Wrist-based heart rate monitors are useless. USE A CHEST STRAP.

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March 12, 2020 at 12:31 pm #39487

Anonymous
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Thanks for coming to the Uphill Athlete forum! We’re happy to have you here, and we look forward to answering your questions.

But… with the rise in popularity of activity trackers, wrist-based heart rate monitors are becoming more popular. We are seeing more and more forum posts with confusion about strange heart rates and inaccurate threshold tests.

The reason for the strangeness is that wrist-based heart rate monitors are useless for proper endurance training. They are neither accurate nor precise enough.

In order to start structured endurance training, you will need to use a heart rate monitor with a chest strap.

When posting in the UA forum, please only include heart rate information if it was recorded with a chest strap. Without reliable heart rate data, we won’t be able to offer any helpful advice.
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Posted In: Alpinism

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mgflatt on March 25, 2020 at 12:09 pm #39828

Scott,

Do you have a brand / model that you recommend? I’ve been training with Suunto watch or Apple watch. I haven’t noticed any irregularity but without a comparative would really have no way to know either.

Participant

Reed on March 25, 2020 at 2:35 pm #39830

I think you’ll probably be OK with any chest strap heart rate monitor – Polar, Suunto, Garmin, etc. One study I saw suggested that chest straps are >99% accurate relative to lab ECG leads, vs. 80-90% accuracy for optical wrist monitors (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28709155). If you already have a Suunto watch, go with Suunto!

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Anonymous on March 26, 2020 at 9:25 am #39857

Agreed. If your device will pair with a strap, then you’re all set.

I haven’t noticed any irregularity but without a comparative would really have no way to know either.

This is exactly the problem. Lots of folks have written in saying that they haven’t noticed anything unusual in their wrist-based monitors. It always shocks me that they make that conclusion without any comparison to something that is known to be accurate…

Participant

Jim Prager on March 27, 2020 at 10:05 am #39904

I use a chest strap whenever possible and definitely get better data. The main exception is ski touring, where one cannot wear a chest strap with an avy beacon. I’ve noticed that my measured heart rate on ski tours can be off wildly. My approach has been to focus on my breathing and then eyeball my TSS to see if it seems plausible and adjust as needed. Any other strategies that you employ?

Participant

Alan Russell on March 31, 2020 at 1:39 pm #40036

I’ve been using a Mio Alpha wrist-based HRM with my Suunto Ambit 3 Sport and Peak for the last few years. I almost always find it as accurate as a chest strap.

I used to use a chest strap, but stopped when I was getting skin irritation.

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Anonymous on March 31, 2020 at 4:18 pm #40045

Have you worn both the Mio and a chest strap during multiple workouts and then compared the recordings? If so, can you post screenshots of both?

It’s common for folks to make the assumption that their wrist monitors are accurate without checking them against something with proven accuracy. I don’t know why.

Participant

Alan Russell on April 1, 2020 at 1:05 pm #40060

Yes, but I did it years ago, prior to me using TP, or even Movescount. I can show you recent outputs from TP, but I’m not sure that would show you what you want. This review on DC Rainmaker may be more helpful: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/02/monitor-bluetooth-smartant.html.

It’s a discontinued device (it’s the Alpha you want rather than the Alpha 2 as it has a longer battery life), but you may be able to get one on ebay – I got a back-up one last year for less than £20. It’s not the most physically robust (I’m on my second (taped-up) one in 4 years) but it’s the best value I’ve found if chest straps cause you the skin irritation I had.

I’d be interested to hear of anyone’s experiences with the Garmin/Suunto watches with built in optical HR e.g. Fexix 5/Forerunner 935/Fexix 3 HR/Spartan Sport/Spartan Trainer/Suunto 9.

Inactive

Anonymous on April 1, 2020 at 9:15 pm #40066

It’s a discontinued device (it’s the Alpha you want rather than the Alpha 2 as it has a longer battery life), but you may be able to get one on ebay – I got a back-up one last year for less than £20. It’s not the most physically robust (I’m on my second (taped-up) one in 4 years) but it’s the best value I’ve found if chest straps cause you the skin irritation I had. http://keobong88.com/fb88/