Almost useless for weightlifting at gym with gloves

Former Member over 6 years ago

I have a Descent Mk1 which is basically the Fenix 5X. I usually wear gloves at the gym as I need the glove strap to prevent my wrist from over-extending during heavy lifting, as well as protect against chafing on the rough metal of the weights. As a result I had to move the watch slightly higher up the arm by about an inch or so from the wrist bone where it normally sits. The HR reading is all over the place. When I am lifting heavy with my heart going nuts, it is showing "easy", and when I am showering it is showing "Threshold".

I tried different angles, different strap tightness. I even tried putting it on my ankle near the fibular vein where it is pulsing but to no avail. I also noticed that even when I take off my gloves and adjust the watch to over the wrist, it stays at the low HR and does not change. I can clearly feel my heart thumping at over 140 bpm but it shows 100bpm. In comparison I wore a cheap $50 HR tracker watch higher up my arm and at my ankle and it showed my HR within +/- 5bpm.

My conclusion, Fenix 5X is pretty much useless for tracking HR during weight lifting especially with gloves on. Its designed for biking or running where you do not need to move it higher up for the gloves. What a disappointment.

I am posting this so that future buyers if they want it for gym, can make an informed decision.

0 EV_Simon over 6 years ago

Personally speaking I would never rely on the OHR for tracking heart rates when doing weights, that's what a chest strap is for.

The OHR is ok for anything really that allows for the watch to fit snuggly against your wrist, I wouldn't use it for anything involving racket games or weights (where your wrist is all over the place), let's be fair here, the chest strap is always more reliable and gives more accurate readings than the OHR (look at the Spartan range that for a long time didn't even have an OHR and relied purely on the chest strap).

Thinking logically about it it does make sense that the OHR wouldn't work on a sport where you can't guarantee 100% skin contact 100% of the time.

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

Bottom Line Up Front: Get a traditional HR chest strap for recording HR whilst strength training; even the best OHR sensors are an epic fail for this kind of activity.

I’ve never found the wrist OHR my Fenix 5 or 5+ to be of any use whilst doing strength training or rowing. But that was never any surprise to me, as I’d previously done quite a lot of testing of the Schosche Rhythm+ OHR strap linked to my Fenix 3, with the strap tested over multiple locations on my arms. Regardless of location, even the Scosche was the wrong side of useless for tracking HR during strength training (I found upper arm just about works for rowing though).

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hi I use long wrist wraps and I do not move my watch from its normal position and the wrap protects the watch. So I have my watch under the Wrap. I have not looked at my HR during gym session

https://www.rogueeurope.eu/media/catalog/product/cache/5/image/1500x1500/472321edac810f9b2465a359d8cdc0b5/6/0/60cm-wrist-wraps-web1.jpg

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

When using the fitbit I found that it worked reasonably well if I strap it to my ankle over the large pulsing vein. Sigh, I guess I need to get the chest strap then...