How inaccurate are your heart-rate measurements?

Hi, the Garmin devs have obviously not that much experience in terms of sensor-programming, as the basic foundations like the Nyquist-Shannon-theorem are unkown. Therefore the optical measurement could be extremly inaccurate under certain conditions.

Especially during high-intensity trainings the optical measurement deviates 50 to 150% from the real heart-rate. For example during the low-intensity phase my pulse is around 110bpm. When going into high-intensity training phase, my pulse rises to 150 - 170 in less then 30seconds. But the watch reports something like 60 to 70bpm. When I go to low intensity and my pulse goes down, after like 5min the watch "sees" the real heart-rate again.

Im curious, how many others doing high-intensity training are having the same issues?

jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

I don;t think you're positing in the right forum (this one is for Connect IQ - 3rd party apps),

but I think it's common that people use an external HRM instead of OHR for situations like you describe.

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

For me the optical heart rate measurements are very accurate (I have compared it with a chest strap), a lot depends on your skin type and if you can wear the watch in such a way that no external light enters the sensor.

Also the watch you have plays a role, as one watch allows to wear it closer to the skin than the other watch.

But as Jim said if you don't want to have doubt then wear an external heart rate chest strap. By doing so you get the additional benefit of recording extra running dynamics metrics such as ground contact balance.