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Will heart band improve watch accuracy?

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

I’m 59 and chiefly a swimmer.  I am getting abnormally high high heartbeat readings from my brand new Garmin 945.  According to online scales I’ve seen for heart rates at 100% max I should be no higher than 161 (220 - 59 = 161).  I’ve checked the wristband fit and it is very snug.  Will a Garmin heart band improve my heartbeat reading accuracy?  I am swimming in water temps that vary from 46 to 66 most of the time in a 5 mil full body wetsuit.

Thanks David

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Yes it will, as long as you get one appropriate for swimming

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    David,

    One thing to understand is that maxHR varies significantly between individuals - even of the same age. The 220 minus age formula approximates the average maxHR of the population as whole, but the maximum for any one individual can be up to 10-20 bpm different from this. Personally, my maxHR is about 12 bpm faster than the formula. HR zones should definitely be adjusted to YOUR personal maximum.

    However, the slap of the wrist on water can make swimming wrist HR challenging from an accuracy perspective, and errors are a distinct possibility.

    If you see a gradual ramp up of HR over 10-20 minutes of fast swimming (this is known as "cardiac drift"), the high HR is probably genuine. If it goes high pretty quickly and stays high, then measurement error is more likely.