Related
Options

How is brpm calculated?

Josh
over 2 years ago

I bike a lot and have noticed my brpm is like 39+ beats a minute and it's definitely not that. I breath very slowly and deeply while I am biking, especially during a low intensity workout (zone 2)

Does anyone know how this is calculated and/or if it's accurate?

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    It's guesstimated based on HRV. You can find some more details here:

    https://www.firstbeatanalytics.com/en/features/respiration-rate/

    As such, it is never super-accurate. It can be in the right ballpark given that there's no anomaly in your heartbeat, and your HRV reading is accurate.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to tmk2

    I don't think it's accurate at all. I do a breathwork exercise it says I'm at 4 brpm. 

    I don't breath 4 when im biking, but no way I am at 39+ doing a low intensity Z2 bikeride. 

    Here's a running exercise, I was in Z4. I just don't believe I am breathing that heavy and fast.

    Here's a bike ride I did today to help my low aerobic shortage. I was in Z2. I can promise you I was huffing and puffing lol.

    My respiration glance says im at 15 brpm normally, I fee like I should be around that on a low intensity bike ride on a cold day? 

    I wear a HRM Pro Plus the whole time too, was hoping that would help with accuracy. 

    Something just doesn't seem all that right

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Josh

    Count your breathes during 20s (it is not easy to keep the focus on correct counting during the whole minute), multiply by three and see how close or far the HRV estimate is. Yesterday, I've gotten the avg respiration rate of 33 breathes per min during a medium effort ride, and also including some spurts. It means approx. a breath each 2s - that's credible, and in no way it requires any huffing or puffing. BTW, shallow breathing may be even faster than heavy deep breathing.

    I do not tell the breath detection is accurate. Especially I know it does not work at all with artificially modified patterns, such apnea exercises, or even when you do breathwork exercises without starting the Breathwork activity - for example I tested the breathing rate with a Yoga (not Breathwork!) activity, while breathing 1, 2, 3 and 6 breaths per minute, and the result graph shows 12, 11, 10, and just the last section with 6 brpm is correct. Oppositely, when I started a Breathwork activity with a 4 brpm exercise, and was breathing normally instead (probably at some ~14 brpm), the result showed 5 brpm anyway.

    However, having the respiration rate of some ~30 brpm (or even more) during a moderate effort activity is something rather credible, and it would not surprise me at all if it was accurate.