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Earning Intensity Minutes

New Garmin user. I computed the lower end of Zone 3 using my age (59) as 0.7 * (220-59) = 113, so I thought if I stayed between 115 and 120, I'd be fine.

But based on my first run, my Garmin adjusted my max HR from 161 to 177, which set my min zone 3 HR to 124! Wow! I was actually worried this was a bug so I pressed "Reset to Default," because I kept reading that Garmin computes your max HR using the traditional formula. I guess the truth is more that it initializes your zones based on this formula, but then updates things after you do a run or two based on how fit you are.

If I leave it alone will it re-adjust the zones up? And if not, am I truly cheating myself by not accepting the higher zones and forcing myself to work harder to earn intensity minutes? I just found this whole topic to be not well explained in their documentation.

0 2012460 over 3 years ago

I am 57, I don't think my intensity minutes are registering, almost as if the software has changed. I did the following exercises today and none of it registered as intensity minutes.

September 17, 2021

Day 1 of 30 Long distance workout buddies and yoga challenge.

Exercises modified to protect back, shoulders, and knees.

120 push-ups arms in sets of 10 and 20

2 minute wall-sit

60 side twists

30 squats arms up

30 second leg lunge stretches each leg

10 leg swings

30 hip raises

30 leg lifts each leg

2 minute downward dog

10 reverse crunches

Time 23:44 , avg hr 98 bpm, Max hr 139 bpm, 104 calories

Yoga

Time 18:41 , avg hr 87, 66 calories

Resting hr 48 bpm

115/65 58

0 2012460 over 3 years ago in reply to 2012460

I was sweating and breathing heavy.

0 hhasert over 3 years ago in reply to 2012460

You can set the heart rate zones manually. in garmin connect for 3 categories. Actually you set the max heartrate there and it calculates the rest. It never changes for me after exercise. You should probably set the activity class as well since it might be used for calories. https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=DJEru6ns626MZTh2kvUXZA

It only seems to count intensity minutes when you start an activity, so did you start f.i. the cardio activity ?

0 hhasert over 3 years ago in reply to 2012460

Hmm, 66 calories in 16 minutes and avg hr 87 is really low (must be relaxing to do yoga) . You probably are not meeting the requirements for activity minutes. Are you sure the heart rate sensor is actually correct measuring your heartrate ? I use a strap on the hometrainer because the cadans sometimes messes with my heartrate sensor.

----- Googled their documentation -----

The device monitors your activity intensity and tracks your time spent participating in moderate to vigorous intensity activities (heart rate data is required to quantify vigorous intensity). You can work toward achieving your weekly intensity minutes goal by participating in at least 10 consecutive minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity activities. The device adds the amount of moderate activity minutes with the amount of vigorous activity minutes. Your total vigorous intensity minutes are doubled when added.

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vivoactive 3, vivoactive 3 Music

Press and hold the touchscreen.
Select Settings.
Select Activity Tracking.
Select Intensity Minutes.
Select Based On.
Select HR Zones.
Select Mod. Intensity and select a zone.
Select Vigorous Intensity and select a zone.

You can also adjust this setting within Garmin Connect (see Changing Device and User Settings in Garmin Connect).

Default (at automatic setting) for moderate is zone 4, for vigorous zone 5. For a 59 year old this is moderate 131-148, vigorous 149-164. It seems you are nowhere near that, so you should change the setting from automatic to zone 3 / zone 4 probably.

0 2012460 over 3 years ago in reply to hhasert

I do start and stop the activity on the watch, when I am doing my exercises. I believe the watch is reading my heart rate correctly, it matches the heart rate when I check my blood pressure.

0 2012460 over 3 years ago in reply to hhasert

It could be that I am just getting so healthy that unless I am running or hiking up the mountain, I can't get my heart rate high enough, I can do neither of those right now because of my right leg is not cooperating.

0 hhasert over 3 years ago in reply to 2012460

That is probably it, getting to zone 4 takes me 6 minutes on the crosstrainer, where in the beginning I reached it in the first few minutes. The downside of exercise, no more active minutes ;-).

0 2012460 over 3 years ago in reply to hhasert

I think I figured out what is going on. I do thirty day challenges with my girlfriends. The last 30 day challenge was burpees, the last third of the month we were doing 30 burpees. I think I really improved my heart health, and yoga is easy peasy in comparison, so I just can't get my heart rate up enough unless I do something my strenuous like burpees

0 2012460 over 3 years ago in reply to hhasert

I added 15 burpees today, my heart rate went up.