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Interval Workout or Treadmill Workout? -- Interval Training on a Treadmill

I'm looking to perform interval workouts on a treadmill.  It will be my first official workout with my Charge 2, and I'm curious what experts and longtime users think.  If I will be on a treadmill the entire time, but constantly and regularly changing pace (i.e. alternating between walking and running at about the same time intervals), would it be better to make it an interval workout, or will a treadmill workout pick-up the difference between running and walking in step frequency and give me a decent gauge of distance as well?  Either way, the workout happens and I benefit... even if my Charge 2 fails to track steps accurately.  Though obviously it would be neat if I get relatively accurate data from my workout.

 

I tried searching the forums but don't see anybody having posted this exact topic.  Any advice or input?  I'm inclined to try a treadmill workout in case I want more control over the interval timing, but seem to see a lot of threads about accuracy issues and wonder if the interval training might help.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Advice? 

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@purpledawgz, I don't know that I have a good answer for you, but I'll give it a shot.  I workout on the treadmill 3 days a week by varying speed & incline every 5 minutes for the entire workout, but I don't call it interval training. I don't do fast enough speed to run, but do between a casual walk to a power walk. The problem I originally encountered was determining a stride length was would give me a reasonably accurate distance at the end of the workout. That is because the stride length is totally different from a casual walk to a run.  I did a series of "walks" at different speeds for 1/10th mile each while counting steps and then averaged all of them to come up with a stride length I could set in the tracker. Now, when I do a treadmill or elliptical workout, it get a mileage calculation that closely matches the machine reading.  I know this doesn't answer your questions, but I hope it helps a little.

 

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I record interval treadmill sessions as 'Treadmill', and the Fitbit ChargeHR seems to track my heart rate change successfully according to the intensity. As far as step counting go, it is extremely accurate. I'm not sure if this is the best way to track so would be interested to see what others think, but as you say, you've got the real benefit of the workout whether it's perfectly recorded or not!

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I actually use "Treadmill Trails" videos on my tablet while on the treadmill. These are 30 minute actual walking trails (Appalachian Trail, Hawaii,  etc.) I adjust the incline and speed based on video. Feels authentic and makes workouts fly by. Nice change from music, etc.

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I prefer to manage the intervals myself. In the course of a workout, I might switch from 1:1 to 2:1 or 3:1, and Fitbit's interval timer can't handle that complexity.

Work out...eat... sleep...repeat!
Dave | California

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I just got a new Charge HR and have used it in the same manner to track my interval training on the treadmill. I used the treadmill mode and for me it did not meet my expectations. The Fitbit only accounted for less than half of the distance and did not capture anywhere near my peak heart rate during my max effort interval.  I found this message board in an attempt to find out if my Fitbit is faulty or if this type of training typically is difficult for the Fitbit HR 2 to accurately track. 

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@lifesteps- I had a similar experience with the distance being way off when I first started using the treadmill workout.  I found I needed to turn-off the "auto" calculation that uses GPS in connection with number of steps to estimate your walking and running gait.  It takes a little work to manually calculate those numbers, but once I made the change it's been very accurate.  The downside -- it can now overestimate my distance over the course of a day based on perceived steps that are just activity but not necessarily in forward motion.  However, I personally prefer having the treadmill workouts be more accurate than the daily total, as I look to review and track that specific data more often. 

 

As for the peak heart rate, I found that when I sweat a LOT in my intervals, unless my HR is very snug, I can get erroneous (or no) data on my heart rate as well.  Now during my workouts, I strap it down tight and then immediately loosen it when I'm done.  Wouldn't recommend doing it for very long, and I tend to spend not much more than hour or so on a treadmill.  Even doing that, I can get a low or no reading from time-to-time, but it seems to be fairly accurate when I keep it tight.  Hope some of that helps!

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@purpledawgz- Thank you for the great information!  I will check my "auto" calculation settings.  I have high hopes that this will correct or at least greatly improve the accuracy of the distance while on the treadmill.  I agree with you, I'd much rather have the data collected during my treadmill workout be more accurate because I will looking at that data for indications of cardiovascular and performance improvement.  I expect to see heart rate swings up and down to match the interval intensity (1min max- 1min recovery).  I don't need the accuracy of a chest strap but I would like to not have to hold on the treadmill handle for my heart rate.  Tomorrow is my cardio day, I'll strap it down and see how the Fitbit handles tracking my heart rate during the treadmill interval workout.  Thanks again for the help.

