Rucking

Exactly as bluefish tells - any external factors making the hike more difficult, not only the carried weight, but also the wind and weather, deep snow or mud, uncomfortable shoes or wear, injury, etc... will lead to an increased HR, and to an increased Respiratory Rate, hence also to higher Calories, Training Effect, Training Load, higher EPOC and therefore also to longer Recovery Time.

And no, I do not work for Firstbeat. I just know sufficiently the human physiology, and am usually able to understand written scientific papers.

Hike?

I thought we were talking about rucking. They are 2 different activities. Walking on a paved road (mostly) with 10-30% of your bodyweight is a completely different experience than walking in the woods with a snack and some water. The complete lack of understanding of what a rucking activity is seems to be the issue with these types of discussions.

As I previously stated, the Garmin formula fails to account for the weight of the ruck based on the calorie results displayed by the tracker as they are the same with or without the external load but the physiologic response and post session recovery time are completely different. I have witnessed this multiple times personally and with my athletes.

Regarding the Firstbeat paper, one cannot assume anything that is not specifically stated in the paper. That is a basic rule of thumb when reading such papers.

Thank you again for your thoughts and what seemed to be a dig at my ability to understand a scientific paper. Maybe I should send the next one I publish by you instead of the committee of experts who normally review submissions. 

I suggest you strap on a load and go for a ruck. Actually try it for yourself. You might enjoy it. Plus you can use your superior understanding of physiology to validate or create a formula for tracking the activity that people can feel confident with. 

Thank you again for your thoughts.

We will have to agree to disagree as I move on with my life. 

DPT-dad89 said:

I thought we were talking about rucking.

It does not matter. The physiology is the same, regardless of the activity profile you select. Higher effort due to added weight will cause increased HR and increased Respiratory Rate, and that's what the watch uses for determining the Calories, Training Load, etc.

If rucking is about carrying weight on a paved road and hiking is walking in the woods with a water bottle, under which activity should I record my multiday backpacking hikes with 20 kg in my backpack?

I can verify that my HR with that backpack is quite different than without it.

“I disagree with that. The extra weight has an effect on your heart rate. It increases. Accordingly, it is very unlikely that the same calories will be calculated as without a ruck.” Bluefish

Agreed. The calories should be different, but they are not and that is the issue. Athlete A walked 3.4 miles and burned 479 calories per Garmin and rucked the same distance with 35lbs 3 days later and burned 477 calories per Garmin. Fenix 7 pro with HRM pro + for both activities following the exact same route on a paved road. He needed significantly more recovery time after the ruck vs the walk. For clarification, this is real world data being collected and not an opinion. 

That is why people are questioning the accuracy of the tracker. 

Hope that helps. 

Thank you for your thoughts. 

DPT-dad89 said:

That is why people are questioning the accuracy of the tracker

The accuracy is questionable, especially if you do not use a HRM chest strap, but including the carried weight won't help to improve it, since the algorithms are not based on it.

Do you know which activity type was used for rucking? I've noticed that some activity types have expectations on the HR range, making cadence lock more likely if the real HR is outside the expected range.

As said, a HR strap of course takes care of that issue.

“Fenix 7 pro with HRM pro +”

As previously stated, the HRM pro + is Garmin’s best HR chest strap. 

Bitti said:

Do you know which activity type was used for rucking?

I have confirmed that walking was used for both activities. All have used the Garmin HRM pro or pro + with a Fenix (6-7 pro) watch. 

Hope that helps.