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Heart rate incorrect for Crossfit, HIIT, and Gym workouts

I had an apple watch for years, which was great at tracking calories on both long runs/bikes and short HIIT/crossfit sessions. Sick of the battery not lasting more than 24 hours though (sometimes not even a 2 hour bike ride) so bought a 645 music recently.

Heart rate on runs/outdoor biking/spin classes seems to work fine, but it always track at an absurdly low figure during HIIT/crossfit sessions, and the calories burned are nonsense as a result. How can I fix this? What settings should I be selecting?

I've used Cardio, indoor biking and a custom workout, but nothing changes. Turned GPS on and off, reset the watch, wore it higher on my wrist, cleaned it. It's still relatively new so no scratches, and like I mentioned earlier, it works for some types of workout - just not the type I do the vast majority of.

Found a few posts asking similar questions from years ago and much older Garmin watches - is this issue still not fixed? Do I just need to get rid of this as junk that's not fit for the purpose of measuring my heart rate in the gym?

Any help or tips you could provide would be really appreciated

Thanks

0 4063434 over 3 years ago

Seems the standard answer given is to get a chest strap and that optical heart rate doesn't work, but to me that is a cop out for garmin being many many years behind on this. Really bad on a $1000+ watch (fenix 6x in my case)

Even making my own app there is no way to get accurate data out as far as I can tell

0 DaKo over 3 years ago

I do not experience trouble with that. Indoor biking/crosstrainer/tredmill heart rate shows more or less in line with the measurements on the cardio equipment itself. You might look/experiment somewhat with the way you have the watch around your wrist.?

For what it is worth, the 645 is told to be designed for running as the core activity.

0 4063434 over 3 years ago in reply to DaKo

Those kinds of activities are all fine, it's where you have more rapid changes in heart rate. For me playing tennis is one, you can have an intense rally, HR actually 160+ and the watch will say 95 or whatever it was before the serve. And when you take a break it starts going up 10 seconds later, its like there is a big lag.

Any consistent exercise were there isn't an on/off pattern its ok.

0 DaKo over 3 years ago in reply to 4063434

For that you are right, there is some delay in displaying changes in your heartbeat. I guess it is about 10-20 seconds. When I do an interval training, the increase in heart rate is always behind. But I do not know if your heartrate is changing with delay, or the watch is delaying. I cannot compare since I do not have a chest strap. But to me it feels my actual heart rate is changing a while after increasing my effort.

0 1750756 over 3 years ago in reply to 4063434

Thanks, seems like I’ll just have to bin it and get something for for purpose then. What a waste of money

Garment really should warn people - Only useful with extended periods of steady cardio.