??Garmin Chest Strap??

LargeEricS
LargeEricS Posts: 109 Member
edited December 24 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi guys, so for x-mas my wife bought me a garmin HRM-Run chest strap. She said when she looked online it said the chest strap alone would pair with the garmin connect app, with is compatible with MFP. However that doesnt appear to be the case. Does the chest strap need a watch to sync to first? Just looking for any knowledge before i have to buy a pricey garmin watch to sync it with if its not necessary. Thanks in advance!

Replies

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    If you have a phone that supports ANT+ (Samsung Galaxy phones do) you can probably make it work. The Garmin Connect app won't read it directly, and you probably won't find an app that will take advantage of the Running Dynamics, but you'll get HR. I know S Health would work, I don't think it will pair with MFP though. Maybe Ride With GPS?

    The chest strap is intended to be used with a watch (or bike computer) and everything works more seamlessly that way. Yours is a high end strap that can measure/estimate things like how high you bounce when you run vs your stride length.
  • rodnichols69
    rodnichols69 Posts: 83 Member
    There are numerous HR tracking apps that connect to that strap. You should be able to find one on the compatible app page for MFP
  • LargeEricS
    LargeEricS Posts: 109 Member
    Bumping this old thread cause I've had zero luck with finding a useful app to pair only with the cheat strap. Looking to buy a watch to pair with it now. Should I go the Garmin forerunner 935/945 as it is a garmin chest strap? Looking to record heart rate and help measure cal. burned while lifting, running, and HIIT workouts.
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    I think you'll find many MFP users who have various garmin devices paired with a garmin chest strap HR monitor. I have a Garmin 920xt and chest strap HRM that has operated flawlessly for 4 years. Several of my training partners have 935,735 or Fenix devices paired with their garmin chest strap HR monitors. Most of the users I know are focused on endurance training and use the data to set HR zones for endurance training.

    While capturing HR on a Garmin device is simple, I'd suggest reading some of the many discussion threads around the relative accuracy and usefulness of calorie burn estimates derived from your device.

  • LargeEricS
    LargeEricS Posts: 109 Member
    Djproulx wrote: »
    I think you'll find many MFP users who have various garmin devices paired with a garmin chest strap HR monitor. I have a Garmin 920xt and chest strap HRM that has operated flawlessly for 4 years. Several of my training partners have 935,735 or Fenix devices paired with their garmin chest strap HR monitors. Most of the users I know are focused on endurance training and use the data to set HR zones for endurance training.

    While capturing HR on a Garmin device is simple, I'd suggest reading some of the many discussion threads around the relative accuracy and usefulness of calorie burn estimates derived from your device.

    Thanks for the insight. I'm aware of the accuracy problems when estimating calorie burn. But I'd like to start getting deeper into running this year and start working towards a half marathon. However, I have the Samsung Health app that I think is overly high for calorie burn right now. I'm going to start trying to narrow down the actual calorie burn while I'm still trying to slim down for embarking on long runs. That when I get to long runs I can be fueling my body properly. Just think I watch might allow me to use more higher end apps than Samsung Health.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    The lifting and HIIT workouts are the type where HR-based calorie calc's will be inflated.

    HR used for calculation of calories is only valid for aerobic steady-state - and even that has caveats if body is stressed and showing inflated HR for the effort. That will matter on long runs in your training.

    But lifting and HIIT if done correctly are anaerobic and opposite steady-state with HR floating all over the place.
    Database entry for those are best.

    For runs - some of the simple Garmin devices for daily activity tracking, that even have their optical HR sensor, will pair with more serious HR-straps for accuracy improvement.
    It just depends on how much info do you want to get from the strap, and uploaded to Garmin Connect to make something of it.

    Here's some in-depth info and what it can work with.
    https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/02/garmin-hrm-details.html

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,620 Member
    I use a Garmin Vivoactive 3 (now supplanted in the market by Vivoactive 4) with a Garmin chest strap. I need the chest strap because rowing (boats, machines) involves too much arm movement, and the wrist-based monitor loses contact and mis-records. It does what I need.

    Choose the watch by what features/functions you want (GPS, music, blah, blah, blah, as well as what data it will transfer to Garmin Connect).

    Listen to heybales about calorie estimation.

    Any HR-based method is likely to be truly terrible at estimating calories for strength training or HIIT. I use the MFP estimate for strength training, as he suggests; and I don't do any HIIT activity often enough these days to worry about how to estimate it. In the rare cases when I do HIIT, it's some kind of classic HIIT (e.g., Tabata intervals) on the rowing machine, in which case the Concept 2 weight-adjusted calorie estimate is likely to be plenty close enough for me. Looking at the heart rate response graphs from that, it's easy to see why HR-based calorie estimates for something like that would be silly-wrong. And it's not even consistently silly-wrong, since the HR response in a very fit person will likely differ quite dramatically from the HR response of a not-very-fit one, even for the same workload in watts.
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    I have a garmin chest strap it pairs to wahoo app. I didn't try to get it to pair to MFP or anything tho
  • LargeEricS
    LargeEricS Posts: 109 Member
    Thanks for all the insights guys! I'm leaning towards the Vivoactive 4, and I'll take the calorie estimates as just that an estimate. I'll be done with my HIIT workouts once my gym reopens. Then I'm on to 3 days of lifting, 3 days running.
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