Fitness Watch/Tracker

[Joebasscat]

So my Fitbit gave up the ghost today. Only use it primarily for tracking sleep and resting heart rate. The rest it does was just gravy as I use Polar H10 to track exercise hr, zones, etc… Sort of hooked on the sleep and resting hr info though.

Suggestions on what to replace it with? Most of Polar’s stuff seems runner centric, as are most of these things, but they were my first thought for a device to accomplish what the Fitbit did. Some of the Polar reviews are not stellar. But my h10 seems bullet proof.

[JaapvanE]

I'm quite happy with my Garmin Venue. It tracks lots of thing, including sleep and RHR, and Garmin Connect even can be connected to Concept2 to recieve rowing data.

[Joebasscat]

Thanks, I’ll check the Garmin out. Does your Garmin connect HR to the PM5? Reason I ask is that I was wondering if I had a tracker that would connect to the PM5, would it try to bump my h10 chest trap? Or do you just get two separate options to select from when connecting at the PM5?

[JaapvanE]

My Garmin Venue connects to the PM5 over ANT+ without issue. I must say, the chest strap is more reliable when sprinting (watches can loose HR data due to wild arm movements).

[Tsnor]

Thanks, I’ll check the Garmin out. Does your Garmin connect HR to the PM5? Reason I ask is that I was wondering if I had a tracker that would connect to the PM5, would it try to bump my h10 chest trap? Or do you just get two separate options to select from when connecting at the PM5?

When you manually connect a heart rate monitor using the PM5 panel all monitors in range show up in the PM5 display. It takes a while for the PM5 to find them all. You can pick which one you want based on the ID number / protocol that shows up.

If you've previously set ErgData up to have the PM5 automatically connect with the H10 belt then it will do that ignoring any other HRM options.

Sport watches that broadcast heat rate allow you to enable and disable the HR broadcast. Turning it off saves battery.

My wife uses the Garmin Venu suggest by JaapvanE and likes it. She doesn't row, so I don't know if the watch is good for picking up a HR rowing. Your idea of continuing to use the belt until you know if the watch works well is a good one. Note: Venu has been replaced. There is a Venu 2 out there, it should be an improvement. This guy has great reviews if you want to check on differences: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/

Some sport watches like the Venu will pull heart rate from a belt overriding their own optical measurements. That gives you the better H10 HR information in your watch's ecosystem (polar flow or garmin). Your H10 is perfect for that. You can use one of the Bluetooth radios to talk to your watch and (ANT+ or the other bluetooth radio) to talk to the PM5.

When you decide which watch you choose please post. Having had 6 (or so) fitbits in the family, there are only two kinds of fitbits - failed and about to fail, and I am currently using a fitbit charge 3 so I am looking. (maybe google owning fitbit will change that long term).

[Joebasscat]

Thanks for the input guys. And yes I agree on both fronts, concerning the accuracy of the wrist device while rowing and the lifespan of the Fitbit. My Fitbit was worthless for tracking HR during rowing. As stated, I have complete confidence in the Polar h10. The Fitbit could get you killed if you were under a restricted HR program.

But the Fitbit did/does a pretty good job on the low end of HR, so I think it’s resting HR numbers are pretty good, except how it arrives at the number is a mystery. Probably 5 beats higher most mornings than if I just measure in the morning the old fashion way. Sleep quality results and other data seem decent enough for the price I paid. At $65 I can by 4 or 5 of these before I approach the price of say the Garmin Venue 2 or some of the Polar watches/trackers. I got about 18 months from the now deceased Inspire 2.

Good to know also on the way the PM5 picks up and gives the option when seeing multiple Ant+ monitors to pick from. I later figured that would be the case, good to have you confirm that TSnor.

So likely to go back to Fitbit for MY needs, but curious if the Garmin Venu 2 or another Polar option would have better data all around outside of data during exercise. I might take the plunge, more research to come. The Garmin option looks like a good one. Welcome anybody’s experience with any of these. But not giving up the H10 regardless.

[JaapvanE]

So likely to go back to Fitbit for MY needs, but curious if the Garmin Venu 2 or another Polar option would have better data all around outside of data during exercise. I might take the plunge, more research to come. The Garmin option looks like a good one. Welcome anybody’s experience with any of these. But not giving up the H10 regardless.

Some former Fitbit users I spoke to recently all switched to Garmin or Polar, or were considering it. Their biggest frustration was that they had to pay a monthly fee to see additional data, which still was no serious deep dive into data. Garmin (I have no current experience with Polar) make an effort to get as much data out of that sensor as possible. To me, the "Body Battery" and stress indicators are life savers: they really indicate extremely early that I should slow down or otherwise run out in the middle of the day. Similar with the O2 saturation: you see your saturation drop when your breathing isn't up to speed. It is a different experience altogether, but one must like metrics and discover what they mean for you in real life.

