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Is there an activity setting for Rock Climbing?

Is there an activity setting for Rock Climbing? I climb 3 days a week and despite this being a very intense workout my vivo active 4S gives me almost no active calories for the work since it doesn't significantly raise my heart rate/i.e. isn't intense cardio.

  • What do you expect from the setting? If you think the watch does not detect your HR correctly, try adjusting the fit and position of the watch on the wrist, or use a HRM chest strap.

  • I would like it track my calories because rock climbing can burn anywhere from 300-800 calories a session depending on intensity. Currently garmin does not have a setting for it, and I'm wondering why since it's a very popular type of exercise. 

  • There is not currently a setting on the vivoactive series of devices that simulates a climb activity designed for outdoor use. We have designed both climb and indoor climb for our devices however as they are newer profiles they are limited to newer devices.

    We do have a list of what profiles are available on our devices, you can find the list for vivo and Venu devices here. And you can find the list for Forerunners here.

  • I would like it track my calories because rock climbing can burn anywhere from 300-800 calories a session depending on intensity. Currently garmin does not have a setting for it, and I'm wondering why since it's a very popular type of exercise.

    The number of Calories you burn during the activity does not depend on the activity type, but solely on the heart rate data. The higher the HR is than the Resting HR, and the closer to the Max HR it is, the more Calories you are burning. So if your watch does not detect any increased HR during your climbing, you either do not burn any massive excess Calories, or the wrist HRM does not detect your HR accurately enough. There are some tips telling you how you can try improving the accuracy, in the document The Heart Rate Sensor on My Garmin Watch Is Not Accurate | Garmin Customer Support, but the wrist optical HTM has its limitations, especially at activities involving a lot of arm movement. In such case, the chest strap is often the only way to get it right. A chest strap is a must-have for any serious training, regardless of the sport, anyway.