Concept2 Forum

Hi everyone, I am having a lot of confusion chossing a heart rate monitor ! If I buy a chest strap, I want to see the actual real time readings on a watch. Do I need to buy a set ( matching strap and watch ) or can I buy a separate chest strap and watch ?

I have seen a Polar chest strap, but I don't know which watch model will pick up the signal ?

Cam anyone recommend please, I would be very grateful

Thank you

Modern wrist devices can pick up your strap, either using ANT+ or Bluetooth.

Strap and receiver are seldom sold together these days. That's too bad, because you used to be able to buy a gymlink (5kz) strap and wrist receiver together for about $30. Now you pay more than that for the transmitter, and you need a smart device.

The Polar PM5 can also pick up the signal from your strap using ANT+ or Bluetooth.

I have PM5s, a garmin wrist device, various smart watches. I have Coospo, Garmin, and Polar straps. All pairs of strap/receiver work fine together. They read HR in real time.

My treadmill and elliptical speak only gymlink, and only the Polar transmits gymlink in addition to ANT+ and Bluetooth. In the alternative, you can buy cheap gymlink-only straps.

Thanks for the reply. Funny you should mention Polar because I have seen The new polar H10 chest strap with Polar watch for £253. Quite expensive but they do link to the MP5.

Turns out I'm too fat for the polar chest strap ! Found that Garmin hrm dual fits, but don't know which watch is compatible ? Google isn't ant help lol.

By MP5 to you mean PM5? Garmin Dual for sure works with PM5.

PM5 yes lol. Bought the Garmin HRM Dual chest strap ( £40) and Garmin Forererunner 55 watch ( £95 ).

Got to work out how I pair the chest strap to the watch and mobile phone app now !

bigsimon123 wrote: ↑

January 2nd, 2025, 3:21 pm

PM5 yes lol. Bought the Garmin HRM Dual chest strap ( £40) and Garmin Forererunner 55 watch ( £95 ).

Got to work out how I pair the chest strap to the watch and mobile phone app now !

That's a great price for a Forerunner 55. I love my 45, which I use for running.

For rowing, I don't use a smart watch. Just connect to the PM5, and then use the ErgData app.

I have connected to my phone to track HRV, but in the end I decided I didn't have the time to check it properly, and so now don't use the HRM with any phone apps.

Thanks for reply. What I want to do is wear chest strap connect to watch to record workout, and also connect chest strap to PM5 to record also. Sounds complicated but I just want to work out at my chosen heart rate and record in both the watch, and the erg app.

bigsimon123 wrote: ↑

January 3rd, 2025, 5:18 am

Thanks for reply. What I want to do is wear chest strap connect to watch to record workout, and also connect chest strap to PM5 to record also. Sounds complicated but I just want to work out at my chosen heart rate and record in both the watch, and the erg app.

I do this with Polar H10 and Garmin 265 watch. Only difference is my watch can also grab ANT+ FE-C data, I don't think yours does.

ONE TIME SETUP

Connect Ergdata to your PM5. Wear your HR strap so it turns on. Connect the HR strap to the PM5 using the PM5 connect button, HR monitor, WAIT for an ANT+ entry to appear - it could take several seconds and may come a bit after a BTLE entry, select ANT+, confirm your HR monitor selection. Your HR now appears on both Ergdata and on the PM5. (You can also use BTLE, you will see it on the connect menu. ANT+ is more stable IMO, either will work. I've used both.) When ergdata asks tell it to remember your HR monitor selection.

On your forerunner 55 follow this set of instructions to connect your HR monitor as an external HR monitor. https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp ... C735D.html Again I use ANT+, you can use either ANT+ or BTLE. If you use BTLE for both your PM5 and watch connection then make sure both BTLE radios are enabled in your belt. BTLE (as used in a HR monitor) is a one-one connect unlike ANT+ which allows many to listen.

On your C2 log: your choice whether you have C2 push a log entry to Garmin for each piece you row. I did this for a while then turned the c2 --> Garmin push off and only get the watch data on garmin connect. Garmin will use your watch data for exercise tracking. It will *NOT* use manual entries or any data pushed from C2 as part of your exercise load.

EVERY TIME YOU ROW:

Put on the belt to get it started.

Connect Ergdata to your pm5. Once connected Ergdata will tell the PM5 what HR belt to look for. The pm5 will connect your belt automatically. It might take a few seconds. Very rarely (2-3 times/year) it fails to connect, if so then connect your HR belt manually to the PM5 using the connect button on the pm5. It's easy to notice - you get nothing for HR value displayed and when you go into the connect menu HR is not connected.

Select a sport on your Forerunner 55. This triggers the watch to look for your external HR monitor. My 265 has rowing, maybe yours does too. If not pick something else that does *not* use GPS but does use an external HR monitor. Your watch will automatically connect to your belt - look for the "external monitor connected" message - it will appear for a few seconds after your select the sport. PRESS START for the activity you selected. Dumb interface - it will not record unless you press start.

Row. If you are doing multiple pieces (say 10 min just row to warm up then some intervals) use the PM5 normally, do *not* stop/start the watch. Your C2 log gets each piece separately. Your Garmin connect data will show one workout that combines all pieces.

