Rowing and rowing machine on ChargeHR

[Thelittlerower]

I just got a fitbit Charge HR; I am a competitive rower and often use the rowing machine (ergometer) and actual boats on the water to train. Is there a way to accurately track/record these workouts on the ChargeHR? If so, how?

[AlvaroFitbit · Accepted solution]

@Thelittlerower Welcome to our Community! Your Charge HR was designed to track step b ased activities so it won't actually track that you are rowing but the movement should give you a fairly good amount of steps if that's what you want. If not you can log your rowing activities by manually logging the activity following @Mcore's instructions here.

Let me know how it goes!

[Chattycathy55]

Just curious.. if you log it manually won't you be getting double credit for the calories because even though the fitbit doesn't calculate it you are still get credit for calories burned during that time. Or do you mean log it just to have a record and not put in calories?

[pcv103]

I've had Fitbit Charges for several years now and one of my chief (and only) complaints is wild inconsistencies while using a rowing machine.  I understand that the rowing motion is different that traditional steps, but even the heart rate is wildly inaccurate. I've tried tightening/loosening the wristband, moving it further up or down on my wrist, and putting the sensor on the inside of my wrist but none of these results in accurate heart rate tracking.  My heart rate graphs typically look like I'm doing some very weak interval training with 60-100% of the time being fat burn even if I'm doing a sprint workout.  Since Fitbit uses heart rate and exercise intensity to calculate a myriad of things and estimate overall cardio health, is there a fix for this issue?  I just won a Fitbit 3 from my work but I hesitate to open it due to this vexing issue...

[esvargot]

Yesterday I walked 3 miles and logged app. 7500 steps. Today I rowed 4 miles on a river in a single shell and, using the biking exercise option, I logged 2300 steps. This seems incongruous, as rowing for an hour is a much higher impact exercise than walking for an hour. Should I be using the gps and running exercise option? Any other thoughts? Am using a Charge3. Thanks.

[JCfit44]

When I paddleboard, I set my charge 3 to “swimming” and it tracks enough to be satisfying.  

[WendyB]

@esvargotRowing is not step based. How can you expect accuracy out of non step based activities?

[Alwynne]

Did you get an answer? I have the same question about bicycling

[esvargot]

Well, of course.  I get that.  

What i am saying is that rowing is an exercise that contributes to my fitness to a much greater extent than walking 10k steps, and it's a shame that the Fitbit does not account for that. I would like the Fitbit to conform to my exercise patterns rather than the other way around. 

[esvargot]

Only from Fitbit apologists. 

[dvburk]

For rowing machine workouts 

25 stokes a minute for 20 minutes is only 500 strokes or 500 steps.  Yes you get robbed,  a hard work out for 500 steps.  Argh!

What I do is set fitbit to exercise workout,  do my rowing,  after rowing is done, go to the fitbit app, click on the exercise running dude, then click on the particular exercise, then click on categorize exercise.  You will have to search for rowing machine  or you can make own category such as, rowing machine and weights.

[MdanceSwfit]

So basically, Rowing has to be manually logged?

[Richie__Rich]

Ditto... I wear a chest strap when rowing, and i look at the fitbit and it is WAAAAAAYYYY out.

It barely gets out of fatburn when I've been near my max for 30+% of the rowing session.

My cardio fitness has gone from excellent or good because of this. (My vo2 dropping a few points - I know its not accurate anyway)

Seems like a problem as my Mio wrist HRM works perfectly for me.   

Seems a shame we can't import HR for exercise when I have captured the HR in a different app using a chest strap.   Some competitors allow this.

[Richie__Rich]

It isnt the steps we want calculated... its the accurate HR and fitness.  The fitbit isnt reading the HR correctly and so it underestimates (by a lot) the calories burned and your general fitness, eg things like your VO2 etc 

[Gruntus-Maximus]

I row on the water and use the  Fitbit bike setting on the watch and then convert it to rowing on strava which gives me the things I need which is speed, HR, distance, segments.

[_FitBob_]

I can't believe there is no Rowing/Erg.  Do fitbit people not go to the gym?  Every exercise app that I have ever used includes rowing.  What is wrong with fitbit?

[PWright57]

I take you point, but my Versa 2 does have swimming, weights and yoga options which aren't step based, so maybe it could do something similar for rowing? 

[_FitBob_]

Actually - Being able to change the primary metric from "steps" to "active minutes" would be fantastic.  This would bring Fitbit out of the sewer of being a "glorified step counter" and up to par with other "fitness trackers".  Get your game on Fitbit, you are loosing the fitness tracker race!