S9 Baro titanium not measuring VO2Max or fitness levels with 2.10.18 - is this a known problem?

hgavert

Hi!

Thanks. I’ve tried soft reset once. After the first run, I got note that the running was calibrated. I kind of figured, that it might be needed before the VO2Max is measured. However that is not referred to in the help text that guides just to have a 15min walk or a run - my routes have been about 30min at minimum.

There is another message here on the forums about not getting the VO2Max with S9 Baro…

isazi

@hgavert the message about running calibration has nothing to do with VO2Max. If after a few runs with HR and GPS, with different intensities, you still get no reading contact support.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

To get VO2max you need good HR readings and a bit of effort (go to zone 2+ ) from my experience

hgavert

Hi!

I went for a short run today and I finally got the VO2Max!

Thanks for the help everybody! I would not have tried to run now anymore because of injury on my right foot (that’s why other sports now) but as you encouraged to do another run, the watch finally calculated it.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos The instructions are quite clear but evidently wrong. I asked about this issue already from the Suunto / Amer flagship store in Helsinki, and they also agreed that the measurement should come after just one run or walk*.
Here is the first run that I did with the smart HR belt:

So, as you can see, plenty of high HR rates. This time I did the same thing a little shorter (again with the HR belt):

So I guess the feedback is that the instructions are flawed and they should be changed. The easiest way would probably be a popup article in the Suunto app for those that have not yet received the VO2Max measurement at all. It would have helped me a lot to understand the reasons why I was not getting it. Or at least to get this same advice that I might not get it after the first exercise.

The watch gives me a fitness age of 20 - which is pretty nice as it’s less than half of my age! (I do not think that I’m that fit…)

I also noticed that the VO2Max was not recorded to Apple Health, even though I have given the permissions. This is probably a known bug?

*) BTW, I recently took part in FirstBeat 3 day measurement, and that they instructed us to have a 20min walk to get the VO2Max. For me, that was the first 30 min walk with the S9 and surprise, it was the only time during that 3 days that the FirstBeat device had not measured my heartbeat… wonder why. But if Suunto is using FirstBeat algorithms here, it seems that walking should be enough.

surfboomerang

@hgavert
Just out of curiousity… what kind of heartrate zones are you using?
Zone 5 has an upper-lower difference of over 40bpm while zones 2, 3 and 4 barely have a difference of 9bpm

hgavert

@surfboomerang said in S9 Baro titanium not measuring VO2Max or fitness levels with 2.10.18 - is this a known problem?:

@hgavert
Just out of curiousity… what kind of heartrate zones are you using?
Zone 5 has an upper-lower difference of over 40bpm while zones 2, 3 and 4 barely have a difference of 9bpm

Yeah, I’ve wondered about those too, but since I’ve not had the time to get into the specifics of this watch… those are autogenerated by the watch from the max HR, which btw, was something that I was trying to get on that first run. So, currently my max HR is that 187. If I remember correctly, S9 asked to set the zones automatically based on the max. (Or maybe it was Movescount… but I think the watch).

surfboomerang

@hgavert It is in the watch. if you enter your max HR, it asks you if you want to adjust your zones automatically.
I don’t know what model Suunto has based it’s zones on, but you can always adjust your zones manually if you like.

hgavert

@surfboomerang said in S9 Baro titanium not measuring VO2Max or fitness levels with 2.10.18 - is this a known problem?:

@hgavert It is in the watch. if you enter your max HR, it asks you if you want to adjust your zones automatically.
I don’t know what model Suunto has based it’s zones on, but you can always adjust your zones manually if you like.

Yeah, I should probably set them manually, but I haven’t had the time to look up how to calculate reasonable values.

surfboomerang

one of many theories…
https://www.suunto.com/fy-nl/sports/News-Articles-container-page/Figure-out-your-training-zones-and-supercharge-your-fitness/

hgavert

@surfboomerang said in S9 Baro titanium not measuring VO2Max or fitness levels with 2.10.18 - is this a known problem?:

https://www.suunto.com/fy-nl/sports/News-Articles-container-page/Figure-out-your-training-zones-and-supercharge-your-fitness/

Thanks, that was interesting read! I will try that test maybe next summer if my foot allows me to run. However, I went back to the watch and toggled the max HR and finally when I found the clear or default settings, then it changed the zones to something more reasonable. Still based on the max HR of course.

Brad_Olwin

@hgavert Your zones are clearly off. Zone 5 is for interval efforts, most cannot maintain HR in zone 5 for very long. For an setting based on effort, Zone 1 you should be able to converse easily, and talk as long as you want. Zone 2 you will need to breathe more and that will interrupt conversation some. Zone 3 a sentence, Zone 4 a couple words and Zone 5 is difficult to speak at all.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

In theory you cannot stay in zone 5 for more than 5mins without throwing up

ink357

Hi!
After the first time is vo2max calculated with all sports or just with walking and running?

isazi

@ink357 just walking and running activities.

lost_today

@hgavert hi there.
I was having same problem as you. But I have 2.10.26. Which is latest. But it was still not working. I did a hard reset today. And then a run. And now it’s working well. It is a bit of a pain doing hard reset and then setting up watch again. But worth it to get feature working

lost_today

@ink357 hi
I asked suunto help centre about this.
You need to do walk/run for calibration but after this your levels should change doing any exercise type.
I have just done calibration today. So I have not tested this yet. But will let you know results mi week.

ink357

I’ve just made a 2 hours walk exercice but no vo2max estimated
It was a personalized exercice, do you think i have to calibrate with basic walk or run mode ?

lost_today

@ink357 that could be the problem
I would do a hard reset. That’s what I did this morning then it basic run and got my fitness level

ink357

The watch is not a new, i wanted to try the new functions. Now i’ll make a hard reset with all new settings

sartoric

@ink357

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in S9 Baro titanium not measuring VO2Max or fitness levels with 2.10.18 - is this a known problem?:

To get VO2max you need good HR readings and a bit of effort (go to zone 2+ ) from my experience