Personal informatics literature has typically examined how fitness trackers can support understanding of cardio-based exercises, like running, which are closely associated with the step counts central to these devices. Although this focus has supported individuals in gleaning fruitful data discoveries, it confines the manner in which a body moves to these movement domains. In this paper, we contend with pole dance, a physical activity whose movement affordances (e.g., rotational, artistic, feminine) differ greatly from those centralized in the self-tracking technologies. We qualitatively interviewed 20 polers, and gathered their reflection on pole dance and how they view the use self-tracking devices for the activity. Using their insights on the inherent dynamicity of poling, independently, and upon interaction with fitness trackers, we offer suggestions to our discipline to challenge ourselves to re-imagine sensing as a pluralistic endeavor.

Wearable technology for physical activity promotion is a frequent research topic within HCI and health, and researchers have documented that much of our knowledge is sourced from understanding the needs of populations from college educated, racially privileged, Western backgrounds. However socioeconomic class, a core component for how people perceive physical activity, wearables, and even wearable studies, has not often been contended with. In this critical discussion of the literature, incorporating examples from over 30 deployment studies involving wearables and over 70 other related works, we investigate how socioeconomic class shows up in study design and identify how class cultures are embedded in the design of wearable technology. We hypothesize that common study components related to time and activity type engenders high SES class cultures and ultimately risk creating intervention generated inequalities. We discuss the implications of ignoring class such as further perpetuating inequities in subsequent waves of wearable device maturity.