FAO: Developers Heart rate alarm during exercise on Blaze.

[GrubbyDuck]

Blaze - max heart rate alarm with vibration - is this possible please? Thank you!

[Rich_Laue]

Sure it's possible @GrubbyDuck, and we have a special Feature Suggestion Forum to let or thoughts be heard by the developers.
I recommend adding your vote and thoughts to this request.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Max-heartrate-notifications/idi-p/1566961

[shipo]

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@GrubbyDuck wrote:

Blaze - max heart rate alarm with vibration - is this possible please? Thank you!

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I'm curious why you want such a feature.

[GrubbyDuck]

I need to be working and staying in strict cardio zones training stamina
not speed.

[shipo]

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@GrubbyDuck wrote:
I need to be working and staying in strict cardio zones training stamina
not speed.

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Before I ask my next question I'm going to tell you I coach a lot of runners, both beginners as well as seasoned veterans.

Question: Who says you need to stay in a strict cardio zone to train for stamina?

Comments in no particular order:

• The various cardio zones as used by Fitbit are based on the HIGHLY flawed 220-Age Max Heart Rate formula; I say highly flawed because while it may be fairly accurate for some folks, it is a complete failure for others.
• One of my core coaching principles is to train those I coach for stamina, stamina, and more stamina, and once they can run at least five to six miles in an hour, then, and only then, do I gradually start adding in some minimal speed work (and even then only after a number of nice slow miles).
• The thing is, max heart rate and the various zones which are derived from them are a farse; if you want stamina, work your running up to the point where you can run for a full hour while being able to carry on a conversation in short sentences; let the heart do whatever it wants to do, it matters not the slightest (unless of course you are a heart patient under the care of a cardiologist; then follow his or her advice).
• When training for stamina, if you get to the point where you are breathing very hard, regardless of heart rate, slow down.  If you get to the point where you are breathing so hard you are about to collapse, STOP NOW!
• So what about all of stuff written about heart rate training?  If you are an elite runner who has undergone specific heart rate testing so you know *exactly* what your max heart rate is, then heart rate training may give you a very slight competitive advantage; for the rest of us, not so much.
• Using my heart as an example; my Max Heart Rate based upon Fitbit's formula is 160.5, which in turn means my "Fat Burning" zone is between about 105 and 125, my "Cardio" zone is between 126 and 145, and my "Peak" zone is anything over 145; the thing is, I routinely push my heart rate up into the 170s during a long run.  Needless to say the formulas and zones are complete B.S. for me, and as it turns out, for most of the folks I coach, regardless of age.

[GrubbyDuck]

Health reasons too told not to exceed 130bpm.

[Houstonnick · Accepted solution]

Why would you argue with a customer who wants a product?  Is it your place to tell him what he should or should not want?  I too would like to set upper and lower rates and try to stay withing that range and I think it is a perfectly acceptable training tool.  But then again, who am I, or you, to judge?

[wotnobleep]

Why would I want such a feature ?

What a strange reply. !

Here's a simple answer  : My wife has just bought me a Fitbit Blaze for my 70th thinking it would replace a chest strap HR monitor I use when working out on gym equipment e.g. rowing machine, which doesn't have a built in HRM. I've already realised that the Blaze cant give me a an easily read HR display whilst working out so rather than disappoint my wife, I'll smuggle out my chest strap monitor so that she doesn't know I still have to use it

...and why would I go to all that bother :

..again a simple answer : Several months ago soon after I started a new gym programme, my chest strap monitor noticed my HR going through the roof even just resting so thankfully I abandoned doing any exercise, It turns out that I had experienced atrial fibrillation (probably triggered by blood pressure medication) which thankfully now seems under control with beta-blockers.

So until Fitbit listen properly to their customers and add this simple feature,  I really don't want to risk not having an easily visible or audible heart rate alarm so the chest strap has to stay on

Now come-on .......is keeping your customers 'Fit' really a higher priority for your product than keeping them 'Alive' ?

