Seattle Forrest

A lot of people are using smart and multi-sport watches these days, many of which have wrist HRMs and continuously record the wearer’s pulse rate, not just during exercise but while you eat, sleep, work, etc. If you work in an office, you probably have colleagues with these devices. Occasionally we get threads in here asking whether to get a watch or a bike computer too.

I’m curious whether people in here see any value to this.

colombo357

I have an Apple Watch but I don't wear it at night because the battery doesn't last 24 hrs. Thinking about getting one of the Fitbit watches, primarily to wear at night in order to gauge recovery and possibly also gauge quality of sleep.

If I wake up with a higher-than-usual resting HR, I can tweak my workout to compensate.

musicmaster

As a runner, rHr is important to determine recovery. If your rHr is higher consistently, chances are you need to back off for a few days to recover. I assume it is similar as a biker as well.

CliffordK

Perhaps for curiosity, to see my true resting heart rate, and changes from month to month or year to year.

But, I don't see much value in doing continuous monitoring.

I would like to explore HR a bit more with training, but I can usually tell when I'm getting winded.

johnny99

Your resting heart rate is useful for monitoring your fitness and health. You can measure this with your fingers as well as with a HRM.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/...h-201606179806

evan326

I got a samsung gear s2 for $1 with my last phone. Having it track my HR has been interesting. I've found it useful to gauge my overall fatigue while I'm sleeping. Days when my HR doesn't drop below a certain point usually coincides with days when I'm pretty tired. Also knowing an estimate of calories burned in my sleep is cool.Honestly though if it wasn't $1 I wouldn't have ever gotten it. I put it on the charger when I wake up and by the time I'm done getting ready it's usually close to fully charged.
Coming from running, HR is the key metric I'm used to watching.

rgconner

I have a friend with some serious heart issues, as well as an uncle who wears a pacemaker.

Both say the wearable HRMs have saved their lives/prevented trips to the ER multiple times.

WhyFi

I've had a Fitbit Charge 2 for six weeks or so, and it was my introduction to 24-7 HR monitoring. For me, it's... interesting. I really don't have the schedule for something like over-training to be a concern, but I have been sick twice during this period (which is very unusual for me), and it was interesting to see my RHR tick upwards for two days, before showing any symptoms, in both cases.

Now, how Fitbit calculates RHR is another thing - it's weird to look at it and see a HR of 48 and an indicated RHR of 52 Thems the breaks, I guess.

WhyFi

Oh, and if any of yous are looking at a Fitbit, check with MicroCenter if you have one nearby. They had an in-store specials on the Charge 2 and Alta HR - either for $75, limit one per household. They go for $150 just about every place else.

seypat

I have a TomTom Spark 3. I only wear it when I am doing a fitness related activity, or just as a watch. I don't need it to tell me I'm not getting enough sleep. At a certain level/duration of exertion, I get nosebleeds and have to stop the actiivity. I wear the HR watch to only monitor the exertion level. My wife, on the other hand is permanently tethered to her Garmin. Don't be "that guy/girl" who is checking their HR data immediately after a roll in the hay. That's too much analysis.

mstateglfr 

It may be useful to some specific people or select groups, but it sure doesnt seem useful overall.
in the last handful of years, i dont see peoe around me being any thinner/stronger/healthier, even though so many track their steps, heart rate, sleep cycle, etc on a watch.

not saying its gimmicky, it just seems limited in its actual benefit. No harm done to have it though, i guess.
for many, me being one at times, the idea of fitness is often more appealing than actual fitness.

canklecat

I'd consider it to track variations to see if there's a pattern. I have occasional arrhythmia and fluctuations in heart rate. This week a doctor suggested it might be due to caffeine and irregular sleep. They find no indication of a consistent or chronic problem. And my only previous instances of minor heart related problems were due to reactions to medications. Seems reasonable.

Maelochs

No.

atwl77

I am on my second Fitbit now (first was a Charge 2, then upgraded to Ionic for built-in GPS), and I have to say that I find their resting HR questionable as it doesn't seem to be based on the lowest HR recorded immediately after waking up, and I couldn't find any information about how they calculate their value. However, their measurements are consistent enough that I pay more attention to trends rather than actual values. If it goes up then I need to dial down on my training; if it goes up a lot then I'm probably falling sick.

RShantz

This is an interesting one. Is resting heart rate (on a day-to-day basis) a predictor/indicator of fatigue?

I normally tone things down a bit when I can't get my HR up on hard efforts. If resting HR was a reliable metric, I could get the rest before actually trying to put in a hard effort.

I'm guessing that resting HR isn't a reliable predictor otherwise it'd be common practice.

f4rrest

Useful? No.

Entertaining? Maybe.

gregf83 

Agreed.

Not for long.

I got a Fenix 5, primarily for running, and find the wrist based HRM pretty much useless. If you need a reasonably accurate HR you need to wear a chest strap. The wrist based HRM gives a general indication and provides a little chart of my resting HR but it's not something I take any action on. I think if you have a powermeter and track your fitness metrics FTP, TSS, CTL etc they will give you a better picture of your fitness and fatigue levels.

Seattle Forrest

A lot of people say yes. Mine seems to fluctuate at random on a day-to-day basis. Look at it over the course of a year and it goes up a little in the winter when I'm not getting as much exercise, but over the course of a week I think it's mostly noise.

Seattle Forrest

My Garmin does this too. It'll say I had 47 bpm in the early morning, but give me a HRH of 51. I saw something on their site about it's the lowest 5 minute (?) average HR, or something like that, not just the lowest value it saw. I don't really agree that that's how it's supposed to be measured, but I think that's what it's doing, or something like it. Whatever formula it's using, at least it seems consistent in how it's applied.

pvillemasher

I've had a FitBit for a couple of years. I use the 24 hour HR tracking as a way to gauge how many calories I am burning that day and therefore how many calories I should eat. It's far from exact - I don't calculate the calories in of everything I eat and the tracking on my wrist isn't exact anyway - but it helps me a lot especially when I'm planning my evening meal.

Edit to post about accuracy of the wrist FitBit since it was mentioned earlier in this thread: I just finished a ride this morning. My FitBit shows I burned 2,124 calories, my Wahoo Bolt chest strap shoes I burned 2,219. The two are typically pretty close.

Rollfast

Only in the hospital.

jitteringjr

gettingold

I have had a couple of heart attacks while riding. During one of them I was wearing a HRM. It indicated nothing unusual so I'm fine if you want to train with it but don't buy one for health reasons. YRMV,

rgconner

Both of them have conditions that send their heart rates skyrocketing for no obvious reason (like exercising).

Both had the devices recommended to them by their doctors, allows them to take measures to slow down their heart rate.

In my uncles case that prevents the ICD (the pacemaker) from defibrillating him if the high heart rate gets erratic, which requires a trip to the ER.

He uses blue icepacks on the back of his neck and chest, which slows his heart rate from the cold shocks. Sucks being 75, but beats the alternatives.

Iride01 

You have to decide if you will be one of those that have a heart problem that can be detected by 24 hr monitoring. The only HR that really indicates an issue by itself alone is not having any heart rate. You can be fine or in need of care at any other HR from more than none to above max HR depending on what the circumstances and other measurements are telling you along with whether you are prone due to current health or genetics for certain issues. Though there are cases where a wearable may have alerted of an issue and saved a life, there are many more that wore a wearable and didn't get notice of anything before they wound up in the ER or morgue.

Note that most of the cases where a wearable helped, the doctors had already recommended their use because of a particular condition that individual had.