintain muscle as you train for an endurance sport or as you lose weight, you want more—anywhere between 0.63 to 0.82 grams per pound of bodyweight depending on how intense your needs are. That would be 95 to 123 grams for that same 150-pound person. Going over that amount is usually OK for your health (talk to your doctor if you have kidney issues) but not necessary.

So what about timing? Well, it turns out that your body makes the best use of protein if you can get it in multiple doses throughout the day. There’s a myth that your body can only use a small amount of protein in one sitting, leading some people to believe that the extra protein is “wasted.” That’s not exactly true, but you probably will give your body stronger signals to build muscle if you can spread your protein out over four or five meals rather than eating low-protein foods all day and then having a giant steak for dinner.

There's also a myth that if you're lifting weights, you need to have protein immediately after your workout. I should say it's mostly a myth, since having protein within a few hours of a workout is a good idea. Research shows that normal eating patterns are good enough to get those protein timing benefits; for example, if you hit the gym between breakfast and lunch, you're pretty much covered.

A good way to follow this rule of thumb is to track your total protein, and to make sure you have several times during the day that you’re eating at least 20 grams of protein or more. That could be breakfast, lunch, a protein bar as a snack, dinner, and then a simple shake with protein powder in the evening.

Protein, fats, and fiber when you want to feel full or slow digestion

We’ve talked about quick-digesting carbs (sugar, plain starches), but the flip side is that other nutrients digest more slowly. You don’t want that when you’re in the middle of a workout, but it can be useful at other times.

For example, oatmeal tends to make you feel full longer than something like white bread because it’s got a lot of soluble fiber. Proteins make you feel full because your stomach holds onto protein-containing foods longer than other foods. (The stomach is just one of many parts of your digestive system, but it’s the one where proteins take some time to be broken down before being sent to the next stage.) Fats tend to also make people feel full, although this can vary from person to person.

So if you’re eating a breakfast before a long morning of work and you know it will be a while before you get to lunch, oats (fiber) with almond butter (fat) and a side of scrambled egg whites (protein) will keep you full a lot longer than some toast with jam. Save the toast for later, when you want to have a pre-workout snack.

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news.

This week, neurotech startup Neurable launched its MW75 Neuro headphones with a pretty seductive pitch—one that I'm not quite buying.

Just slip on this pair of headphones, and you’ll gain unprecedented access to your brain's inner workings. Track your focus. Measure your mental fatigue. Quantify your cognitive performance. It's supposed to be the quantified-self movement's next frontier—moving from steps and heart rates to the most intimate data source of all: your brainwaves.

If you ask me, a pair of headphones that can read your mind sounds either too good to be true, or too creepy to be good. Neurable doesn’t plan to stop at headphones, and they aren’t the only company making a name in the space. Glasses, helmets, what have you—the next wave of wearable devices are targeting the brain. Whether you find it tempting or find it terrifying, the real question: Is this technology even real? Can "brain tracking" headphones actually measure anything meaningful, or are people paying $499 for an elaborate placebo wrapped in EEG sensors? 

Unsurprisingly, the answers are a little wrinkly. 

What are brain wearables in theory?

The concept behind brain wearables is this: Using electroencephalography (EEG) sensors embedded in headphone ear cups, devices like Neurable's MW75 Neuro claim to track electrical signals from your brain, translating them into actionable insights about your mental state. The headphones promise to tell you when you're losing focus, when you need a break, and even provide a "cognitive snapshot" of your brain health over time.

For the wellness-obsessed, it's pretty much catnip. Where fitness trackers gave us visibility into our physical states, brain wearables promise to illuminate the black box of our mental performance. In theory, you could optimize not just your workout routine, but your work-work routine, catching burnout before it catches you.

The problem, according to experts across technology law and neuroscience, is that we're nowhere near ready for this technology to become mainstream—neither from a regulatory standpoint nor a scientific one. Let's start with the science.

How does the science of brain wearables hold up?

