Concept2 Forum

Has anyone used this? Does it catch your heart rate accurately??

Mike from Oklahoma

mmayzak wrote:Has anyone used this? Does it catch your heart rate accurately??

Mike my understanding from test results I have seen is that they do OK at resting rates but are very unreliable once exercising and your heart rate rises (like all wrist monitors). Chest straps are way more accurate.

I have a wrist based monitor (Garmin Vivioactive) and it's fine as Lindsay says for day to day heart rate. However on the erg it doesn't work consistantly. I did a 7x500 r2:00 just using it and as you can see it didn't pick up the first four reps accurately.
I have read it is to do with tensing your wrist and wearing it higher up your arm helps. But I use a chest strap for erg.

Pie Man wrote: But I use a chest strap for erg.

Me too. I hown a Mio Go, nice toy for walking etc. but not *always* reliable for erg.

Paolo

Thanks all... that was my thoughts exactly. I have a buddy who's using one and I have been asking him if he thinks it's registering correclty, he couldn't tell me either way. I am with you, I don't think it can be as accurate as a chest strap.

Seems most wrist based HR sensors aren't even very good for running, let alone rowing where you are using your arms and hands too.

I suggest you look at the Garmin vivoactive HR. It has an app for rowing that does a pretty good job on stroke count and is ok with the heart rate (it comes with a wrist-based heart rate monitor). I purchased the Garmin chest strap and feel it does a better job of measuring heart rate. When used, the strap overrides the HR measurement on the watch so you get a more accurate measurement.