[SeniorJogger]

I agree, having an alarm to notify you when you've exceeded a certain heart rate would be great.  I jog about 3 times a week and have been doing that for more than a year.  This morning when I finished I did feel like I overdid it a little and when I looked at my Blaze afterward, it confirmed I was above my recommended peak heart rate and in the peak zone longer than my usual run.  Nothing bad happened, but it made me look for this very feature which lead me to this forum. I guess I could be looking at my Blaze while running, but it would be nice to have an vibration alarm to let you know when you're overdoing it.  

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to welcome you @wotnobleep and @SeniorJogger.

I think that this would be a really good feature to have for the Blaze. Please take a look at the Heart Rate Warning/Alarm request, vote for it and leave your comment.

See you around. 

[wotnobleep]

Hi Alejandra,



Many thanks for the opportunity to vote for this software enhancement.



I'm a newcomer adding my voice to what has evidently been an open request
but glad that there may be some traction now in getting this scheduled as an
enhancement and hope that you will champion this ?



I trust that we will be kept informed of progress towards this and whilst on
the subject, I would be interested to know how you distribute and install
your software upgrades



Kind Regards,



'wotnobleep'

(Alan Harris)

[wotnobleep]

Hi Alejandra,



Many thanks for the opportunity to vote for this software enhancement.



I'm a newcomer adding my voice to what has evidently been an open request
but glad that there may be some traction now in getting this scheduled as an
enhancement and hope that you will champion this ?



I trust that we will be kept informed of progress towards this and whilst on
the subject, I would be interested to know how you distribute and install
your software upgrades



Kind Regards,



'wotnobleep'

(Alan Harris)

[SeniorJogger]

Done
Senior Jogger

Sent from my iPhone

[Aacosta96]

Please add the heart rate alarm feature that will vibrate when you exceed your custom upper limit and will vibrate when you go below your lower limit.  Maybe a heart rate notification button can be pushed to start the notification process once between the high and low limit. See the book ‘Primal Endurance’ by Mark Sisson.  Knowing and not exceeding your aerobic heart rate is quite important according to this book

[Aacosta96]

I’m looking forward to the update.  I already bought 8 different and cool bands for my blaze and I don’t want to go back to my polar with a heart rate strap.  Please update soon.

[AlejandraFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @Aacosta96, great to see you around @SeniorJogger and @wotnobleep!

Don't worry, our team check the requests made and make sure that they get attention needed. I hope that some of those ideas can get implemented since they sound really good. In the meantime, if you have more opinions, don't hesitate in visiting our feature suggestions board and share them. 

Happy stepping! 

[wotnobleep]

Hi,



Thanks for letting us know that our suggestions regarding a Heart Rate Alarm
are being considered,



I'd like to add that a feature to enlarge and fix the 'Heart Rate' display
on so that it' clearly visible whilst exercising in parallel to setting an
alarm would also be great.



Thanks



Alan Harris



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[Dasboos]

Hi fitbit team, I have a brother who has congestive heart failure. He is relatively young and was very active prior to this (he contracted a heart virus that went undiagnosed until the damage was done). He is currently on medication that has him stabilized but his condition will never improve. Because he was an active outdoor enthusiast, mountaineering and snowboarding, the effects on his lifestyle have been substantial and disheartening (no pun intended). Several weeks ago he made the decision that, for the sake of his mental health, he wanted, needed, to get back on a snowboard. We spent a half day on the hill, trying carefully not to place to much demand on his compromised heart, which was akready under extra demand due to the elevation and decreased O2 levels. The trip was a success, he was re- energized by the realization that snowboarding, at a modest level, was still an option. So guys, here is the reason for this feature. I work as an embedded software developer and I have designed several apps, iOS and Android, that interact with Internet of Things (IoT) devices. So I have some experience with what's involved with adding a feature to an established design. The developers at fitbit should recognize the value in a feature such as this, and unless you guys are terribly understaffed, you should be able to add this to the next release with somerhing like 2 man hours of work. Also realize that guys like me are always looking for an opportunity to create a product that will fill a need, I will be watching this thread closely for the next few weeks. If I don't see any activity, I plan to work on designing a cheap Bluetooth wearable device that implements the BLE Heart Monitor Profile and uses a smartphone to sends alerts when heart rate exceeds/drops below user presets. So the clock is ticking, fitbit ----innovate or evaporate...

[wotnobleep]

Thanks - Outstanding post

[wotnobleep]

Thanks - Outstanding Post