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Any heart rate/exercise experts?

H

helveta

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 31, 2012
164
18
I bought an Apple Watch 3 to about 3 weeks ago. I ran with it once outside to calibrate my running info and have used it on the treadmill other times. I had been running 40 - 60 minutes at a 8 1/2 to 10 minute mile pace before I got the watch but have slowed down since because my heart rate seemed high but it still seems really high.

I'm 60 y.o. and usually have a resting heart rate of 60 bpm or less. I don't consider myself a runner but I alternate days between a treadmill and body weight calisthenics. I guess my goal is a high strength to mass ratio. I'm in good shape for my age, am 6'2" and around 190 lbs. I could probably stand to lose 10-15 lbs, but I have a 32" waist.

The problem is that when I run my heart rate seems too high. When I saw it being consistently over 170 I slowed down to an 11 minute pace and that seemed to work well to keep it in the 140 - 160 BPM range. I didn't exercise for the last two weeks because I had a cold and when I ran on the treadmill today my heart rate on the watch was reading over 190 for most of the run even at an 11 minute mile pace. I'm breathing hard enough to have to breath out of my mouth but not so hard that I couldn't carry on a conversation. The watch shows that it peaked at 210 bpm but there was a long period that it wasn't displaying any heart rate. I've seen it peak over 200 before and I haven't been doing intervals or sprinting. I can't compare it to the treadmill rate because when its high my hands are too sweaty for the treadmill to read. I had my annual physical last month and blood pressure and everything is normal.

I'm not sure this is the right forum to ask these kinds of questions but I don't know where else to go. Everything I've read says that my maximum heart rate should be nowhere near that high.

1. How accurate is the watch in these situations?
2. Does it stop reading over a certain rate?
3. Does anybody know of a good source that explains maximum heart rate, preferably for someone my age and fitness level. Am I harming myself if I exercise at this level?
 
Very like inaccurate readings. Buy a HR strap and check with it. If your HR was exceedingly high you would likely be going anaerobic and experiencing pain.
 
Julien said:
Very like inaccurate readings. Buy a HR strap and check with it. If your HR was exceedingly high you would likely be going anaerobic and experiencing pain.
Click to expand...

Is there a heart rate strap that pairs with the apple watch? I had a strap 5 or so years ago but quit wearing it. I'd sometimes get readings over 170 but I was running a lot harder and felt it more.
 
Interesting reading.. Like the OP I am slightly older at 65 and also note the Apple Watch heart monitor regularly goes above 200 beats when doing a treadmill run.
I’ll do 30 minutes on the treadmill and clock up just over 4 miles (basically seven and a half minutes to the mile) and the reading never drops below 164.
I can do the whole 30 mins with what to me feels like a fairly relaxed method of breathing with several minutes nose breathing only and my heart never feels as if it is being pushed.
Relaxing to 60 beats is quite quick and I don’t feel the difference in detail.
Now that the Op has mentioned it I am quite surprised that the watch’s heart rate monitor is so much off at the high rate yet spot on during rest. I’ll have to look into getting dedicated strap as well. :)
 
I’m 49 and my hr will hit around 180-185 during a hard run. I talked to my Dr during my physical and he said if I’m having no other problems/pains during my run to not worry at all about my hr. That age formula is nothing but a reference and really don’t apply to runners/others who are in good shape.
 
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Personally I've always found the hear rate to be a little off when wearing my Apple Watch Series 2 on my wrist when working out. I've taken to using an armband from 12South for my watch. The heart rate readings seem much more accurate when I compare them to my old heart rate monitor that I used with my Garmin Vivofit a couple of years ago. Link for those interested: https://www.twelvesouth.com/product/actionsleeve
 
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My watches can be off also. I compared the Scosche Rhythm Plus (optical HR worn on forearm) to respected chest straps and found no difference. Consider the Scosche at $80. Most any bluetooth HR sensor will pair with the watch and the watch will use the externally connected HR sensor when connected and keep the wrist HR sensor off.

Here you go, appears to be on sale right now. I paid full price.

https://www.amazon.com/Scosche-RHYT...id=1513191911&sr=8-3&keywords=scosche+rhythm+
[doublepost=1513192627][/doublepost]I'll add this. Check out DCRainmaker's review of the Scosche. He is one of the most respected tech reviewers as well as active triathlete on the planet, and he regularly uses the Scosche. If his 50 page review is not enough, feel free to take a look at the 1500+ comments (typical for his reviews) at the end:

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/05/scosche-antbluetooth-optical.html
 
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The heart rate sensors on the apple watch, fit bit and other devices are only accurate up to about 150bpm. To get accurate readings beyond that you need a chest strap.
 
