Rowing - Heart Rate decreasing over timeÉ

Celticjim · 7 Apr 2020, 00:08

Hope everyone is staying safe. I love this watch. I have probably only tapped into 10% of my capabilities. With the stay at home orders in place, I have restarted my erging exercises. First issue I have had with this watch, but the heart rate will accurately work. After 10 minutes, it actually decreased to about 40bpm. I do not have the chest strap as the watch has been very good in the other exercises. I have searched quite a bit on this forum to no avail. Any suggestions or some pointed things I may be doing correctly ?

Side note, I changed it to running on occasion and properly registers the HR.

isazi · 7 Apr 2020, 08:21

@Celticjim for what I know optical heart rate measuring at the wrist is not optimal during activities in which you hold something tight, including rowing, because blood flow is actually restricted. This should explain why the lower readings.

Not sure however why it should read better in running mode. It is difficult to check because you would need at least two different and simultaneous reads to know the truth.

Bulkan · 7 Apr 2020, 20:40

@Celticjim said in Rowing - Heart Rate decreasing over timeÉ:

Side note, I changed it to running on occasion and properly registers the HR.

I don’t think running would be different…

have you tried both wrists?

Eugene Benkovskiy · 4 Aug 2020, 16:52

Greetings @Celticjim !

I have Spartan Trainer watch.
For running, I use heart belt. For exercises, I use inbuild optical heart rate meter.
I can say that if during exercises I tighten the watch strap better - results are almost the same.
Also, I recommend wearing your watch during exercises a little bit up of your wrist than usual.
That can help you to achieve more accurate readings.

Have a nice day!

Celticjim · 9 Apr 2020, 15:35

Thanks all. I am going to fiddle around with it some more later this afternoon. Most of it I have tried. Also cleaned the back of the watch, and will tighten the crud out of it when I hop on the erg today. If’s the first challenge I have had with the watch , and hoping I can get this to work.