Is Apple watch worth it for rowing?

[rasstar]

I already have a chest strap but I am considering purchasing the apple watch for convenience. From what I understand it wouldn't sync heart rate to the erg data. Is that still the case?

Is purchasing an apple watch worth it?

[lindsayh]

I already have a chest strap but I am considering purchasing the apple watch for convenience. From what I understand it wouldn't sync heart rate to the erg data. Is that still the case? Is purchasing an apple watch worth it?

Unfortunately you can't replace a chest strap with a wrist monitor like Apple watch - totally unreliable for rowing so waste of $$. There is an upper arm one that works well and correlates to a chest strap as an alternative.

Greg Smith has done some work here: https://quantifiedrowing.com/

[GreggMack54]

I have an Apple Watch 4 that I wear while I'm rowing on my Concept2 Model D, and I can't tell you whether it is "worth it" or not, but I can tell you some information that might help you decide that for yourself.

I use a Garmin chest strap that connects to the PM5, which is connected to my iPhone running the ErgData app. That chest strap heartrate is displayed on the PM5 while I row, and I rely on what it is telling me while I row. At the end of the workout, the ErgData app synchronizes beautifully with the Logbook web site on the Concept2 servers, where I can review it all later on.

Simultaneously, I have my Apple Watch 4 on my wrist, and I start the Workout app and select the Rowing workout. As I row, it is not convenient to "raise my wrist" to turn on the display, but when I occasionally do, the heartrate bpm very closely matches the number that I see on the PM5 from my Garmin chest strap. Once the workout is over, I tell the watch just that, and it syncs all of its data to the Activity app on my iPhone, where I can review it later.

Comparing the Logbook data to the Activity app data, the heartrate graphs match very, very closely. The calorie counts are dramatically different, though, with the Apple Activity app indicating much fewer calories burned than the ErgData app (for instance 245 vs. 325). I have no idea what Apple is basing that on as all it's got to go on is my heartrate, age, and weight. (In fairness, it does indicate 245 Active Calories and 305 Total Calories, when ErgData shows me only 325 calories.) I have a nice screenshot of my iPhone that I would love to show you, and I hope to add it later on today.

You indicate that you want to use an Apple Watch instead of your chest strap. I wouldn't recommend that, as you will not get the heartrate information included into the ErgData app and therefore the online Logbook. Having said that, I very much like using BOTH at the same time.

[gregsmith01748]

I have an apple watch and as a HR monitor it is way better than any other wrist based sensor, and compares very well to arm mounted (Polar OH1) or chest (Yahoo Tickr).

Here's an example from a 90 minute coastal row that I did on Sunday. This was an open water row, and the conditions were choppy, which means that my wrists were getting a LOT of action.



I haven't done a formal analysis, but it tracked really well under tough conditions.

The sensor is great, but the support for rowing as a sport is sub standard. It does not recognize stroke rate (The Garmin does), and it only understands indoor rowing, so it doesn't use the gps to track distance or speed. Hopefully that will be improved in a future software release, because it certainly isn't a hardware limitation.

[kini62]

I use a Polar M430. The overall HR is very accurate, it just lags a little if you're doing short HI training. I have occasional issues when using the skierg as the motion sometimes disrupts the connection to the wrist. Overall it works great and is much more convenient than a chest strap.

The Polar app is pretty good too. And it lasts 7-10 days on a charge if I don't use the GPS.

[DavidA]

I have an Apple Watch 4 that I wear while I'm rowing on my Concept2 Model D, and I can't tell you whether it is "worth it" or not, but I can tell you some information that might help you decide that for yourself.

Comparing the Logbook data to the Activity app data, the heartrate graphs match very, very closely. The calorie counts are dramatically different, though, with the Apple Activity app indicating much fewer calories burned than the ErgData app (for instance 245 vs. 325). I have no idea what Apple is basing that on as all it's got to go on is my heartrate, age, and weight. (In fairness, it does indicate 245 Active Calories and 305 Total Calories, when ErgData shows me only 325 calories.) I have a nice screenshot of my iPhone that I would love to show you, and I hope to add it later on today.

I have also found that HR data on my Apple watch 4 is extremely similar to the chest strap (Wahoo Tckr). I also see the Calories well below that of the PM, but I don't count on either of them necessary being very accurate, but they are reproducible, so I can see any trends there might be. (It did, however, make me overestimate how many Calories a day I could do for my watch 'workout' )

David

[Kevinmeier]

My apple watch and polar strap show very similar HR, quite different calorie count. I got a Whoop wrist strap as well that is usually pretty off though

[rasstar]

I purchased the Apple Watch from Costco and will be returning it. For the price I don’t find it very useful. Using it with the rower isn’t that interesting either.

