Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

What is "vigorous"

Former Member
Former Member over 7 years ago
Can anybody explain what Garmin means by "vigorous" in terms of "intensity minutes?" For that matter, I'm not sure it's clear what "intensity minutes" are, either.

I just went for a run for 45 minutes, and ten minutes of that was reported as "vigorous" and 35 as "moderate." The activity chart shows that my HR was between 80% and 95% of max for the entire duration, and all in HR "Zone 5", which I take to be the most intensive.

There is nothing I can discern in the results that divide the 45-minute period into "moderate" and "vigorous" sections -- just constant pace, constant high heart rate.

Has Garmin ever actually explained, with numbers we can verify, how these different kinds of "intensity minutes" are calculated? It's a topic that seems to be discussed frequently on this forum, but there seems to be no hard data.

I don't really care -- but with "intensity minutes" occupying such a prominent place in the Garmin Connect displays, it would be good to know that it actually meant something.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Sorry I have just seen this. 

    Settings > activity tracking > intensity minutes.

    Then change from auto to whatever you want. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to leeoliver1982

    Settings > activity tracking > intensity minutes.

    Only works on newer models.

    I had a 935 and my vigorous minutes stopped working. So i spoke to garmin! after searching far and wide and resetting the watch, they still wouldnt count.

    Ended up sending that watch back and upgrading to a 945. Which has newer features and the option to set zones for intensity minutes. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I chased this for a couple of weeks and eventually found a place in settings where the defaults could be overridden. But I never got the “vigorous” minutes to work.  The HRM isn’t very useful anyway. ‘Have a *** strap that talks to my treadmill, and it’s infinitely more reliable. The intensity minutes in the Connect app simply track the duration of my workouts minute for minute, and apparently have nothing at all to do with whatever the HRM is (or isn’t) saying.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 3099820
    3099820 said:
    Have a *** strap that talks to my treadmill, and it’s infinitely more reliable. The intensity minutes in the Connect app simply track the duration of my workouts minute for minute, and apparently have nothing at all to do with whatever the HRM is (or isn’t) saying.

    That's not surprising if the strap is connected to the treadmill only, and not also to the watch. The IMs are detected and recorded live (in real time) by the watch, so if it has the access to its own wrist HR data only, it will use those. You need to connect the HRM to the watch, to have the IM calculation using the more accurate HR data from the strap. Preferably the HRM chest belt should support the HRV (Heart Rate Variability) feature, for the proper functionality (it is used for the detection of the lactate threshold).

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to trux

    The point is that the HRM in the watch is only marginally useful.  The *** strap came with and is branded with the treadmill.  I see that it IS possible to maybe get the strap to pair with the Connect app, but I would want it to communicate with BOTH the app AND the TM as it does currently.   The watch’s HRM does work when it feels like it, but I’ve never seen any ‘vigorous’ IM recorded.  Regular (non-vigorous) minutes ARE recorded however, about minute-for-minute, with the entirety of my TM sessions, apparently not depending on the watch’s HRM since even very moderate HR elevation is enough for an “IM”.  I cannot wear the watch 24/7, because the band sets up skin irritation, so I can really only wear it for workouts.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to jleeuwer

    I agree. I have the Fenix 6 and I can choose which HR zone to use for moderate and which to use for vigorous, but my daughters have Forerunner 30s and theirs cannot be configured - which means that they have no idea their HR needs to be to get their intensity minutes. It also annoys me that on their dashboards I cannot see the breakdown of HR zones for an activity. Garmin has the data but doesn't show it for the entry level watches. I find that ridiculous - it is a simple backend change.