Garmin connect does not show steps in cardio activity

that's what sport types/profiles are for. why don't you use treadmill activity instead? 

If the Treadmill activity is not available, I'd create a copy of the Running activity profile, and disable GPS in it.

I thought they existed because this way it was easier for you to "filter" activities... Like I want to see all of my bike rides, or all of my padel matches, or all of my runs, etc.

It's also ok if they have specific fields highlighted or rather hidden by default (because not commonly used in that activity), but at least they should be customizable / showed on demand. As it is now, I have to go and edit the type of activity to be able to see all the data I have.

I don't use treadmill activity because the target for my threadmill runs is cardio training, but most important I plan to use it to track my whole rehab activity at the gym. I have to do left shoulder and right knee rehab, where the threadmill is only the warmup sometimes, and I don't want to stop and start a new exercise each time...

Ruskie_it said:

I don't use treadmill activity because the target for my threadmill runs is cardio training

Then do not be surprised you do not get any cadence data. You have to use any type of Running activity profile in order to have cadence in the stats. Alternatively you could check the Connect IQ store - there may be an app (Data Field type) that can add the cadence to any other activity profile. If you find nothing else, the universal AppBuilder 5 by FlowState should do the trick.

Ruskie_it said:

the threadmill is only the warmup sometimes, and I don't want to stop and start a new exercise each time...

Use the function Change Sport, and record the session as Multisport activity, with the first leg recorded as Treadmill, and the rest as Cardio.

trux said:

If you find nothing else, the universal AppBuilder 5 by FlowState should do the trick.

tbh I don't think this is the most user friendly solution in the world, but here's how a user could configure appbuilder if they wanted cadence to be recorded separately (as a developer field that should be visible regardless of activity type):

- Label: Cadence (or whatever you want)

- Formula:

recordsummary(avgcadence); recordlap(lap(cadence)); record(cadence); cadence

- Display Format: Number

- Record Data to FIT File: Yes

This will give you a data field that:

- records average cadence (for the whole activity), lap cadence, and current cadence (in a graph)

- displays current cadence (if you want it to display something else, change the final "cadence" to the formula of your choice)

One downside is that it's not possible for appbuilder (or any CIQ app) to dynamically customize the labels to be displayed in Connect for custom activity data (they have to be known at the time the app is built), so instead of "Cadence", the label for custom data will show up as "AppBuilder 5".

However, the data field label (as configured in the above settings) will also be recorded to the activity summary, so if you choose a suggestive name such as "Cadence", it should hopefully be obvious what data was recorded by AppBuilder, after the fact.

Honestly it would be better to just have a bespoke CIQ data field app which is designed to record all the various cadence metrics (including max and average cadence), since it would be able to get the labels right, but I'm not sure if any such app exists (since native activities already record cadence.)

IQ store is your friend, there are datafields with cadence, some paid, some free. worth trying to add them in cardio activity screen. though as it was said - if you do various sort of exercise in one session, maybe 'change sport' makes most sense

Yes, there are CIQ data fields specifically geared towards cadence, but afaict:

- most won't support the latest devices

- I doubt any of them will record cadence to the FIT file (I could be wrong though)

As mentioned above, my data field Appbuilder 5 can record cadence if you configure it a certain way, but I don't think it's as user-friendly as a purpose-built field for recording cadence.

If there is a purpose-built field for recording cadence that supports the latest devices, I didn't see it as I casually browsed the store, but it's possible that I missed it.

I think the best workarounds (assuming OP must record their activity as cardio) are what the OP already mentioned:

- view their activity in Strava

- temporarily change the sport type in Connect

You could also export your FIT file (open activity in Connect website > Gear > Export File) and view it in https://www.fitfileviewer.com, but that's hardly user-friendly.

Another alternative could be to view your activity in runalyze.com (which syncs with Connect), but that's hardly any better than viewing it in Strava. (Except you do get a lot of additional data, which isn't really relevant to this topic.)

It would probably be best to just record these activities as treadmill activities in the first place.