Resting Heart Rate Setting On Watch

Former Member
Former Member
if I go into the user settings on the watch and enter my resting heart rate, it automatically gets set to 30 BPM once the device syncs.

I called tech support and they told me that the resting heart rate setting is only used if I select %HRR in the "Based On" setting under heart rate zone settings.

I asked if he was absolutely sure about that, so he went and checked with the help desk and they told him that they are sure.

Does anyone here know this for a fact?

I just want to make sure that is the only case that this setting is used in.

thanks in advance,
  • HRR is certainly based on resting heart rate. I cannot immediately think of anything else which specifically uses this, although I can imagine some of the training load/status metrics would take this into account. Not sure that anyone other than Garmin can give you the real facts though.
  • Lots of issues with the settings on Garmin Connect overwriting the watch setting during a sync - in other words, it does not really sync in all cases. Big problem with alarms - change it on the watch but if a sync occurs, the alarm reverts back to the setting on GC rather than changing the application value. SO - check the settings for your resting HR on Garmin Connect (or mobile) and, if it is showing 30 then that is your issue. Change it there and then sync.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    Can someone look at this setting on their watch and tell me if they are getting the same result as me?

    thanks,
  • Well, I have a similar problem. If I go to my watch, the resting heart-rate is not set, it shows "--". If I change this on the watch, the two available settings are average and custom so I choose average and it sets it to the correct value for me of 55. But as soon as I sync with Garmin Connect, it goes back to "--" which means the %HRR fields are unavailable to me. This will be really annoying later in the year when I start marathon training again since I do this based on %HRR.

    Having values overridden on the watch usually means they are set in Garmin Connect as this overrides anything set on the watch when you sync, so you have to ensure they are configured correctly there. This is the case with alarms which people frequently complain get deleted or changed. The big problem here is that I cannot find a resting heart-rate field/setting anywhere either in user settings, profile globally of for the watch! This makes it kind of tricky to set! I had assumed it would take this from the resting heart-rate that it measures and displays in GCM, but it appears not.

    bcalvanese, do you have a resting heart-rate of 30 stored anywhere that you know of? I imagine this is why it is going back to 30 every sync, but I cannot find this field available anywhere.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    Well, I have a similar problem. If I go to my watch, the resting heart-rate is not set, it shows "--". If I change this on the watch, the two available settings are average and custom so I choose average and it sets it to the correct value for me of 55. But as soon as I sync with Garmin Connect, it goes back to "--" which means the %HRR fields are unavailable to me. This will be really annoying later in the year when I start marathon training again since I do this based on %HRR.

    Having values overridden on the watch usually means they are set in Garmin Connect as this overrides anything set on the watch when you sync, so you have to ensure they are configured correctly there. This is the case with alarms which people frequently complain get deleted or changed. The big problem here is that I cannot find a resting heart-rate field/setting anywhere either in user settings, profile globally of for the watch! This makes it kind of tricky to set! I had assumed it would take this from the resting heart-rate that it measures and displays in GCM, but it appears not.

    bcalvanese, do you have a resting heart-rate of 30 stored anywhere that you know of? I imagine this is why it is going back to 30 every sync, but I cannot find this field available anywhere.


    looks like the setting only gets saved when you go into the heart rate zones settings on the mobile app and change "based on" to "% of HRR". when you change it to % of HRR it will give you the option to set the resting heart rate value there. the default value that appears is 30, so i assume that is where the 30 is coming from.

    once i did that and set my resting heart rate and synced, the correct resting heart rate was set on the device. i synced it a few more times just to be sure it stayed.

    what phone are you using with yours?

    the reason i ask is because you say that yours has "--" for the resting heart rate.
  • Ok, I have it sussed.

    The resting heart-rate does not seem to be used or settable unless you have the heart-rate zones based on % of HRR. It defaults to % of Max HR. If you change the setting to % of HRR, then the resting heart-rate field becomes available and you can enter the correct value. I entered 55. As soon as the watch synced it was changed from "--" to 55. So, now my problem is solved. I train based on %HRR so this is fine for me.

    I also noticed that when I changed it from % of Max, to % of HRR it initially had a value of 30 since this is the lowest that can be selected. So my guess is that maybe you have either set the heart-rate zones based on % of HRR and have the resting heart-rate set at 30, or you at some point changed it to % of HRR and then changed it back and it left the setting at 30. I suggest you go into the heart-rate zones, set it to be based on % of HRR and then set the resting heart-rate to the value you want. Then whenever you sync it will set the correct value on the watch.

    I find it frustrating that Garmin does not sync both ways, but this seem to be the way they have decided it works. If there is a setting synced with Garmin Connect, whether this be an alarm or some fitness setting, the value in Garmin connect always overwrites the value on the watch even if it was manually set on the watch. Personally, I'd like a setting set on the watch to take precedence, or ideally, it would use the most recently set value in the watch of on Garmin connect, i.e. bi-directional syncing.
  • Looks like we both worked it out at the same time!

    With regards to the value, 30 is the lowest in Garmin Connect Mobile, but I had never gone into this so I assume it was unset. Looks like the first time you set it to be % of HRR it enforces a minimum value of 30 and this gets stored away. I thought you could set anything on Garmin Connect on the web, but if you try to save a blank or a value lower than 30 it complains.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    thanks for all your help with this.

    so i am going to assume that the support guy was correct in saying that the RHR setting is not used in anything other than HRR training. he also said that any fitness metrics (aside from that) that may use RHR will use the average RHR calculated from the all day heart rate.

    how do you like your fenix 5x?

    also, do you train all the time using % of HRR?

    i always train using % of MHR, and even though i'm pretty sure this setting wont matter in that case, it bugs me that it wont stay set to the point that i am considering setting my zones based on % of HRR.

    but i feel like it is going to kill me that zone 1 will now start at what zone 3 is when using % of MHR.
  • I use %HRR when I'm doing my marathon training. I follow the Pfitzinger and Douglas plan https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0026IUOX2 and base most of my runs on the %HRR figures in the plan. The trouble with using MAX HR is that it takes no account of your resting HR which can make a big difference when doing things like recovery runs.