Plus you're back up and running just in time for good weather.
I’m in the currently overheated and dry Southwest and the Nat’l Forest on the border of which I live just shut down till the monsoons come. It’s dreadmill time, but at least I’m moving...
As far as the algorithms used by the AW to calculate calories burned, I'd wager a guess that it's a modified version of the METs formula. The AW probably starts with the standard MET for a particular excercise and then modifies it as your HR goes up or down.
I agree. I think it’s missing the capability of learning the user’s baseline, though. Low resting HR and the fast reduction rate during HIIT rest periods, for example, should be a factor in the algorithm. It’s also clearly using average US values for RMR and VO2MAX based on age and gender, because it’s calculated mine as a 36 average for this calendar year, and I tested at 71 in a lab just last year. We’re a sedentary, overweight nation, so I don’t really blame Apple, but I wish there were more parameters you could put in to personalize its measurement of your particular performance. I’ve gone in today and entered more data into the Health app (BMI etc), and I’ll be curious to see if the AW-measured values gain accuracy accordingly. When I have time, at some point I’ll look into other fitness apps I can integrate in. Nothing can replace a lab treadmill and oximeter, of course, but I’d like to be able to enter the altitude for my mountain runs, for example, when I’m sprinting uphill at 11K feet. I’ll bet I’ve been getting less “credit” for gym work because my gym sits at around 5K ft and my max HR there reflects that.
For now, it serves the original purpose for which I bought it: music, important texts, SOS if run into a tree or a cougar, handy HR, and accurate distance (though not the altitude gains the native Samsung Health app was impressively accurate with).
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I've always found the AW to be nearly spot on with what the [elliptical’s] computer says in terms of calories burned. They're usually only off from each other by 5-20 calories (...) when I'm using a machine that makes it easy to hold onto the heart sensors during the workout and I've entered all my info into the machine.
I was mystified by the lack of accuracy, too. In the past I had “tested” the AW against my treadmill at home and it was dead on even when I tried to trick it by wildly varying the incline levels or switching between slow jogs and speed walking at the same rate. I really think that it has to do with gait in addition to your HR: whether you’re walking or running or on an elliptical, the AW detects your stride. While I was recovering from hamstring tendinopathy, however, the only way I could do hard cardio on legs was by holding on to the center bars on the elliptical, set it to max level, stand on my toes and haul a...s while keeping my pelvis static. Your quads and calves burn like crazy, you can reach max HR, and still keep from loading your hamstring. Great exercise, but there’s no stride as such for the AW motion sensor to detect.
Check out the article I linked below. The section titled "Cardio, Interval Training, and Heart Rate Sensors" provides a good explanation of the benefits of using a chest strap.
I did read it, thank you. I’d run into the same issues with my AW as in the article when the watch would slide up and down my wrist courtesy of sweat+sunblock. For me, tightening the band did the trick. I’ve been cleared to run now again, so hopefully this is the end of my what’s-my-HR?? woes. When I’m running it’s all about distance and time gains. I’d only got so obsessed w/ HR because staying in marathon-ready cardio shape was tough while being benched after the injury for four. Long. Months...
The way you describe the kickboxing sounds a lot like HIIT.
It definitely is. Technique practice aside, I always get in at least 7 3-min all-out rounds with fun stuff like planks or burpees for my 1-minute “breaks.” As I’d said in an earlier post, it was really just academic curiosity as to the algorithm Apple employs here, really. I did it using the HIIT setting yesterday, and got credit for 153 calories over 30 minutes. My coach is a (lovable) sadist... I’ve seen hard-nosed guys run from that octagon looking for a place to throw up... Yeah, that’s not a 150-calorie 30 minutes...