Work Time Vs. Total Time for Boxing

7987936 said:

I used the boxing activity to record my workout today, and I noticed on the app that there was work time vs. total time. My total time was correct, but for work time, it was 00:00. I was under the impression that it would just record my activity, but were there other steps I needed to take to make sure it was recorded properly?

Tbh it sounds like boxing is just a reskinned strength activity, same as ice skating and basketball seem to be reskinned cardio activities.

Just recorded a boxing activity and the Connect website shows strength workout details such total reps, sets and volume (weight), which confirms my suspicions. The Connect app shows an empty table of exercise sets where your strength exercises would go (with a button to manually add sets/exercises), which obviously doesn't make sense for a boxing activity.

In a real strength activity, your work time would be determined by the amount of time you spend in work intervals (as opposed to rest intervals), but I'm guessing that work time will always be shown as 0:00 for boxing.

The history behind this stuff is that Garmin used to not feature every activity under the sun, especially if it couldn't provide activity-specific functionality (like it does for running, cycling, swimming, skiing, etc.) You were expected to use a generic activity like cardio for those extra activities.

But ppl didn't like that - they want to see their actual activity type in Connect without editing it. So Garmin caved and made a bunch of clones of cardio (and strength, it seems) which don't really have any additional functionality beyond the generic activities they're based on, except that the right activity type shows up in Connect.

Tbh I would still consider it a bug that irrelevant strength-related fields show up in a boxing activity. The fact that different strength-related stuff shows up in the website and the app strongly suggests they did a half-assed job of hiding the strength-related fields for boxing activities.

You could report it to product support, but idk if Garmin would fix it any time soon.

7987936 said:

On a side note, is it just my runs that impact my training status, or do other activities (boxing, strength training, and dance being the other main ones I focus on) also impact it? Thanks in advance!

Any activity that records a heart rate (which is all of them afaik *) should affect your training status. You can double-check by making sure the Exercise Load field appears in Connect after the activity is recorded. (It should also be available as an activity data field.)

[*] with the possible exception of the stopwatch, which can optionally record an activity.

EDIT: Garmin has some conflicting information on this. One support article implies that only running and cycling activities will impact training status.

An in-depth article on training status says differently:

www.garmin.com/.../

BEST PRACTICES FOR TRAINING STATUS RELIABILITY

Feedback you get from the training status widget is only as good as the information available for analysis.

Your training status relies on three critical perspectives: fitness estimated in terms of VO2 max, load data from your activities and heart rate variability. Here is what you need to know about those three elements to get the most out of this feature.
ACUTE TRAINING LOAD

Your compatible Garmin device calculates exercise load during any activity recorded with heart rate.

Exercise load represents the strenuousness of a specific activity. When you finish an activity the resulting exercise load is added to your acute training load, which reflects the combined strain your body is experiencing as a result of recently recorded activities. The contribution of an activity to your acute training load gradually expires over time, disappearing completely after ten days.

Record all your activities with heart rate, not just your primary sport, to create a complete picture of how much strain your activities generate and your personal recovery needs. Recording only some of your activities means your device will underestimate how hard you have been pushing yourself.

I def feel like any activity with an exercise load (which should be any activity with HR) should contribute to training status.