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Tracking aqua jogging without heart rate going crazy (or any other water sport than swimming)

Mar
9 months ago

Hi all! I supplement my running, cycling and swimming with aqua jogging. I have Forerunner 965 and Garmin HRM-Tri heart rate monitor.

The watch and HRM work when swimming - I pair them before hitting the pool, and after the swim is done and I get out of the pool, the watch and HRM sync to get the heart rate data (as the HRM can't broadcast under water).

But when doing aqua jogging, there is no suitable workout available from the menu of workouts. So I have been choosing 'Cardio' option.

The watch without HRM monitor does not provide even remotely accurate heart rate: Yesterday I went for a 30 minute aqua jog and it recorded a ridiculously high heart rate (192bpm) and estimated 70 hours recovery time. Mind you - I was not even out of breath, I was just casually splashing around - it was zone 1-2 effort at best.

I tried using the HRM to record my heart rate while doing aqua jogging, but if I use the 'Cardio' option - then the watch expects to get the HRM data live (which it can't, because signal does not travel through water), and not after I leave the pool like it understands it should do when I pick the 'Pool Swim' option.

So when picking 'Cardio' it just does not sync with the HRM after the workout - and reverts to the ridiculous heart rate that the watch is providing.

I don't want to use 'Pool Swim' option as I use that for training and would not want to mix up my swimming stats. I also would like to avoid 'Open Water' option as I am planning on starting to train open water swimming as well, and would like to have those stats correct as well.

So in summary I have 2 options:
1. Use 'Cardio' and get recovery/training load stats ruined by ridiculous heartrate and 70 hour recovery time after low effort aquajog or
2. Use 'Pool Swim' or 'Open Water' and get my swimming stats ruined.

→ Is there another option I am not seeing?

→ Any recommendation from people doing any other water sports than swimming with Garmin?


Aqua jogging is such a popular supplemental exercise in Finland for athletes recovering from injury or people with sensitive joints, I would imagine I am not the first to encounter this problem.

Grateful for any info or tips.

(Also - is this the right forum? Since I am from Finland it seems this routed me to the German forum.)

  • 0 9 months ago

    You have couple of options:

    1. Start the activity (Cardio or whatever else), wait till it detects the strap, let the watch in the bag, and exercise with the strap alone only. At the end, go back to the watch, stop and save the activity with the strap still on. The feature Store & Forward will be used, and the watch will download the HR data from the strap
    2. You could just disable the internal HR sensor, and keep wearing the watch. In fact, with my watch and HRM-Pro, the HRM data is downloaded at the end of the activity, even if the internal sensor stays on, but you wrote you tested it already, without success
    3. Record it as Pool Swim, and change the type to Cardio, HIIT, or whatever else, in Garmin Connect.
    4. Make a copy of the Pool Swim or OW Swim (with GOS off) activities, name it "Aquagym", change the activity naming pattern in GC Web settings to use the device activity name, and use that for your sessions.
    5. Use a Connect IQ app such as "Any Activity" or "Any Sport" for assigning the activity type automatically
  • 0 9 months ago in reply to trux

    Thank you so much for the quick and thorough response! I will take your options for a spin when I am next time at the pool  - I am quite positive you have solved my problem Pray