How does rowing work on a Charge 6?

[schavis]

Hi - Thinking about buying a Charge 6. I use an indoor rower a lot but the models I have at home and at my gym are not Bluetooth compatible. Will the Charge 6 track rowing if I select that activity? Or does it need to be connected via Bluetooth to recognize rowing? 

[LZeeW]

Hello @schavis and welcome back to the Community.  I looked at your public profile and see that you are a long time Fitbit user.  Fitbit added a Rowing machine exercise shortcut when it expanded the shortcut list, but you will be disappointed by it.  It doesn't report any rowing specific stats.  It looks like it is the generic Workout shortcut with a different label.

[YachatsMike]

I row a lot.  Before the last update I tracked it as a Workout, now I track it as Rowing machine.  I don't see any difference in what gets measured.  From heart rate and time it calculates Zone Minutes, Calories and, now, Cardio Load.  I have an old Concept 2 Model D with a PM3 monitor so I have to manually transfer the data to a spreadsheet I keep to calculate other metrics.  I use to the PM3 Memory function and photograph the screens to  get the values off the PM3.  I calculate my own Calories and Mets from the Distance Rowed and Heart Rate using formulas I researched online because the Charge 6 records lower values during the first 5 minutes as my heart rate ramps up even though I'm cranking out the same number of Meters and Watts as I do later in the exercise.

There are no real Rowing-specific values captured by the Charge 6.  I think they just added a new label to a generic exercise.

[Rich_Laue]

As mentioned, it seems to be tracked as a general workout, with the only difference being the title. 

This makes sense since the only measurable activity is how much moving the arms do and heart rate. The heart rate can determine the intensity of the workout