[Scallops]

I have an Apple Watch 4 that I wear while I'm rowing on my Concept2 Model D, and I can't tell you whether it is "worth it" or not, but I can tell you some information that might help you decide that for yourself.

I use a Garmin chest strap that connects to the PM5, which is connected to my iPhone running the ErgData app. That chest strap heartrate is displayed on the PM5 while I row, and I rely on what it is telling me while I row. At the end of the workout, the ErgData app synchronizes beautifully with the Logbook web site on the Concept2 servers, where I can review it all later on.

Simultaneously, I have my Apple Watch 4 on my wrist, and I start the Workout app and select the Rowing workout. As I row, it is not convenient to "raise my wrist" to turn on the display, but when I occasionally do, the heartrate bpm very closely matches the number that I see on the PM5 from my Garmin chest strap. Once the workout is over, I tell the watch just that, and it syncs all of its data to the Activity app on my iPhone, where I can review it later.

Comparing the Logbook data to the Activity app data, the heartrate graphs match very, very closely. The calorie counts are dramatically different, though, with the Apple Activity app indicating much fewer calories burned than the ErgData app (for instance 245 vs. 325). I have no idea what Apple is basing that on as all it's got to go on is my heartrate, age, and weight. (In fairness, it does indicate 245 Active Calories and 305 Total Calories, when ErgData shows me only 325 calories.) I have a nice screenshot of my iPhone that I would love to show you, and I hope to add it later on today.

You indicate that you want to use an Apple Watch instead of your chest strap. I wouldn't recommend that, as you will not get the heartrate information included into the ErgData app and therefore the online Logbook. Having said that, I very much like using BOTH at the same time.

Hello all - first post from me here so thanks for having me - I'm getting my model D rower soon and I hope to record workouts using the Apple Watch rowing module simultaneously whilst using the Ergdata app. I'll be using a Polar chest strap so I can see HR on the PM5.....

May I ask specifically - if you use both the Rowing workout on Apple Watch and Ergdata on your iPhone simultaneously, did you need to prevent Ergdata from accessing your health info on your iPhone to prevent doubling up on Apple Watch's activity?

[GreggMack54]

Yes, I have to change some settings to eliminate the redundant workouts.

On my iPhone, Settings —> Health —> Data Access & Devices —> ErgData —> Turn off all 5 under the ALLOW “ERGDATA” TO WRITE DATA section, and below that, under the ALLOW “ERGDATA” TO WRITE DATA SECTION, I turned on Weight.

[Scallops]

Yes, I have to change some settings to eliminate the redundant workouts.

On my iPhone, Settings —> Health —> Data Access & Devices —> ErgData —> Turn off all 5 under the ALLOW “ERGDATA” TO WRITE DATA section, and below that, under the ALLOW “ERGDATA” TO WRITE DATA SECTION, I turned on Weight.

Thanks so much Gregg....appreciate the advice - I'll do the same.

[rfcii]

Yes, I have to change some settings to eliminate the redundant workouts.

On my iPhone, Settings —> Health —> Data Access & Devices —> ErgData —> Turn off all 5 under the ALLOW “ERGDATA” TO WRITE DATA section, and below that, under the ALLOW “ERGDATA” TO WRITE DATA SECTION, I turned on Weight.

Just curious - why do you allow Ergdata to write weight? I'm using a "smart scale" for weight tracking and don't want to overwrite this with other sources, and wondering what value you see in Ergdata writing weight to the ios Health app.

EDIT: Now that I re-read this, I assume you meant to say "READ" instead of WRITE in the 2nd part of your sentence, which makes sense.


Thanks!

[Tsnor]

This thread is about Apple watches. Adding some fitbit watch information in case anyone thinks the Apple watch insights apply to Fitbit Charge 2 or Charge 3 technology.

In steady state rows where an H10 belt shows 135 bpm min to 140 bpm max for 90 minutes the Fitbit Charge 3 will have significant periods of time above 160 and some periods of time below 120. Makes the fitbit totally useless as a workout tool. Good thing you can't see it while rowing and act on the incorrect information. The results are even worse for intervals.

I like my Fitbit charge. I've used the HR, Charge 2 and Charge 3 (they fail often, I liek them enough to replace them). Nice integration with Concept 2 log -- times and calories get transferred over automatically. The fitbits work fine for hiking, sleep, etc. But hopeless for rowing. Don't rely on them for rowing. The reported data is just wrong.