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My TomTom Runner more often than not will show really high HR for maybe the first 10 or 20 minutes or longer. Even in low light or even if I cover it with a sleeve and keep it very tight. Has anyone had a better experience with a wrist based HR watch or fitness tracker?
Unfortunately I've had nothing but dodgy readings from wrist-based HRMs when running, mine have always shown a reading of around 10 beats higher than a chest strap - I've never been able to discover why.
Interestingly when I'm on a bike the readings are about equal for some strange reason.
I've been very happy with my Scosche Rhythm+ armband HRM.
I get the best readings with it up on the meatier part of my arm just a few inches below my elbow with the sensors on the inside of the arm where the skin is thinner.
I find it more accurate than the chest strap HRMs because where I live it is often very dry and have always had to deal with false readings due to static.
It is more comfortable to wear as well.
Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)
Current PR's: Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)
I just bought Scosche rhythm to pair with my Garmin 620. It's not recommended to wear on the wrist, but since it's an optical HRM and I'm having a similar issue, I figured I'd chime into this thread.
I hate the chest strap but have been on the fence about the Scosche for quite some time. I finally bought one and wore it on Tuesday and my HR readings seemed a tad high, but I did hard segments so, I thought that it was no biggie. There was also a really high reading for the first mile, but I get that on the chest strap occasionally if it's cold outside. I did a recovery run on Wednesday, and again, the HR seemed pretty high, and still had a huge bump in the opening mile.
So for today's run, I decided to test out how the optical HRM wore my Garmin chest strap paired with my Garmin watch, and the Scosche paired with my phone. And again, there's a huge bump in the beginning. Here's a plot of the two readings. The Scosche is the orange line. After the opening mile, it seems on par with the chest strap. I don't know if this is normal or if it can be resolved. My quick search on the web didn't uncover many people with this issue. Maybe I'll try to wear it tighter tomorrow and see how it goes?
Others have reported the same issue with the R+ (high HRM at the beginning of a run). Seems to be a common thread that the reported HRM at the beginning of a run is around 180bpm - people are surmising that the R+ is locking onto cadence at first. You could try putting the HRM on your forearm (where npaden puts his) and turning it on 5 minutes before you start running to give it time to 'find' whatever it is that it uses.
delicate flower
Interesting that the optical HR monitor has the early spiking issue. That is something I have always experienced with Garmin chest straps, although the newest Garmin 'HRM-Run' strap seems to have mostly fixed that problem. $100 for that strap though. Glad they gave me one via warranty after I begged a little.
<3
I went back and looked at my log when I first got my Socoshe Rhythm+ strap and I did have a few runs that had the spike at the start.
Here's a comment from my first run with it on 12/6/14:
Was reading high on my upper arm for the first little bit the. I tightened it up a little and moved it to my forearm and that seemed to do the trick.
http://www.runningahead.com/logs/17b912e64ad246e9bbe4a270366a97f6/workouts/6d1ca7aa85f745cba998d0617c731d54#graphs
The next run on 12/7/14:
Tried it up on my bicep again and again it started to read high so I moved it to my forearm and that seemed to fix it. I guess I'll just start out with it on my forearm next time.
http://www.runningahead.com/logs/17b912e64ad246e9bbe4a270366a97f6/workouts/11c9a8c9262246afbb3b06d71693e466#graphs
Next run on 12/8/14:
http://www.runningahead.com/logs/17b912e64ad246e9bbe4a270366a97f6/workouts/5b4e85464a754ea49ff3105cba20c2a7#graphs
No comments about the HRM, I don't remember having any problems since then.
I'm extremely happy with my forerunner 225 (though am upgrading as soon as 235 comes out in next few weeks). I have had spikes, but what I've found is that tightening the strap immediately brings it down to normal: it needs to be tight, and sometimes I forget how tight I need it to be.
In terms of accuracy, I did a cardiac stress test this week while wearing my 225. In my unscientific observations, the watch was never more than a couple beats off of what the monitors were showing.
I will never go back to a strap.
Misinformation Officer
I have the TomTom Cardio Runner w/ the newer wrist strap (that creates a more lightproof edge on your arm). I am very pale and wear it fitted, but not tight. I have fewer spikes with this than I did w/ my Garmin w/ chest strap or my previous Polar w/ chest strap, where I often had crazy-high spikes, sometimes for several minutes at a time.
My runs are almost always the same, though: 0.5 mile walk warmup, then 3-4 mile run, then 0.5 miles walk cool down. In that scenario, I have not had HR spikes at all. I also use the HR part for other cardio activities.
Perhaps those of you who run harder, longer, faster may see different results.
Runs like a dj mixing songs while wearing festive outfits.5k PR 5/31/21 24:21
10k PR 5/23 54:43
HM PR 1/2024 1:59:10
Still have the TT Runner Cardio. I've been doing a lot of run/walking and that really confuses it. Anyone else have experience with R/W and wrist based or chest strap HRM's?
Optical (wrist based) heart rate is generally not going to be as good as a chest strap for accuracy, although you can't beat the convenience. I've used many brands and they all struggle in some use cases. Lately I've been using the Apple Watch Series 2, and I've noticed that it can be very easy to "fool." Trotting downstairs, for example, it often thinks my HR is WAY higher than it really is. I haven't been able to evaluate it very well yet for actual running, though, because I can't seem to figure out how to get the data out of it in a nice way. I can see many of the measurements from my runs when I look at my activity on Apple health kit, but not in an easy way at all. If anyone knows a nice way to get the data out and graph it, or even somehow get it into RA, I would be happy to hear it.
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
I really like my TT Runner a lot of the time, but in Minnesota, it's dead once the cold comes. I have to switch to a stripped-down FR for the 6 months of winter. Meh.
Call me Ray (not Ishmael)
All systems Go!
I'm currently using the Garmin fenix HR -- sometimes with chest strap and lately with just the wrist-based monitor on the back of the watch. I find it very accurate. I used to use a Polar watch with a chest strap and on a few occasions wore both the Garmin with just the wrist-based monitor and the Polar with with the chest strap. The readings were very similar.
To get accurate readings I have to wear the Gamin fenix HR rather tight on my wrist, one notch tighter than I usually wear when I am just using it as my everyday watch. Wearing it tight is not too uncomfortable. It doesn't bother me during a run, but I loosen it up afterwards.
I assume the optic-based HR pick-up that Garmin uses on the back of the fenix HR is the same as all their other wrist-based watches and fitness trackers, but I haven't seen them in person -- just the ads online.
You might find reading this article on TomsGuide.com interesting from 1/1/2016 where they compared wrist vs chest HR monitors.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/heart-rate-monitor,review-2885.html
Check out this video of various HR monitor testing using an actual EKG machine for comparison.
For now, I'll stick with chest straps. https://www.cnet.com/news/how-accurate-are-wristband-heart-rate-monitors/
Consistently Slow
Check out this video of various HR monitor testing using an actual EKG machine for comparison. For now, I'll stick with chest straps. https://www.cnet.com/news/how-accurate-are-wristband-heart-rate-monitors/
+1
Run until the trail runs out.
SCHEDULE 2016--
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
http://bkclay.blogspot.com/