Day 1 with Apple Watch 4

So, I got a new toy yesterday. Yay, I love toys!

I've never had a heart rate monitor that works so this is a whole new world for me. It seems to be pretty accurate sitting still but said my hour at the gym this morning was 7 minutes with an average heart rate of 110. It was 150 or thereabouts both times I counted. I counted manually because I was prettty sure the 110 it was telling me was not accurate! Best I can tell it has to be over 120 to count as an exercise minute? I don't know if the low rate was user error, the pacer confusing things, or the watch getting cranky when I'm moving and sweating a lot. 

I can see people getting obsessive about their heart rate with this thing, it's too easy to have it every time you glance down. 

(pouting a bit, I want my green and red circles for today!)


11 Comments

Heart monitor

by AgentX86 - 2018-09-27 21:39:54

I've been using FitBits for several years.  I've found that they're pretty good, even when I was in AF and AFL, as long as I was wearing the watch "just right".  If it was either too loose or too tight, it would lie.  It's pretty easy to tell when it's lying, too. There is no way my heart rate can get to 160 or 180.  If it's reading under 120ish, it's pretty accurate.  Above that, it's whacked.

hope you get it figured out

by jessie - 2018-09-27 22:01:31

i hope you get it figured out tracey. maybe there is something to having it close to your skin. patch should know. he is an expert. maybe he will read this and help you. sorry i am not technical

Catch 22

by Theknotguy - 2018-09-28 07:49:36

When they make the electronics sensitive enough to pick up the heartbeat rate, breathing, etc., then they are too sensitive and start picking up all sorts of other stuff.  They're good for giving you a quick glance at what you're doing and a ballpark number but aren't accurate enough for what you may want.  Or maybe I should say they're too sensitive.  

I use my fitbit to get an approximation of how much exercise I'm doing but that's about all it will do.  

The one's I really enjoy are the forum members who try to tell us someone will be able to hack into the fitbits and then somehow be able to hack into our pacemakers via the fitbits.  Yeah, like that's gonna happen. 

Keep up the good work TraceyE.  Always good to hear from you. 

knotguy

by Tracey_E - 2018-09-28 11:20:26

The heart rate part is just curiosity for me.  I mostly got the watch so I can run without taking my phone.  Today it said I worked out for 38 minutes, average 162, peak 174 which is about how long I ran what I expect my rate to be so apparently it likes running better than barbells and burpees.

Tracey

by IAN MC - 2018-09-28 15:15:39

I hope the watch is being honest with you.

It is probably a problem wih trans-Atlantic vocabulary, but what is a "burpee "   ??

ian

Ian

by Tracey_E - 2018-09-28 15:40:42

this is the joy that is known as a burpee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8QYVW0gDU

Accurate

by Theknotguy - 2018-09-28 16:09:31

Question is what you call accurate.  Old GPS units, unless you were military, were "accurate" to  within 30 feet.  Newer ones are "accurate" to within 3 feet. So they'll get you out of the woods and on the way home.  But you don't want to use them to set property lines.  

I was using the old mechanical stride counter.  Probably accurate to about 30 feet by the end of the day.  That could be 30 feet over or 30 feet under.  I had one of the maintenance guys measure the back hallway at the hospital - 954 feet.  Used the fitbit and I came out about plus or minus five feet by the end of the day. Fairly accurate but I wouldn't want to set property lines with it either.

So I'm guessing your new Apple watch will be fairly accurate on the distance. No so much on heartbeat count but I said that before.  Maybe you could run on a high school track and compare distances?  That would give you an idea of how close the measurements are.

Hope everything else is going well for you.
 

Accuracy

by Tracey_E - 2018-09-28 19:10:15

I have no idea how close the heart rate is. It's ballpark for sure but I don't care enough to compare it to my pulse oximeter. This is the first time I've gotten anything remotely close, tho, so I'll call it a victory. Polar and most of the others for running show 0 heart rate. The one on my phone that you put your finger on always show double. So something close to normal impresses me.

Apple watches aren't known for their accuracy on running distance so I use Strava rather than the watch's app. Maybe sometime I'll get motivated and wear both the apple watch and my garmin on a run and see how they compare. 

Burpee

by IAN MC - 2018-09-29 07:01:28

Tracey ... I have just been to the gym and tried a few " burpees" .. great fun and good exercise but I got some strange looks . I think they were considering ringing for an ambulance !  Eventually one of the trainers came over and helped me perfect the technique.

Thanks for adding yet more torture to my exercise routine

Ian   ( without an Apple watch )

but...

by ROBO Pop - 2018-09-29 17:23:23

Does it keep time?

Robo Pop

by Tracey_E - 2018-09-30 10:46:35

I think it might! I'll have to check on that. 

You know you're wired when...

You have a dymo-powered bike.

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