Wrist HR - What i am doing wrong

From other comments on this forum, and from my own experience, what you describe seems pretty common. I find that the HR recording is pretty unreliable in the first five minutes of a timed activity -- my recorded HR tends to show 80-90 when other gym equipment will be reading > 130. I also sometimes see periods of low HR during training -- not usually for more than a minute or so.

Because I'm not training for the Olympics, I have learned to ignore these little quirks. Most of my exercise sessions last 1-2 hours, so losing five minutes of HR data doesn't bother me all that much. Still, it is odd.

Same here, pretty much every time. Hopefully they address this in an update.ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1313854.png

Same for me, I had a similar issue in the past. The HR was indeed much lower than expected/measure by other methods for the first 5 minutes....
Also, my band is a metal one, so can't tighten it more during exercise. I thought the HR issue was due to the fact that my watch band wasn't tight enough
For all these reasons, I decided to invest into an HRM strap for high wrist movement activities (running, rowing, etc), which is more reliable than Wrist Optical HR.
Now my HR profile is much more stable and accurate throughout the entire exercise...
The wrist HR works perfectly for low movement activities (walk, hike) and everyday tracking.

I've come to ignore the HR data on my Vivoactive 3 as essentially worthless. I did a vigorous PiYo class this morning, with a fair amount of it in a high real world HR zone (exertion to the point of difficulty talking). My Vivoactive never showed me getting above 90 bpm. I rotated it 180 degrees from face on top of wrist to face on bottom after about 20 minutes, with no change, so just ended the activity tracking at 35 minutes. I'd say the resting heart rate is worthwhile, but I think there's something going on with that too, such that Garmin Connect drastically overestimates calorie burn, like 1500+ active calories on a day with no workouts and <5000 steps. After 6 months or so, the only thing I love about this device is the battery life. The only reasonably accurate data it seems to provide are basic step count and floors climbed.

Edit: The overestimation of calories burned just started maybe 2-3 weeks ago. I changed nothing about my profile or use of the watch, so I'm not sure what caused it to start calculating erroneously..

Optical HR tracking just doesn't work for some people, for reasons that are unclear. I'm fortunate to be a "good subject" in this respect -- apart from the first five minutes or so, the VA3 tracks accurately wherever I wear the watch, so long as the strap is reasonably tight, however hard I exercise. The exception is the patch of scar tissue on my left wrist where I had a tumour excised -- putting the green LEDs on top of that pretty much guarantees bad readings. If you haven't already, it's probably worth fiddling with the watch fit, particularly if you have the rubber strap. In the end, however, it doesn't seem to work for everybody, even with fiddling. Electrical chest straps seem to work more universally but, of course, they're less convenient than a wrist-mounted monitor.

OHR works ok if you have the wrist strap tightened enough. If it is too lose it will give the type of erratic results people are showimg. Dont blame a lose fitting band on garmin

Hello All!

The VA3 it's my 3rd Garmin watch (Vivo Active 2 HR, Forerunner 235 HR and now VA3)

In all of my runs, my HR graph is someting like this:


Average bpm: 192
Max: 205



Average bpm: 190
Max 209 bpm


At 1km /1.5km the heart line shoots up... but i feel normal...


only one day in 2 runs, the chart was normal with VivoActive 2 HR:


Average bpm: 161
Max bpm: 167


I have tried put the watch in different ways, super ajusted, firm on my wrist, over the wrist bone, pushing back...
i'm doing wrong or the wrist HR is worthless?

regards

I'm going to assume since you mentioned owning the Vivoactive HR and FR235 that those were working OK for you. If that's the case, you're already familiar with how the oHRM works and since you've tried the different adjustments already you may need to exchange the watch for a new one. Since the oHRM has improved from your previous two watches I'm thinking the VA3 may be defective.

I'm going to assume since you mentioned owning the Vivoactive HR and FR235 that those were working OK for you. If that's the case, you're already familiar with how the oHRM works and since you've tried the different adjustments already you may need to exchange the watch for a new one. Since the oHRM has improved from your previous two watches I'm thinking the VA3 may be defective.

No, only, in one of my many Runs/MTB, VivoActive HR works fine (Graph nº 3), just in that day.
The FR235 never works fine for me... neither this VA3

OK. I misunderstood. Well, there are several factors to consider here. 1. Wear the watch 1-2 inches above the wrist bones. You want the sensor flush with your skin. Wear it tight enough where no light is exposed to the sensor, but not too tight where you are restricting blood flow. 2. Temperature will affect readings. The colder your skin, the blood flow is restricted to the surface making accuracy more difficult. 3. Skin complexion. The oHRM uses light to read your HR. The darker your complexion, the more difficultly the sensor has reading your HR. Excessive arm hair or scar tissue will also affect the readings. 4. Movement is probably the biggest factor with bad readings. The more arm movement you have the more likely the watch will move. 5. Rapid change in HR. If you are doing an activity with a rapid rise in HR, oHRM's have a hard time keeping up. That's just the nature of the beast. 6. Excessive moisture under the sensor can be a problem too. This not only includes sweat, but skin lotions also. And finally, as already stated, sometimes the oHRM just doesn't work well with some people. A chest or arm strap is always an alternative. I hope this may help.

The ohr technology is not there yesterday when it comes to vigorous activity. I don't understand when people say a chest strap is uncomfortable as I don't find it cumbersome at all.

I guess it depends on the size and shape of your chest. I confess that I haven't tried a modern one, but the last one I used was very uncomfortable -- to stop it slipping down my chest when I was very sweaty, I had to tighten it so much it made it hard to breath. Even at that time, I had friends who found them very effective, so I appreciate that they work for some folks.