Heart rate monitor -- be honest!

[natallica]

The heart rate monitoring is one of the main reasons I'm buying it.

I have post-concussion syndrome and one of the main ways I can tell how well I'm doing is based on my resting heart rate.

I know this is a v1 product, but I am really excited!

 

[5105973]

Hopefully someone can design a "I just died" app. When it reads your heart has stopped, kindly message the sad news to spouse, forward to the attorney, etc.

You forgot to have it interface with FB or Twitter so all your far flung friends can know, too.

 

[Knowimagination]

From the Verge review:

" And I found that the heart rate sensor struggled during my workouts, especially when I was really sweaty; it consistently measured about half my correct heart rate instead of my full 148bpm. "

I'm holding on to my Surge.

I can't possibly see why? All the reviews I have read show that the surge does a bad job at higher heart rates as well.

----------

I'm well aware what those things on the underside are. Self-evidently they take up space. I suspect quite a lot of space. Without them the watch would be smaller.

Clearly some people are keen to use the heart rate monitor regularly. Equally there may be many who won't.

I can't see how it would get much smaller without the HR sensor. It's pretty clear from other devices that it doesn't have to be as big as the apple watch. My guess is that the size of that bottom sensor area would be much smaller if we had a charging port instead of inductive charging. The HR is probably adding very little bulk in comparison to the charging solution.

 

[Bako-MacAddict]

Hmmm main reason why I'm buying my apple watch . I workout 6 days a week .

 

[Julien]

I will definitely be testing Saturday with a 10 miler compared to my Garmin 620.

 

[ACE83]

Will use daily. I workout 4-5 days per week plus occasional bike rides around town for transportation.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Did you see me say that, or are you just being argumentative?

I think you are being argumentative now. You said you don't go to the gym & never will. Seems pretty fair for one to infer from that statement regular exercise isn't part of your daily routine.

 

[vanimal]

I was always curious to see what my heart rate at the gym after taking my pre-workout which is loaded with like 350mg of caffeine and whatever the hell else is in there.

Prob higher than id like to know lol.

 

[bjdraw]

I'm wondering if this is a case of a journalist not understanding the technology (as happens all too frequently). I haven't seen any mention of the watch being able to connect to a different HR monitor other than in this review. Maybe what is really going on is that the phone will connect to the chest strap and the data is synced through HealthKit.

I'm taking this with a grain of salt until more info is available.

Here's another mention of it in the Men's Health review in the "It won't replace your heart rate monitor" section.

That's a problem Apple says you can fix by using a heart rate monitor strap and synching it with your Watch

 

[iThingsGurl]

feature unique to the iPhone 6+: the barometer.

By the way, the iPhone 6 Plus and the iPhone 6 have barometer

But yeah I get your point. Not many may need it. But surely a lot of us will certainly find it useful.

 

[x-evil-x]

i honestly don't know why a person would buy this watch if they didn't care about fitness in some way. I go to the gym 6 days a week and do cardio 3-4 days a week. Main reason to buy this watch is for fitness and annoyances with iPhone 6 plus being huge and in my pocket during workouts. It will be a game changer for me to keep it in my locker and have controls on wrist with bluetooth earbuds.
Why are you guys buying this watch? a little notification device? seems not worth it then..

 

[Piggie]

i honestly don't know why a person would buy this watch if they didn't care about fitness in some way. I go to the gym 6 days a week and do cardio 3-4 days a week. Main reason to buy this watch is for fitness and annoyances with iPhone 6 plus being huge and in my pocket during workouts. It will be a game changer for me to keep it in my locker and have controls on wrist with bluetooth earbuds.
Why are you guys buying this watch? a little notification device? seems not worth it then..

I am puzzled.

If you DID want a wrist mounted health monitoring device for gym work, why would you not buy something properly made for the job.

As nice as this Apple thing is, it's health/heart rate thing is just like a bolted on partial thought onto a general purpose device.

A bit like buying a road car with some off road tires as opposed to buying a proper off road car.

Surely there are vastly better devices out there if that's your primary need?

 

[matrix07]

Re/code review said it was about as accurate as a chest strap, which is pretty impressive.

Really? Wow! Can't wait to test it.

 

[x-evil-x]

I am puzzled.

If you DID want a wrist mounted health monitoring device for gym work, why would you not buy something properly made for the job.

As nice as this Apple thing is, it's health/heart rate thing is just like a bolted on partial thought onto a general purpose device.

A bit like buying a road car with some off road tires as opposed to buying a proper off road car.

Surely there are vastly better devices out there if that's your primary need?

What can control my music and skip tracks for me and tell me what I'm playing all while doing fitness based logging and give me other notifications?

 

[Piggie]

What can control my music and skip tracks for me and tell me what I'm playing all while doing fitness based logging and give me other notifications?

Sorry, I thought you were are the gym doing serious training.
Not listening to music and catching up with facebook & twitter

 

[cmChimera]

Sorry, I thought you were are the gym doing serious training.
Not listening to music and catching up with facebook & twitter

I can tell you don't go to the gym if you think that people don't listen to music at the gym.

 

[Piggie]

I can tell you don't go to the gym if you think that people don't listen to music at the gym.

I know, I was just really pointing out that for serious Gym work you don't need all the gimmics the Apple watch has.

If you are working out, and pushing yourself, then the health aspects, the more the better and most accurate is the primary key to any device.

