Is anyone else finding their Garmin not measuring HR during indoor rowing? More importantly, anyone know how to rectify it? I have tried tightening the strap, swapping wrists and putting HR monitor under the wrist and over. It works fine during running and cycling, but just won't detect a HR when rowing. Help!
I have the same problem using OTHER profile. I thought that I had fixed using the RUN profile with GPS off.
But yesterday started again. I've tried both arms, upper in the arm and very tight. No difference... In some exercises it stays low HR the whole time (around 40 minutes) and in others it would start OK but always there is a sudden drop... What will totally damage the average HR measured...
I wish Garmin could create a setting that could disable the accelerometer in some activity profiles like OTHER (if the problem is really the movement of the arm).
My experience is that optical measurement on wrist is notoriously unreliable for any activity that involves use of hands, such as rowing.
Minute stretching of the skin during each pull distorts reading and gives a too low reading.
I have had the same issues using a Schosche Rhythm+ located above elbow.
If you can use a regular chest strap that is probably the most affordable solution.
I opted for the fairly unknown but very nice Cosinuss One, an in-ear optical heart rate monitor with ant+ support and bluetooth smart.
Ears usually aren't moving too much during exercise, so optical reading remains quite reliable during any activity.
Unfortunately it is rather expensive.
I find that my Garmin 735XT measures either 2x or 3x the stroke rate. So if I am going at 26 strokes/min it will measure 52 bpm or 78 bpm heart rate. So definitely it is confused by the arm motion or stretching of the skin/muscles under the optical sensor.
My solution is to tie the ends of my watch strap to an elasticated chest strap, so I am wearing the watch against my chest! I can't see the watch while rowing but at least it is measuring HR ok. I guess the more elegant solution is to buy a chest strap HR sensor and have that communicate with the watch, but for now I am quite proud of my hack.
I had the same issue with the Vivoactive 3. The second time around I tied the watch slightly tighter before the rowing session and had a homogeneous hand movement. My watch recorded the heart rate correctly.
