heart beat accelerates too quickly during treadmill workout

[versa3by]

I am a new user of Fitbit (Versa 3) and used to track my heartbeat during workouts on the treadmill. I noticed recently that when I am first warming up at the beginning of a workout heartbeat monitor accelerates very quickly and goes above what my peak hear rate should be. When I compare to the hearbeat monitor on the treadmill it is way above the reading on the treadmill as well.  After about the first 10 minutes of the workiout the hear beat goes down to a number that more closely matches the monitor on the treadmill although they are never the same.  It remains relatively stable for the rest of the workout but the inaccuracy at the beginning skews the average stats at the end of the workout.  This is disappointing because I rely on the heart monitor to provide an accurate reading so I can make sure I do not workout above my peak zone.

[Julia_G]

@versa3by I would think your Fitbit may be more accurate than the treadmill machine as the Fitbit is testing your pulse more directly, if you are using one of those machines that require you to hold on to something that detects your HR through your hand grip.

If your HR goes up very fast (according to your Versa) it might be worth warming up a little more and building up your speed a little more slowly so that it rises a bit more steadily and not so suddenly high.

Just a thought.  Welcome to the forums!

[emili]

in addition to what Julia mentioned, when you hold on it changes your HR because you are not working as hard, so your HR may be dropping while you are measuring it on the treadmill. However, going above peak seems way too high. is this constant since your got your fitbit or has it now corrected itself?

[Julia_G]

Thanks @emili for your additional input on this issue.

[versa3by]

Thanks for trying to troubleshoot but I don't think your hypothesis fits what is happening.  The fitbit's record of the bpm is typically irregular at the beginning of the workout moving up and down wildly then settles down for the rest of the workout. The idea that the HR is drops when I hold on to a hand grip doesn't explain why it goes up and down wildly when I am not holding on to the hand grip. I usually don't hold the hand grip while I wear the fitbit because the fitbit is giving me a read out second by second. I only did it to have a point of reference to compare the fitibt to another measure of my hearbeat and what I found is that when my fitbit told me my bpm were very high the hand grip was much lower and more where it should be at the beginning of a workout.  The other hypothesis is that there is something drastically wrong with my heart and I don't think that is the case. When the fitibit is telling me my bpm is suddenly surging there is not corresponding feeling in my body that my heart is racing.  I think it is a bug in my fitbit.  I have uploaded some screenshots of my bpm that is recorded when  I work out so you can see what I mean.

[t.parker]

@versa3by is an imperfection of the Versa 3 HR sensor. Nothing unusual. My Sense shows similar behaviour (first 16min of 10km run):

Yellow - Sense, Blue - PolarH10

The initial irregularities are quite common (it can and does get a lot worse, this run was surprisingly well tracked by my Sense)

[versa3by]

Thanks T. Parker for confirming I am not the only one with this issue.

[charleskn]

I see this occasionally, but not often. I find my Charge 5 (and my older Charge 4) did a pretty good job tracking my HR during constant load aerobic activities, like running, walking elliptical, etc. I actually wear a separate Polar HR monitor on my arm as a back-up reference. 

Your first couple of screenshots look "normal-ish". Not great, I know, as you might expect a smoother ramp up. It's possibly an issue with the algorithm that calculates the HR and has to figure out that things are changing.

Some other possibilities:

• Make sure the band is snug on your wrist, above the wrist bone, more on the meatier part of your arm. If te tracker is moving around, it won't register HR well. I can see this b/c I know my forearm swells a bit as I workout, either lifting weights, or from swinging my arms as I run.
• Do you have darker skin tone or tattoos? These can be problematic for optical HR monitors, which mostly think people have pasty skin.

This is one where mine mis-behaved recently.

[versa3by]

Dear Charleskn,

Thank you for your post. Seems like you have a Charge 5 and I have a Versa 3.  In my case, the irregularities at the beginning of a workout are most of the time. In your case, its seem to happen only occasionally. Not sure if that is due to use having different models.  My band is snug and above the wrist bone and I don't have darker skin or tatoos. The line graphs don't look normal to me particularly when I compare it another reference point and it find it is not even close to another measure in real time.  The gyrations up and down that you can see in the graphs in the early part of the workout do not reflect the real heartbeat. I think T.Parker's comparison does a good job of illustrating the problem. This unfortunately throws off the summary data such as the avg heartbeat over the entire workout and the amount of time in each of the heart rate zones. If it is a question of the algorithm that calculates the HR, as you suggest, it would be great if Fitbit could look into this and correct it.

[charleskn]

@versa3by I do not disagree. There is something amiss, IMO, in your case. Assuming you have tried resetting the device, it's up-to-date on firmware, etc. I would reach our and complain to customer support. Good luck.