When done rowing remember to press stop on your watch. Sync. Your data is in Garmin, your training status is updated.
Ergdata will auto sync when you stop the piece you are doing.

Wow, what an indepth well written explanation, thank you so much for taking all that time to explain it to me.

So if I am understanding correctly it will be primarily be not only the erg, but also my watch that uploads the workout to Garmin connect ? Because the Garmin HRM dual chest strap doesn't connect to Garmin connect ( didn't know this prior to buying ) !

Thanks once again.

bigsimon123 wrote: ↑

January 3rd, 2025, 3:02 pm

So if I am understanding correctly it will be primarily be not only the erg, but also my watch that uploads the workout to Garmin connect ?

With the instructions above your watch is the only thing sending data to Garmin Connect. Your watch gets HR data from your connected belt, and your watch gets sport stop/start data from you pressing buttons on the watch. Your watch also gets a lot of 24x7 data (heart rate, HRV, steps, etc) if you wear it all the time. Periodically your watch gives all this data to Garmin Connect running on your phone. Once Garmin Connect gets the data from your watch it sends this data to your account at Garmin.

With the instructions above your PM5, Ergdata and Concept2 are not sending data to Garmin. If you want to change that you can ask the concept2 log to forward the data it gets from Ergdata to Garmin. I don't recommend this, but it works. Garmin does not recognize that the data sent from Concept2 is a duplicate of the workout sent by your watch, and Garmin does not use data sent from Concept2 to plan your workouts or to compute your training status. Neither the PM5 nor Ergdata can send data to Garmin, only the Concept2 log can send data, so you must set up a concept2 log if you want PM5 data forwarded to Garmin.

Your PM5 connects to Ergdata. When you sign up for a concept2 log, and link Ergdata with your Concept2 log then ergdata will send the data it gets from the PM5 to concept2. Ergdata only talks to concept2. You should make a concept2 log and link it to Ergdata. The log is useful, and Concept2 will send you a nice shirt at 1,000,000 meters rowed.

bigsimon123 wrote: ↑

January 3rd, 2025, 3:02 pm

Because the Garmin HRM dual chest strap doesn't connect to Garmin connect ( didn't know this prior to buying )

You should connect your HR monitor to Garmin Connect to get periodic firmware updates. There is no need to connect your belt to Garmin Connect each time you do a rowing session since you have the watch and the watch is collecting the rowing data. Use these one-time instructions to connect your Dual HR Belt to Garmin connect. Once connected the Garmin Connect app will look for new firmware periodically and let your know. I think it will also warn you if the battery in your belt gets low. https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp ... 25B88.html

Tsnor wrote: ↑

January 3rd, 2025, 4:40 pm

With the instructions above your PM5, Ergdata and Concept2 are not sending data to Garmin. If you want to change that you can ask the concept2 log to forward the data it gets from Ergdata to Garmin. I don't recommend this, but it works. Garmin does not recognize that the data sent from Concept2 is a duplicate of the workout sent by your watch, and Garmin does not use data sent from Concept2 to plan your workouts or to compute your training status.

Yeah, about this mess Garmin has created here. I have a slightly more nuanced idea about this. Some watches indeed need to actually see the activity happen before they take it into account for training load etc.. So recording an activity on your watch is needed as it determines your training load, but after it served that purpose, it is useless as it only is HR data. I don't know if your specific Forerunner still needs this, as updates in the ecosystem are not the best documented. More expensive Garmins can actually record the rowing data directly from the PM5, making it more usefull, but as yours doesn't, I can imagin you want the Concept2 data in your Garmin Connect as well.

If that is the case, then simply connect the C2 Logbook to Garmin Connect, and it will be uploaded automatically. Only thing to remember is to delete the recording from the watch in Garmin Connect. But record on your watch if you want to manage training load etc..

Tsnor wrote: ↑

January 3rd, 2025, 4:40 pm

You should connect your HR monitor to Garmin Connect to get periodic firmware updates.

This is a tough one. My HRM Dual did not connect to my smartphone, only to my watch. My HRM Pro-Plus does connect to my app directly. So it is actually device dependent what should happen here.

Tsnor, thanks for the always excellent instructions. Regarding connecting the HRM Dual to Garmin Connect this particular cannot be paired as stated on there app.
It's a shame, but as you said the watch will do this anyway so winner winner chicken dinner

All I wanted was to see in real time my HR so I could work at the correct fat burning rate. It is a bonus also to be able to record on my concept log, and Garmin Connect. Cheers.

JaapvanE you are right about the confusion with Garmin. I sent a few emails asking for advice and didn't recieve a reply. I am quite happy that I am able to both have my workout recorded via my mobile phone on the erg , and also my heart rate reading via the watch to the Garmin.

Thanks to you guys for making sense of this complicated cafufal.

I learned from this thread (thanks @Tsnor) that you can have Concept2 log automatically update Garmin Connect. I had not noticed this feature previously.

This is precisely what I want, notwithstandig @Tsnor's negative recommendation. I do not wear my Forerunner unless I'm going out, as I have no interest in continuous monitoring. What I want is to have, with minimal effort, all my workouts in one place, and that's what I get.