Wring HR Read while Strength Training (Dumbbells)
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Got the S9P two weeks ago. I’m not new to sports watch and done my share of trainings. Anyway, doing weight-training (dumbbells), with a sport-mode that I designed, and the HR read drops during my sets! on my 60 seconds of rest I manually measure my HR and it’s ~140 but the watch says ~60…
Something that “fixes” it is putting my hand horizontally and stale… it sometimes works. This behavior is very consistent except for my Legs workout where my hands are not very active, which tells me that maybe the wrist movement my cause this problem.
As you can see, the warm is looking great… (well, it was short and not too aggressive, I admit), but during my sets (3 supersets, 2 drills each, 4x12) it’s in the low zone…
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@boazzimmerman gripping something hard is not good for wrist HR.
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@isazi It is working well with my iWatch
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@isazi While “strong grip” could potentially explain it, I have another example of bad HR reading. Just completed a Burpee Tabata training - warm-up with Jump Rope took my HR to ~150, then started my 8x30 (20 + 10) Burpee workout – could barely finish it, but HR remained under 100.
Something ie either wrong with my unit, or S9P is just not good in high intensity workout… -
@boazzimmerman I think the S9P is just not good with such workouts. I noticed whenever the arm movement is too much, the HR is totally wrong. Whenever I go on a trailrun on my regular training track (about 600hm) the HR drops as soon as it should rise. When going full speed the watch shows about 90bpm but in reality it is about 180bpm (measured with a belt). Whenever I stopped to compare OHR and beltHR the watch HR went up again and beltHR went down.
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@patrick-rx thanks! good to know that it’s not a bad unit or my imagination.
It is very disappointing, however, as the watch/app is doing a great job on telling me my fitness level, recovery, etc. My workout this morning “requires” zero recovery… -
@boazzimmerman Some people seem to find that the HR measurement on the S9P works fantastic and they stop using their chest straps. I have tried all the different tricks for readings: strap tight, not too tight, up higher and higher on the arm, shaving the wrist, etc but cannot get an accurate reading when I compare it to my Ambit with a chest strap. Sometimes the values are 20-50 bpm off. So I gave up on using the wrist HR for any meaningful exercise date and use the chest strap if I want HR data. It seems to work pretty good for night time readings though. Wish it worked better for me, but it seems some peoples anatomy is just not conducive to good readings…
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@rick-stockwell Thank you!
Very disappointing… I love everything (else) about this watch and I wish Suunto would hav been more clear about this issue, and the very least pair it, out of the box, with the Belt. p.s. I can’t find my old Ambit belt, so I’ll have to buy a new one
I never liked the iWatch for training - it tried to do everything, but was mediocre in most things - but the HR was pretty good, which means that its possible to have a good wrist HR; Maybe it’s just a software problem
I wish someone from Suunto was here to share their thoughts on this -
@boazzimmerman found it – very old one - it’s the ANT. I wonder if it’s compatible (need a new battery)
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@boazzimmerman No, ANT+ based sensors aren’t compatible with S9P.
But as far as strength training and OHR are concerned… As others have said: these two do not mix together. Anytime there’s a wrist flexing happens, the OHR would go haywire. It’s an issue with pretty much all currently existing sensors. Sometimes it may appear to be working, especially later in the workout, but I’d recommend to take a chest strap and compare.
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@nickk Interesting comment on the wrist flexing affecting the OHR - maybe that is why it doesn’t work for me - I am using it hiking with poles.
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@rick-stockwell Exactly right. Basically any tension in your wrists will throw off the sensors, no matter how good they are otherwise. Which is why Polar’s OH1/Verity Sense stuff and Scosche Rhythm are all biceps-worn, and WHOOP had to quickly come up with a bicep band of their own. If you want accuracy with OHR, wrist is the last place you want to have it on.
For strength though I’d personally go with a chest strap. Any heart rate changes there would be too short-lived and spiky to be properly picked up by OHR.
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@nickk thanks for all the help
My “SUUNTO SMART HEART RATE BELT” is on it way… -
@boazzimmerman I had same issue with the HR when I was lifting weight, bought the belt and been using it for about a year now, and it pretty much solved 95% of the HR issues. 5% of the time the sensor might get ripped off when I was doing bench press and muscle up.