Before getting into the fairly obvious privacy nightmare, there's a fundamental question about whether these devices can actually deliver on their promises.

José M. Muñoz, an associate at The Centre for Neurotechnology and Law in the United Kingdom and the International Center for Neuroscience and Ethics in Spain, is blunt in his assessment: "For years, there has been an ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness, accuracy, and challenges of direct-to-consumer neurotechnologies such as this new device from Neurable," he explains. "Although it is true that the algorithms analyzing brain data collected via EEG are steadily improving, this remains a neurotechnology that is still insufficiently accurate outside of a medical or clinical setting."

The problems are both technical and practical. EEG data quality is extremely sensitive to electrode placement—sometimes within a range of millimeters. When users place these sensors themselves, without medical supervision, their reliability plummets. Moreover, the most accurate EEG studies use far more electrodes than the handful embedded in a pair of headphones.

"In sum, you may be wearing these headphones and believing they are helping to improve your mental health, physical performance, or attention," Muñoz says. "But what you are really improving are the manufacturer's algorithms, while handing over your brain data in exchange for very little."

In other words, it's the tech tale old as time: You're not the customer being served by this technology. You're the data source training it.

Dr. Annu Navani offers a more measured perspective. She acknowledges that brain wearables have "significant limitations, including being currently expensive, less clinically validated, and less convenient or comfortable than wrist-worn trackers." The metrics they provide are also harder to translate into practical guidance—most people intuitively understand what to do with their step count, but what action should you take when your "cognitive load score" hits 73?

Rather than replacing traditional fitness trackers, Navani believes brain wearables will likely "complement rather than replace conventional devices, targeting a niche of users interested in cognitive and neuro-performance insights." Traditional wearables, she points out, still provide reliable, validated data for basic health metrics that users can easily understand and apply.

Who is really reading your mind here?

Think about it (and hey, maybe relish in the fact that no headphones are successfully reading those thoughts): Your brainwave data is arguably the most intimate biometric information you possess. We're talking about a window into your mental and emotional states. So what happens when you willingly give up this data with no meaningful oversight?

"I hope brain wearables are not the future of fitness tracking, or any industry, at least certainly not yet and not any time soon," says Star Kashman, a technology attorney and founding partner of a cyber law firm. "We are still somehow facing a complete lack of federal regulation in the U.S. when it comes to biometric data, data privacy law, and minimal to no cybersecurity standards for these devices, and no protective regulations for users."

The implications are stark: "What happens when a 'brain wearable' is hacked?" Kashman asks. The lack of regulation means users have little recourse and limited knowledge about how their neural data is being stored, used, or potentially sold.

Regulation aside, individual consumers do still have their own privacy concerns. The sort of consumer ready to spend hundreds of dollars on headphones might just be the same type of person who is uncomfortable with constant surveillance. "Unless someone is so obsessed with optimizing their fitness journey that they ignore the serious risks present, I just do not see this becoming the norm anytime soon," Kashman notes. Just look at Meta's push for smart glasses. The tech has got to be good and ready before consumers are going to drop hundreds of dollars and risk their most private bodily information.

The bottom line

So, simply put, at the time of this publication, asked with my own private brain waves: Are brain wearables the future of fitness tracking? Almost certainly not in the way their manufacturers hope. The technology is too immature, the regulatory landscape too barren, and consumer wariness too high for these devices to start popping up like Fitbits tomorrow.

I'd say what we're witnessing instead is the familiar pattern of the wellness industry: a genuine technological development (EEG monitoring does work in controlled settings!) being prematurely commercialized and marketed with promises that totally outstrip the reality. The result is an expensive product that may provide some users with interesting data, but likely offers more placebo than breakthrough.

For now, brain wearables occupy an awkward position: too invasive for casual users, too unproven for serious applications, and too unregulated to trust. They may have a future, but it's not this one—not until the science catches up to the marketing, and the law catches up to both.

Until then, your regular fitness tracker measuring your heart rate and steps? That's probably telling you more useful information about your health than any headphones reading your brainwaves ever could.