Some Progress with Heart Rate?

[gwinegarden]

I have not been on a stationary bike for a while. Today, I jumped on, set the band to bike and OMG no HR spikes, none, nada, for the whole 30 minutes! Then I decided to go for a stroll, on the treadmill. Set the watch to exercise/treadmill and boom HR went through the roof. So, from this simple "study", there may have been some progress in the bike tile but the exercise tile is still nuts.

 

[Nate Silver]

Yeah, sometimes it works ok, and sometimes it spikes right out of the gate. For a while I thought the key was to use the 'me' tile to get a hr rate lock for a few minutes before starting an activity, but sometimes that doesn't make any difference. It seems totally random as to whether its going to act up or not. Yesterday on the treadmill it started spiking to 120 after just a minute or less into a walk (should have been around 85 to 90). I could step off the treadmill, and it would quickly settle back to where it should be. Step back on the treadmill, and within a handful of steps it would be right back up to 120. Finally after about 10 minutes it settled down and behaved. I've had one or two rides on the stationary bike where it acted right, but that's about it. Same with the treadmill. Pretty discouraging, actually. I have a Garmin Fenix 3 HR on order, just awaiting stock. It'll allow me to use the optical hr for 24/7 use, and default to a chest strap for activities. If it works out, I may end up retiring the Band.

 

[driedl]

Like the OP, I've noticed an improvement since the last firmware update. I wasn't sure if it was the firmware or the fact that I switched to wearing my B2 on my non-dominant wrist, but I haven't seen the HR spike this week. Nate, did you happen to check your workout on the Health app? I saw a couple of wonky numbers while I was on the elliptical yesterday but they were smoothed out by the health app. It's not ideal, but it's better than the 30+ BPM spikes I was seeing before. I'm curious why you're going with the Fenix 3 HR instead of the just-announced Vivoactive HR. It seems to me that the VAHR has more features for the non-triathelete for about half the price. I was drooling over the Fenix but wasn't willing to spend that kind of money so I'm really excited the VAHR. Based on the specs and early reviewes, it's exactly the device I've been hoping for.

 

[Nate Silver]

Like the OP, I've noticed an improvement since the last firmware update. I wasn't sure if it was the firmware or the fact that I switched to wearing my B2 on my non-dominant wrist, but I haven't seen the HR spike this week. Nate, did you happen to check your workout on the Health app? I saw a couple of wonky numbers while I was on the elliptical yesterday but they were smoothed out by the health app. It's not ideal, but it's better than the 30+ BPM spikes I was seeing before. I'm curious why you're going with the Fenix 3 HR instead of the just-announced Vivoactive HR. It seems to me that the VAHR has more features for the non-triathelete for about half the price. I was drooling over the Fenix but wasn't willing to spend that kind of money so I'm really excited the VAHR. Based on the specs and early reviewes, it's exactly the device I've been hoping for.

Thanks for the response! At first I thought it had improved. Yeah, I've checked, and its still spiking badly. I will say that the app smooths out some of it, but certainly not all - and all that means is that those smoothed areas are where the Band was unable to maintain a lock, so the app had to guess at it. On today's indoor cycling I had to eventually give it up and stop tracking with the Band and deleted the activity; there's just no sense in recording totally inaccurate stats. It was spiking as high as 170/180 when it should have been quite steady around 110. This was even after the initial 10 minute period, after which it usually settles down.

I think the Vivoactive HR is a good option. I have two primary reasons for choosing the Fenix 3 HR instead. The most rational reason is that the Vivoactive doesn't support power meters. The less rational is that the styling of the Fenix 3 is just so darned pretty. I already have the regular F3, so I'm quite used to it, and the Vivoactive would be sort of a downgrade.

 

[driedl]

Thanks for the response! At first I thought it had improved. Yeah, I've checked, and its still spiking badly. I will say that the app smooths out some of it, but certainly not all - and all that means is that those smoothed areas are where the Band was unable to maintain a lock, so the app had to guess at it. On today's indoor cycling I had to eventually give it up and stop tracking with the Band and deleted the activity; there's just no sense in recording totally inaccurate stats. It was spiking as high as 170/180 when it should have been quite steady around 110. This was even after the initial 10 minute period, after which it usually settles down.

I think the Vivoactive HR is a good option. I have two primary reasons for choosing the Fenix 3 HR instead. The most rational reason is that the Vivoactive doesn't support power meters. The less rational is that the styling of the Fenix 3 is just so darned pretty. I already have the regular F3, so I'm quite used to it, and the Vivoactive would be sort of a downgrade.

Thanks for responding, Nate. Maybe my improved HR tracking is just due to switching to my non-dominant wrist. I did an interval workout today that was the best HR tracking I've seen from my Band 2 (not great but on par with my Band 1 at least).

I can't disagree that the Fenix is a beautiful device. Good luck with it! I'm anxiously awaiting my preordered VAHR here.