Welcome to the latest episode of L.I.F.T.S – your bite-sized dose of the Latest Industry Fitness Trends and Stories. This week, Matthew Januszek and Mohammed Iqbal sit down with Marco Benitez—former Taekwondo champion turned biomedical engineer and now CEO of rook, a health tech company that transforms wearable data into actionable health insights. Together, they explore how wearables are reshaping the future of fitness, healthcare, and personal health.

Key topics covered include:

• Why your smartwatch might already know more about your health than your doctor.
• How Apple, Samsung, and Aura are competing in the wearable health space.
• The challenge of making sense of endless health data.
• What FDA approval for consumer wearables really means.
• How fitness coaches and gyms can use wearable data to improve client outcomes.
• The differences in HRV tracking across Apple, Whoop, and Aura.
• Wearables as a bridge between fitness and healthcare industries.
• The future of implants, rings, and continuous monitoring devices.
• Marco's vision for rook as the middleware connecting all wearable platforms.

👉 Learn more about Marco Benitez:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcobzg/

👉 Learn more about ROOK:

https://www.tryrook.io/

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0:00 Intro & Guest Introduction

0:45 Do Smartwatches Know More Than Doctors?

2:44 Wearables During COVID and Data Explosion

6:55 Why Coaches Must Use Wearable Data

10:00 Apple Watch as a Public Health Tool

12:30 Accuracy vs. Data Trends

15:00 HRV Tracking Explained

18:42 How Consumers Actually Use Apple Watch

20:41 Wearables in Latin America & Global Health

23:02 Apple vs. Samsung vs. Huawei

25:40 Future of Wearables – Implants & Rings

27:31 Rook's Role in Cleaning Wearable Data

29:37 Wearables Are the Next Medical Device

31:14 Final Takeaways & Closing