Strength Activity Screen (F7 vs VA3)

Thanks for the comment! At least to me editing the reps is not a problem though it can be tiring sometimes depending how long the session is. I agree that using the app or web is better in that situation.

I mainly talk about UX details that in my opinion affects the workflow of using the watch during a workout.

Another sad thing is that Garmin does not have the tools to evaluate progress. They have all the data and could easily do what my.strengthlevel.com does, but sadly they don't do anything with it.

I'd be great to see it in Garmin Connect Mobile iOS, but in the mean time you could check in the web version going to Reports > Strength Training. It displays it generally and by individual exercises. I do bodyweight so the weight bar stayed in 0.

Last time I checked the Garmin view was useless.

- the selected exercises are reset if you scroll through the dates (supper annoying), and having all in one graph is again useless for evaluation
- only showing volume is useless, I can get a lot of volume with a low weight, that does not make me stronger, more options like max weight are needed (and more), we need to visualize that we increased the weight over time
- volume gets added up from multiple exercises into one value if you view bigger time frames, which messes up even the limited use it had, showing bigger values if you did more training's in a short time frame and less if you did less, again loosing all relation to your own strength and progress

Very good results. I am glad that the forum discusses the issue of Indoor training and improving it.

I have the impression that Garmin optimizes its functions for outdoor athletes. And what are we inferior to bodybuilding athletes, crossfiters, ergometer rowers, indoor runners, indoor cyclists and semi-pro amateurs who are serious about bodybuilding? Besides, even if marathon runners or thriathletes, mountain climbers do not aim mainly at strength training and body shape, such training is a supplement to building running strength or hand strength. This topic is great and should land as a priority on Garmin's work list.

So gentlemen, I have an idea. Since I am a dietitian, a great enthusiast of strength and body sports, intervals, and my wife is a flesh and blood athlete, a competitor in the Wellness category of body sports and also complains about the lack of greater support for this type of sports, I would like to organize a large-scale initiative relating to strength training, crossfit to motivate Garmin developers to improve training in this respect. They fixed the bugs and added features that are beneficial to our Indoor Athletes. They've transferred their best features like training effect, training readiness, rest time, HRV, running power to gym use.

Due to the fact that we are largely beta testers, we should feel obligated to put pressure on the manufacturer to speed up the work and make changes. Need, however, massive action. I would like everyone, but absolutely everyone, who is interested in this topic to get involved in this project.

What do you say?

Yes, I have been watching it for years.

That's why it's time to push Garmin to change. The overall amount of mistakes, bad decisions, and shortcomings in strength training is overwhelming. Read my post in response to your topic. We must act!

Thanks for sharing that!

Mierzej87 said:

such training is a supplement to building running strength or hand strength.

Yes, it benefits everyone.

Mierzej87 said:

They fixed the bugs and added features that are beneficial to our Indoor Athletes. They've transferred their best features like training effect, training readiness, rest time, HRV, running power to gym use.

I’m so glad to hear this and to have made the change to a Fenix after these fixes. I use strength training to complement my inline skating and to see both activities influence the same recovery period and training readiness it makes clear how everything is connected. They might be different activities, but it’s one body they impact.

Mierzej87 said:

Due to the fact that we are largely beta testers

I’m not. 

Mierzej87 said:

I would like to organize a large-scale initiative relating to strength training, crossfit to motivate Garmin developers to improve training in this respect.

That I’m aware of, only the Share Ideas form and in a sense the forums are the tools for us to suggest Garmin changes and improvements. Can you give us more details about this initiative?

Ok I have another question to all of you, because I think I might do it wrong again (not as Garmin intended) considering to what pages it jumps at what stage during the training. I have the theory that my custom page might mess up things.

So the strength training activity has 3 unique pages, while one of them is optional.

1: The Set / Rest page, this one is optional I didn't even know it existed since recently. Set mode shows the current heart rate, rep counter, time of the day, set number. After the exercise is done this jumps to another page (I will talk about that later), If I manually scroll back it turns into a rest page with a more graphical heart rate, timer counting up for the rest period and time of the day, but this is probably not seen by many, as it jumps to another page when the set page turns into the rest page

2: the Exercise List, where the app starts in, listing the upcoming exercises and a pause countdown if I scroll to the top of it during pause

3: the Pause screen, showing the upcoming exercise with weights (in a way to large font resulting in unnecessary scrolling) and pause countdown. This page only exists during a pause and is disappearing after the pause ends.

Ok I said I might be doing it wrong, so there is also my custom page (kcal, day time, overall elapsed time, set time, better IQ heart rate statistic), so my strength activity is setup like this.

1: set / rest
2: custom
3: list
4: pause (only there during pause)

So lets get to the page jumping: If I'm done with a set from the set page it jumps to page 3 which is the list and I noticed, that if its hard-coded to jump to page 3 it would be the pause screen, if I would not have a custom page at  position 2.

When I'm in the pause screen that disappears after I'm done it jumps back to the set page. So that would make a perfect cycle where during the pause I could set what weight to setup for the next run (yes still in a font way too large, not matching any other font style used during this activity) and having a nice rep-counter page.

But for me it jumps to the list and from there after the pause is finished I don't know where it goes, it's a screen with the exercise name in a too large front, not showing much else until I hit lap getting back to the list.

So am I doing it wrong? Are you using it without a custom page and still being put back to the exercise list that takes you out of the Set <-> Pause screen cycle?

Also I don't think we need the pause page and the rest version of the set page, this could be combined into one.

Take screenshots and number for us, it will be easier to understand and locate problems. It's good that you write so succinctly. The more data, the more I will have to discuss with the Admin.

No time for new ones, but I have a one in my other thread.

That's the screen that happens if I go into the active exercise from the list view. Very similar to the pause view, but usually the pause view disappears from the pages if the pause is done. And if I start scrolling it wont come back to this page.

I just tried to move my custom page page, but the only pages that can be moved are the set and custom page, so switching them around does not change that list will be in position 3. And I don't want to remove my custom page as I'm to lazy to set it up again.

I just did a  clone of the activity and removed the custom page, even if the list view is in position 2 it jumps there after its done, it really seems though that its supposed to jump between set and pause pages.