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I have a Fitbit Inspire, which doesn’t track heart rate, and I find the mileage to be inaccurate during interval training on the treadmill, in which I alternate between sprinting’s and walking. I’ll start the workout with a mike logged on my Fitbit simply from walking around the house, and then complete 7.8 miles on the treadmill, which should give me a net total of 8.8; yet my Fitbit only reads 7.2. What happened to the 1.6 miles that are missing??? I guess the device Ian unable to distinguish between my accelerated stride without measuring my heart rate.

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@Melbmelc wrote:

I have a Fitbit Inspire, which doesn’t track heart rate, and I find the mileage to be inaccurate during interval training on the treadmill, in which I alternate between sprinting’s and walking. I’ll start the workout with a mike logged on my Fitbit simply from walking around the house, and then complete 7.8 miles on the treadmill, which should give me a net total of 8.8; yet my Fitbit only reads 7.2. What happened to the 1.6 miles that are missing??? I guess the device Ian unable to distinguish between my accelerated stride without measuring my heart rate.


HR is not used in any manner to get distance traveled from steps.

 

Side point that calorie burn would actually be more accurate by distance than by HR, if distance is correct of course. Especially with your HR where it's constantly moving.

 

No - your issue is stride length settings.

There are 2 - walking and running. It can tell the difference between the 2 because of hang time between impacts seen.

 

Walking should be set for best avg length for avg daily pace - between grocery store shuffle and exercise pace. About 2 mph.

Ever walked a known distance of a mile at 2 mph to test if the Fitbit was close on distance?

Treadmills aren't always calibrated right so that may or may not be trustworthy distance.

That correct stride length pace allows the device to dynamically adjust each step distance up or down to through the range.

 

But then running needs to be set for you for avg pace again. If it was default set still it was likely for 6 mph. Is that the middle range of the paces you do?

Get that sprinting pace, get your normal slow running pace - pick the middle point, and run a mile at that pace.

Suggest you be at that pace already, start a workout when a minute rolls over for more accurate data, or maybe when distance rolls over to x.0 miles.

Stop workout when it rolls over to full mile.

Later confirm you have an Activity Record for that workout - there's the steps done to get that mile.

5280 feet / steps = stride length in decimal feet.

go change that setting.

 

And I'll mention that the ability for the device to dynamically adjust up or down to calculate distance based on impact still loses accuracy the farther away from avg you are. But that's why you set the mid-point.

But if your common slow jog and your sprinting has a big separation - it still may be a tad inaccurate at either end of that range.

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Thank you, Heybales, for your thorough response. I learned a lot from your
answer. I didn’t even know that I could modify my pace, so I will certainly
look into that.

Before reading your answer, my mom pointed out to me that her Fitbit
doesn’t log her steps as accurately when she carries an object in her
hands. For example, if she is carrying a stack of papers from one floor of
her office building to the next, and doesn’t have the usual arm sway while
she walks, then the step count is reduced. I then realized that I jog with
my arms somewhat stationary. I don’t always swing them at the same rate as
my leg revolution - if that makes sense - unless I am really sprinting and
using my arms to help propel me. I believe there is a correlation between
arm swing and recorded steps, because I now make sure to swing my arms more
when I jog and walk, and I find that my step count has increased.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this.
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I wore a device intended for the body - some bought bands to wear it on the wrist.

Fitbit had no extra settings for sensitivity and dominate hand - those people found it got inaccurate.

Steps and distance.

 

Devices intended for the wrist moved to the body - still see steps - depending on settings can lose accuracy for steps or distance.

 

All the devices if put into a situation where they can't see impacts properly - wrist devices gripping a shopping cart, body devices swinging just wrong on necklace type holders, ect - are going to have problems.

Many have learned before pushing a cart to put wrist unit in pocket and steps and distance are seen pretty accurately.

 

They have accelerometers in them. Built in combo chipset functions (I haven't confirmed lately from Fitbit patents if they switched manufacturer) spit out a distance when they compare impact just seen to expected impact based on known weight and stride length.

The wrist device adjustments were to allow impacts to be seen as accurate as possible despite arm swinging - because the swing of the arm has nothing to do with changing impacts, too smooth.

Even with the settings, some use of arms doing hair or cooking can see very minor impacts, small distance, minimal calorie burn extra. But still steps and people will notice that.

 

I could have my body device in my hand and swing my arms in just a right manner to have no impacts seen. Basically free fall as impact happened. Funny to watch, glad I don't walk like that normally.

Of course with device on body all was good with tweaked stride length.

 

Incredible these things can do what they do, in the situations we put them in.

But it can lead to some interesting accuracy. gripping papers, boxes, ect, while moving will change the impacts counted as steps.

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