This is my first smart watch ever, and wow, did I pick one with a fairly big learning curve, but each day, I am learning how to leverage this watch.
I wanted this watch to log my weight lifting sets (along with a host of other things in life) but was initially very confused about how to properly develop a workout on Garmin Connect and actually execute it in the unpredictable environment that is the gym.
Issues we all encounter:
- Equipment not being available at the time that it is needed. A lift must be skipped until later and another lift executed instead. Maybe the lift is skipped altogether.
- Reps need to be adjusted since the watch is not perfect.,
- Weight sometimes changes between sets.
- Number of sets may be shorter than predicted.
At first it seemed the Strength App was just woefully underpowered, until I played with it enough to understand the logic of the app and the structure of a workout:
- Create a workout in the Garmin Connect web interface.
- For each exercise, or superset, create a "Round"
- Start the "Round" with the Exercise (Bench Press)
- Target reps is mandatory, weight target is optional, but if you know it, then enter it.
- Have a "Rest" period programmed in with the lap timer after each exercise, this is important. DO NOT USE "Recovery"
- Set the "Rounds" to the number of target sets.
- Start the "Round" with the Exercise (Bench Press)
- If you have a superset, then add a "Step" and move the Step with the mouse click into the "Round" after the "Rest" period and create another "Rest" period after, this will become important later.
- Add further "Rounds" in the same format.
- Save your Workout as something besides the "Strength Workout" and sync.
Executing "Your Strength" Workout
- Go to Strength -> "Your Workout"
- Your workout will be displayed, but not started until you "Start Workout"
- IF the equipment is not available for this workout that is listed first, you can "Skip" it here from the menu.
- Press "Start Workout" otherwise.
- This will take you right to the first exercise/warm-up that has not been skipped in the order you saved it earlier.
- Complete as set, press the LAP button and a brief period will come up to edit the "Reps" and "Weight" by pressing up or down, etc.
- If you still need to edit, during the rest period, you can hold the "menu/up" button and a menu option to edit the "Last Set" will come up.
- Press lap key to execute next exercise set.
- It is best to "Skip" during the rest periods if you cannot complete the pre-planned set count, this will ensure the app enters some reps and weights and not just body weight, random reps and maybe a random exercise.
- If you need to go back to a "Skipped" exercise, you can do this with the "Start" button and add it to the workout, it will pick up where it left off if it was partially completed.
- You can make last edits with the online app, but these tips have mostly saved me the trouble and kept things within a single workout.
I hope this saves some people the time, I saw some frustration with this app on prior forums, but I think a lot of people know this stuff, but a small nudge was needed to realize the app actually had this flexibility, even on the watch.