In my opinion, the AW's built-in HR sensor is comparable to my Polar BT HR sensor. They are within 2 to 3 bpm of each other. The caveat is that the Polar is very consistent, but the AW sensor suffers a little with inconsistent blips here and there, which usually happens at the beginning of the workout.

Once you get to steady state, the HR sensor is fine. The trick is to get to steady state quickly and smoothly.
 
For the most accurate readings possible from the AW alone--tighten one notch, shave a patch, and wear a wrist sweat band above the watch on the forearm to reduce sweat passing under the sensor. I still recommend a separate sensor like the Scosche for most accurate and consistent readings.
 
While the optical HR monitor on the AW is good, I stopped using it and went back to a chest strap (4iiii Viiiiva). It seems prone to cadence lock where the HR will lock onto your run cadence (for me its about 175-180 steps per minute). This is a common problem all wrist-based optical HR monitors share, including every Garmin I have owned. That will tend to give you abnormally high readings in the range of your cadence.

I am 53 and typically train somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30 per mile with a HR in the 140 to 160 bpm range. When using the optical HR on the AW, most of my run would be in that range, but I would see 1-2 minute spikes in my cadence range which would elevate the average HR for the run.

I decided I wanted a little more consistency/accuracy with my readings and went back to the chest strap and no longer see the spikes.
 
I thought I'd follow up on this. I ended up buying the wahoo tickrx and used it on two treadmill runs over the weekend. I got peak heart rates of 178 with just the watch and 166 with the phone connected to the treadmill. I assume its working but I don't see any way to see if its using the watch or the ticker though. The strap doesn't show up as a data source in the Health App but the wahoo Runfit App does on the phone, but they don't have an app for the watch. I'm very confused about how all these apps and devices exchange data.
 
I ended up using a Scosche wrist band - works really well but my only complaint is that it sends out TONS of data every second - burning battery life on the watch (15% every 40 mins) - and 2 beats during a 1 hour exercise are always in the 15-64k range (I just go in and delete these manually).

Now that it is below freezing here in the CA High Desert - I find getting a heart rate difficult while exercising - whereas in warmer weather, not so bad - the Scosche arm band helps.

https://www.amazon.com/Scosche-RHYT...qid=1513614560&sr=8-1&keywords=scosche+rythm+
 
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helveta said:
I thought I'd follow up on this. I ended up buying the wahoo tickrx and used it on two treadmill runs over the weekend. I got peak heart rates of 178 with just the watch and 166 with the phone connected to the treadmill. I assume its working but I don't see any way to see if its using the watch or the ticker though. The strap doesn't show up as a data source in the Health App but the wahoo Runfit App does on the phone, but they don't have an app for the watch. I'm very confused about how all these apps and devices exchange data.
Click to expand...
Connect the Wahoo to the iPhone via Bluetooth. When you go into the Health app, you'll see HR readings for both the iPhone and the AW. They'll populate right on top of each other.

This is how it works on my set-up. I have a Polar H7 HR strap.
 
helveta said:
I thought I'd follow up on this. I ended up buying the wahoo tickrx and used it on two treadmill runs over the weekend. I got peak heart rates of 178 with just the watch and 166 with the phone connected to the treadmill. I assume its working but I don't see any way to see if its using the watch or the ticker though. The strap doesn't show up as a data source in the Health App but the wahoo Runfit App does on the phone, but they don't have an app for the watch. I'm very confused about how all these apps and devices exchange data.
Click to expand...
This:
ftaok said:
Connect the Wahoo to the iPhone via Bluetooth. When you go into the Health app, you'll see HR readings for both the iPhone and the AW. They'll populate right on top of each other.

This is how it works on my set-up. I have a Polar H7 HR strap.
Click to expand...
In other words, just use Wahoo's strap as the HR monitor, not Wahoo's app. You don't need to use Wahoo's app at all, nor do you need to have it installed.

(I feel like I just mansplained, but there it is)

Also, did you try wearing the AW one notch tighter on your wrist to see if it would be more consistent?
 
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Today is my first day with the series 3 & I turned on the heart monitor? (The function that monitors if your HR goes over a certain # while inactive)

Does this cause addition battery drain?
 
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