Heart Rate Errors

[YachatsMike]

I sometimes get wildly out of range heart rates from my Inspire 3.  For instance, during my treadmill exercise today, it recorded several minutes at 180 bpm.  The display showed my heart rate jumping from 120 to 180 and staying there for several minutes and then dropping quickly back to the 120 range.  I was not exercising any harder nor did I feel like I was exerting any more during the excursion.  I wrote it off as a measurement error.  On other occasions I have seen mystery drops from 120 to 80 or 90 and then a quick recovery to 120 again where I drew the same conclusion.

I am trying to adjust the position of the inspire 3 to higher on my forearm and tightening the strap and it seems to help but then days like today happen and I am stumped to explain why.  Does anyone have any more suggestions for preventing over-counts and under-counts?  Every time I  have  one, I  start to trust the heart rate display less and less.  When that happens, I wonder why I need a Fitbit at all.

[lmacmil]

I have found the heart rate can vary wildly throughout exercise.  I went for a 2.2 mile fast walk today.  For the first 1.5 miles I was getting a pretty steady 135 bpm heart rate.  Suddenly my rate dropped to around 110 bpm even though my pace stayed the same.  The route is mostly flat so it wasn't an uphill vs downhill thing.  I see this more often when walking than I do when running.  I assume the tracker has shifted under my jacket.  I don't worry about it, I think it's just the nature of the beast.

[YachatsMike]

I hear you. Just went for a brisk 2-mile walk. It usually clocks in at about 110. Today, 87 avg with big dropouts.

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[YachatsMike]

Okay -- before I  got on the treadmill today, I cleaned the back of the watch and my forearm with a disinfectant wipe.  I put the watch 1 1/2 fingers above my wrist bone tight enough that I could not slide it up or down.

After 52 minutes on the mill, record looked perfect.

[lmacmil]

I'm impressed you spent 52 minutes on the treadmill!

[YachatsMike]

I'm a walker, not a runner. 76-year-old knees can't take the pounding anymore. 12 minutes are warm up and cool down. 40 minutes are 5x2 intervals where I step up to 3.8 mph @ 12% grade and then work my way back down. It helps to listen to Rock Drive Music on Spotify.

It keeps me in Zone 3-4.



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[lmacmil]

Up until surgery last fall, I was running 3 or 4 days a week (I'm 75).  The recovery was slower than I had hoped and I only ran 8 times in the 2 months post-surgery.  At our age, you lose the "training effect" pretty quickly.  I'm still not back to where I was and my heart rate while running is about 20 bpm higher than it was before.  I have shifted to mostly walking outdoors at a pretty brisk pace (about 13:30 per mile) that gets my heart rate up in the 130 bpm range.  I use the Fitbit mainly just to track steps and during exercise, the time and average heart rate.  When it dies, I'll go back to the $25 Amazon tracker I was using before I got the Fitbit (free from my Medicare Advantage plan.)

[YachatsMike]

Sounds like we"re on the same track. I work to about the same heart rates. I like the gps on my Fitbit when I walk.

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[lmacmil]

I agree about the GPS.  It's neat to have a map of your route and be able to see how the heart rate varies during the walk.  

[lmacmil]

Today and Saturday I walked the same route.  Time was within 4 seconds (!) and step count differed by only 11.  Yet my heart rate Saturday was 131 and today was 105.  The only difference was the jacket and gloves which I am going to assume affected how the Fitbit sat on my wrist.  A lot more variability in the heart rate today vs what is typical even though I walk at a pretty steady pace.  I guess we've beaten this topic to death!