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Limit maximum recorded Heart Rate

plthatfunkymusic
over 1 year ago

I'm 50 with a maximum HR of around 163 bpm.  I've just completed my first run with my new 955 and this is the recorded heart rate from the wrist:

For large parts of the run the watch records 190+ and now my estimated VO2 max and recovery advisor are meaningless....

1) Please Garmin add a feature to limit the maximum recorded heart rate.

2) If the watch reads over this, then warn the user, and give an option to either accept it, or to stop recording whilst the watch  "searches" for the correct heart rate.

Without this my watch heart rate is pretty much useless during exercise and I'm forced to wear a strap (which is one of the reason I upgraded from my 735xt).

Thoughts?

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    well, I am 50 too, and my maximum heart rate is 194. So how can you be sure your max HR is 163? Did you do a calibrated test somewhere?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to DaKo

    I guess I've been running a long time, and have seen my Max HR drop slowly through time.  The method I use is maximum effort hill repeats of about a minute.  I don't do them often though.  An all-out 5k race will get me close in the final 400m.  All done with a Garmin chest strap.  HTH.  My bro-in-law is the same age as me and can get close to 200, so the old 220-age is way off.  Are you getting your maximum with the wrist HRM?

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I doubt that Garmin will ever implement a feature like this which would be tantamount to admitting that the wrist HR is generally not to be trusted. If you went to Garmin support for this, I would guess one of two outcomes:

    - they would refer you a support article on how to "wear your watch properly" in order to get a good optical hr reading

    - if you complained hard enough, they might offer to replace your watch

    Alternatively, if there's a known software issue causing this, your only hope would be to wait for Garmin to fix it. I have seen some threads about inaccurate HR for some people after a certain update, so this is a distinct possibility. Personally, I haven't had any issues, but I don't discount what others are seeing.

    Just out of curiosity, what's your cadence like during the too-high hr periods? Is it the same as your hr? Could be cadence lock -- when the watch mistakes your cadence for your HR -- in which the case the "wear your watch properly" article would actually be appropriate. (I think the usual advice is to wear the watch tightly, above the wrist bone.)

    If the problem persists and you don't want to wear a chest strap, you could always wear an optical HR armband, like the Schosche Rhythm+. I realize it's not an optimal solution, but it's a compromise.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to plthatfunkymusic

    Wrist at first, but bought a hrm strap a few months ago with the same result. I alternately run with or without strap, and I do not notice any big differences between strap and optical. But some people do.

    I was surprised too that 220-age was very, very off track. But I learned that there are big differences between people. I based the running zones on the 220-rule the first weeks of using my watch. Boy, that was boring. I had to run so slow that I fell over :-). After setting the max heart rate to 194 it is much better.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to FlowState

    Good suggestion . I also read about the cadence lock people sometimes experience. I never had that issue myself, but that could be the case of

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to FlowState

    Hey, thanks for responding, much appreciated. To answer your question, sadly it's not my cadence up at 190. I'd love it to be that, but I'm a stride runner, and during training ruins I'm at 168 despite many attempts to get closer to 180.  My 735xt used to lock in to my cadence, so I gave up and went to chest strap.  Actually the watch knows this also from my arm movements.

    If nothing more, then Garmin should take the indication that your HR jumping 40 bpm despite no change in pace or terrain, linked with it exceeding the programmed max HR  as an indicator to search a little harder for something else. Perhaps they are already doing this, and it is just not possible to find a reliable pulse. 

    I'm gonna shave my arm and shift the watch position and see if it helps.  Thanks again for replying and feedback

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to plthatfunkymusic

    Are you using wrist or chest strap when this happens? At most endurance forums, the members refuse to answer questions when the athlete uses wrist... ;-)

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Daniel_Ilg

    Sadly I thought the 955 wrist hrm would be a significant improvement over my 735.  I have a chest strap I can use for training. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Wrist HRM can get cadence-locked. I suspect this is what's happened.

    There is also a potential bug being investigated with the 955's HRM which causes such step changes in recorded heart rate.

    If you have a chest strap HRM, which you seem to do, that will be more reliable (assuming the battery is fresh, but that's a tale for another day).

    I'm almost 55, and my max HR is probably about 190-ish and my resting HR is in the mid 50s. Many very hard runs have my HR peaking as high as 185. The formulas for calculating max HR are only approximate averages.