The Venu can record rows as well, but its stroke detection is a bit off (they use the movement sensor for that), but its heartrate is decent, even when rowing. The thing was that when I really went all out, being sweaty and lots of movement, than it tends to lose measurements, and thus the PM5 HR monitoring drops out. There a chestband works much better, and I think the H10 is ANT+, so all Garmin watches recognize it as well. Might be that the H10 can only supports a single connection, either to the PM5 or the Venu, but that is another issue. But if I were you and you like the H10, keep using it.

Great thing is that when you upload your data to Concept2 and it is connected to Garmin, it is also copied to your logs there, and you can see the same metrics there as well. In all honesty, I like Garmin's interface a bit better than Cncept2's, as they use more intense colors. It syncs the workout to my watch as well, so it will indicate in workout overviews that I rowed, without the need to tell my watch that.

[Erik A]

i was using my watch to record HR and to be honest its a guess at best. switched to the Garmin HRM chest monitor and its a hell of a lot more accurate. only for the erg. Use the watch when walking but im not that fussed on HR while doing that. more interested in the distance and time functions.

[IggyG]

Its good to see the apple watch works in with the rowerg app to give heart rate

[winniewinser]

I went from Fitbit to Garmin 245 and would never go back. Does everything I need and I can connect the H10 to it for accurate row session stats. Battery life was a revelation after the Fitbit.

I've just upgraded to the Garmin 255 today

[Joebasscat]

I went from Fitbit to Garmin 245 and would never go back. Does everything I need and I can connect the H10 to it for accurate row session stats. Battery life was a revelation after the Fitbit.

I've just upgraded to the Garmin 255 today

Thanks to all and to you Winniewinser. Connecting my H10 to the watch sounds promising and I’ll check those models out in addition to the Venu models that were mentioned earlier.

So I replaced the dead Fitbit with an Inspire 2 for the moment. Got me back up quickly tracking sleep and RHR etc… Not worth much for rowing HR as we know. As an example today’s workout was hard intervals. Max rate recoded with H10 was 184. Fitbit 145. And full disclosure my Health Plan has a point system that both my Polar device and Fitbit report to with points earned each day. Points are cashed in for $ or something like Amazon gift cards. Pretty sure Garmin devices would link as well. I’ve bought an Erg that way and if I upgrade to any of the aforementioned Garmin devices, I have enough points to pay for that too. I’ll miss that plan in retirement!

[dabatey]

For those tracking sleep how accurate do you think your watch is??

As both my (huawei) and partners (garmin) fitness bands cannot differentiate between sleeping and lying awake motionless, I find it difficult to have faith in the accuracy of the band differentiating between light sleep, REM sleep and deep sleep if it cannot discern when I am awake.

Like most everyone else on here seems to find, HR monitor is useless on both devices for rowing, and even cycling where you'd think it would have a fighting chance with limited wrist movement. Resting HR seems to monitor OK tho.

[winniewinser]

For those tracking sleep how accurate do you think your watch is??

As both my (huawei) and partners (garmin) fitness bands cannot differentiate between sleeping and lying awake motionless, I find it difficult to have faith in the accuracy of the band differentiating between light sleep, REM sleep and deep sleep if it cannot discern when I am awake.

Like most everyone else on here seems to find, HR monitor is useless on both devices for rowing, and even cycling where you'd think it would have a fighting chance with limited wrist movement. Resting HR seems to monitor OK tho.

I think my Garmin is pretty accurate....catches me when I spark out on the sofa of an afternoon

Garmin 245....but just upgraded to 255

[Joebasscat]

I went from Fitbit to Garmin 245 and would never go back. Does everything I need and I can connect the H10 to it for accurate row session stats. Battery life was a revelation after the Fitbit.

I've just upgraded to the Garmin 255 today

What is your sequence you use for connecting your H10 to your Garmin watch? Bluetooth to the watch? Ant+ to your PM5? Does it seem to matter which one connects first?

[Joebasscat]

For those tracking sleep how accurate do you think your watch is??

As both my (huawei) and partners (garmin) fitness bands cannot differentiate between sleeping and lying awake motionless, I find it difficult to have faith in the accuracy of the band differentiating between light sleep, REM sleep and deep sleep if it cannot discern when I am awake.

Like most everyone else on here seems to find, HR monitor is useless on both devices for rowing, and even cycling where you'd think it would have a fighting chance with limited wrist movement. Resting HR seems to monitor OK tho.

As for the Fitbit, if it says I got a poor nights sleep, I feel like trash. If it says I slept well, I generally feel pretty good. So I’d say it’s getting something right. The difference in the bands, hard to say. At 63 so much of my sleep is light sleep it’s tough. The monitors need a “staring at the wall” band. I’d score well on that one.