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Strength Training/Weightlifting - Less annoying activity tracking options?

Former Member over 6 years ago

If someone has already talked about this, please direct me to the right thread. Here is my conundrum:

I recently levelled up from a Vivoactive HR to the Vivoactive 3, and I was singing it's praises until I finally went back to the gym and tried to log some weightlifting.

Before on the HR all you had to do was select Weight Lifting (or weights, I forget the activity name), and data was collected, information shown to me, and so on, all while completing an hour's worth of various exercises.

Now it looks like I have to create my own weights workout ahead of time, or use their pre-made programs, and then waste ages tapping my watch every time I complete a set to update reps and weight etc.

I'm not interested in the minutia of my workouts. I just want to know the following while lifting weights:

-Total exercise time
-Total calories burned
-What heart rate zone I'm in

I only have so much time in the gym and constantly messing about with my watch between sets wastes time. Moreover, what if I've created a custom workout, and then when I get to the gym, I have to do the exercises in a different order because of the availability of fitness equipment?! Then this excessive program is moot. Or what if I just want to make up a workout as I go? What do I select on the watch at that point?

All of this to say, is there a way to get back the old version where one selects "weights" as an activity and the watch says "great. here you go." and doesn't get lost in the minutia of how many sets and reps and weight per set? Or is there another solution I'm not seeing?

Or do I just have to pretend I'm doing cardio and select that as an activity?

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0 fastbikerboy over 6 years ago

Hi. No need to create a workout. Select the "Strength" activity. Double tap the screen to finish a set, you'll then get a rest period. Double tap again to start a new set.

The watch will detect the exercise and reps, in my experience with remarkable accuracy. Weight you'll need to add yourself.

Press the button to stop the activity and you should get all the workout info you need once uploaded to GC.

HTH

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Thanks fastbikerboy. That's helpful to know. I'll give it a try. I still wish there was the old super simple solution that doesn't ask me to tap it when I'm repping and when I'm resting etc.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Avalonian,

i have the same concern. I only want to interact with the watch once when I start the workout and once when i end. Rest periods are just part of the workout. Did you find something that worked for you?

0 animesh over 6 years ago

FlintHills I do that for my warmup sets. In such scenarios, I go to Strength app. Start the workout and just let it be for the entire time. It will still show you the total time elapsed and heart rate. Just that it will record your entire workout as one giant set. If you need a different data field, you can go to Strength settings and add something which you would like.

0 animesh over 6 years ago

Avalonian What you need is minimal requirements and can be easily fulfilled by Strength app as I have explained in my previous comment. You can also create your own workout app directly on the watch catering to your needs.
But a lot of us like to keep track of what weights we are doing and how many reps we did, how many sets with what rest periods. So logging it in the watch helps us have that data. It takes me just 10s out of my rest period to enter that information. So i would say, a lot of us will consider this as huge logging improvement.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

There is an "auto set" option in beta mode. It doesn't work great for what I do, and counts way too much rest time, but maybe it will work for you. It even guesses (sometimes correctly) what you were doing (triceps extension, dead-lift, squat, etc.).

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to fastbikerboy

Any reason it only tracks 8 reps if I do way more?

0 mjordan over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

It depends what you're doing in my experience. Its woeful at counting things like sit-ups but actually quite good at keeping count for stuff like bench press, bicep curls etc.

0 itsandreagallo over 4 years ago in reply to animesh

Hi! I know this is an old thread, but I am a new garmin user, I got a venu. I was wondering where do I find the Strengh app?? The one I see on the IQ store is paid, and I have the same problem.

0 Abhishek over 3 years ago

Bought a Garmin Venu and was super excited to use it in my regular big activity - gymming until this same problem infuriated me.

Garmin Venu feels like an archaic watch for big dollars paid, I'm honestly left wondering why do they even call this thing a smart watch if it cannot detect my strength exercises automatically.

What fastbikerboy suggested below is exactly the problem - I don't want to keep single/double tapping my watch in the gym for each set. And I found that Garmin Venu isn't even able to track any reps, forget accuracy, it's missing hundreds of reps. It obviously tracks absolutely 0 if you're doing lower body or leg workouts - Guess might need to try wearing the watch on my foot to get it tracked.