TBH, if you are working out then probably a tiny MP3 player that can get knocked around and store a LOT of music would be better anyway.

Lightweight, functional and accurate would be MY key points for any workout routine.

Looks and gimmicy features would be last on my list, and certainly no notifications.

But then I am someone who will happily turn this stuff off so I can focus on a task or person as I think a lot of this is very very rude.

We all have different views on this aspect of modern life of course.

 

[x-evil-x]

Sorry, I thought you were are the gym doing serious training.
Not listening to music and catching up with facebook & twitter

haha good one. Because you know what i do in the gym and all. Ive used music for this hobby of mine for the past 10 years. assumptions are never good...

----------

The gimmicks i stated are what the watch should be used for to me honestly. I don't see spending this much on something for simple notifications.
Im one of the rare people in the gym that actually puts in hard work. Having my phone on me doesn't make this any less the case. Now not having my phone on me will be nice because it does get in the way for some things and has slipped out of my pocket on occasion. I usually set it down if I'm putting any kind of weight on my leg or doing leg raises.

 

[RickInHouston]

I'm a marathon runner and hope to rely on the HRM of the Apple Watch. I run six days a week but rarely use my Garmin HRM strap because I find it to be a nuisance.

The Gamin heart rate chest strap in more a nuisance than running with a phone? What?

 

[Piggie]

haha good one. Because you know what i do in the gym and all. Ive used music for this hobby of mine for the past 10 years. assumptions are never good...

----------

The gimmicks i stated are what the watch should be used for to me honestly. I don't see spending this much on something for simple notifications.
Im one of the rare people in the gym that actually puts in hard work. Having my phone on me doesn't make this any less the case. Now not having my phone on me will be nice because it does get in the way for some things and has slipped out of my pocket on occasion. I usually set it down if I'm putting any kind of weight on my leg or doing leg raises.

Why not just turn the phone off and leave it in your locker, if I may ask?

 

[x-evil-x]

Why not just turn the phone off and leave it in your locker, if I may ask?

i already answered this...
I train better with music. I don't want to listen to all the people chit chatting around me. I don't have a separate device for listening to music because i do a lot of streaming its not always stored on my phone. I don't socialize in the gym like most people I'm a bodybuilder...I change tracks depending on my mood and what I'm doing so this will be nice if it can control certain music apps. counting my neck for my heart beat has been getting old over the years. Bluetooth headphones have already been a game changer for me this just seems like the next step. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint.

 

[Piggie]

i already answered this...
I train better with music. I don't want to listen to all the people chit chatting around me. I don't have a separate device for listening to music because i do a lot of streaming its not always stored on my phone. I don't socialize in the gym like most people I'm a bodybuilder...I change tracks depending on my mood and what I'm doing so this will be nice if it can control certain music apps. counting my neck for my heart beat has been getting old over the years. Bluetooth headphones have already been a game changer for me this just seems like the next step. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint.

Fair enough.

I will admit, if it was me, I would wish a tiny MP3 player for music, and some VERY robust and shock resistant (knock about) device on my wrist for monitoring.

I think I do not class the Apple watch as serious in this department.
More a heart monitor for office types and general public, not something I would consider anyone like yourself really using in any serious context.

You would strike me as a Use the proper tool for the job, type of person.

Good luck with the training, and full respect to you for taking your exersize seriously.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I'm a ultra runner that runs 5 days a week and I run, a lot. (As in just one week ago, I ran for 14 hours...during one day alone.) The HRM is one of the main reasons I'm buying an Apple Watch.

I realize the AW battery doesn't last long enough for my needs and I realize it may or may not be accurate enough for serious training needs. However, the AW will be extremely valuable for me as I monitor my HR throughout the day. With the amount I run, over-reaching or over-training is very possible, and monitoring your resting heart rate is critical to making sure you don't go too far and start achieving negative results.

I'm so stoked that the Apple Watch has HR monitoring capabilities. Plus, don't forget: making a difference in humanity is one of Apple's primary goals and movement activity is critical to the health of the human race.

 

[x-evil-x]

Fair enough.

I will admit, if it was me, I would wish a tiny MP3 player for music, and some VERY robust and shock resistant (knock about) device on my wrist for monitoring.

I think I do not class the Apple watch as serious in this department.
More a heart monitor for office types and general public, not something I would consider anyone like yourself really using in any serious context.

You would strike me as a Use the proper tool for the job, type of person.

Good luck with the training, and full respect to you for taking your exersize seriously.

definitely skeptic about it working for my needs just hoping it does as i don't like any of the other fitness trackers. i don't need a tracking device but it would make things more fun and informative for me. i used to skate around with a tape player in my pocket for years before little mp3 players came out so I'm pretty used to having something on me. 20 years almost.

 

[bjdraw]

If you DID want a wrist mounted health monitoring device for gym work, why would you not buy something properly made for the job.

As nice as this Apple thing is, it's health/heart rate thing is just like a bolted on partial thought onto a general purpose device.

One size does not fit all and style does matter for something you wear all the time. A purpose built health monitoring device for gym work isn't going to be the type of device you want to wear all the time and a all day monitor isn't going to be perfect for the gym.

I think this is why the Watch supports BTLE heart rate monitors. That way you can track your HR 18x7 (including helping you determine an accurate resting heart rate) with a device that you are comfortable wearing anywhere, then you can add a chest or another more accurate wrist strap during exercise.