Does Ionic track reps/sets for weighlifting?

[CopperWolf808]

Will the Ionic be able to track weight lifting like reps/sets and weight?

Moderator edit: edited title for clarity

[Dominique]

Educated guess: no.

IMO, these are best tracked using an old-fashioned notebook (though I know there are dedicated apps for that).

If you mean things like calories, weightlifting is typically anaerobic, so your HR during workouts won’t be of much help. Plus your Fitbit would have a hard time detecting how heavy you’re lifting. You just have to accept the primary goal of weightlifting is not to burn calories, it’s to build (or maintain) muscle & strength. Calories burned are just a (relatively small) by-product.

[bbarrera]

---

@Dominique wrote:

IMO, these are best tracked using an old-fashioned notebook (though I know there are dedicated apps for that).

---

Sell your Fitbit and start using a $5 pedometer and track steps in a notebook! Fitbit doesn't track 5k running pace or VO2max over time, I guess those are best tracked using an old fashioned notebook?

[Dominique]

As I see it, Fitbit trackers aren’t sport watches aimed at high-performance athletes. They’re more activity trackers aimed at the general population, people interested in living a healthier life. If you’re you’re a high-performance athlete yourself and need to track things like VO2Max over time, I’m sure there are sport watches from other brands (maybe Garmin, Polar, Suunto) that can do that and may serve you better than the Ionic. I’m not a high-performance athlete, my Fitbit serves me well and I have no need to get rid of it. I lift weights and use an old-fashioned notebook to log my workouts. I don’t see this manual logging and tracking my overall activity with my Fitbit as being mutually exclusive.

[CopperWolf808]

Thank you all for your replies. I was wondering about this because someone in another thread mentioned that her AW tracks this. I guess I am sticking to my notebooks! 🙂

Ps. Still getting the Ionic

[Dominique]

---

@CopperWolf808 wrote:

Ps. Still getting the Ionic

---

Makes perfect sense to me: even if you lift weights five hours each week, and the Ionic can’t track that optimally, that still leaves 163 hours to track!

[CopperWolf808]

Exactly! So stoked on getting my first Fitbit and it will ne a nice birthday present to myself. Can't wait to start tracking! I was normally using the pedometer on my phone but you know how those are lol

[bbarrera]

@Dominique I find it odd for someone that clearly enjoys tracking steps/etc to be so dismissive about tracking weights/reps/sets. You don't need to do it on the wrist, I started 3 years ago using my phone and Fitocracy app. Great app and great community. More recently I've been using Strong app because while recording a routine its easy to see what I did last time in the gym (and you can track on AW).

None of that has anything to do with being a high-performance athlete. Fitbit tracks  steps/calories/steppingMiles, and makes it easy to pull up week/month/3month/year graphs for seeing trends. At least for me, as a cyclist, its frustrating that 'activity tracking' in Fitbit world is really code for 'step tracking' as I can't see graphs of cycling miles. Fitbit app, how much CrossFit did I do last month? I don't know. Fitbit app, how many miles did I ride last month? I don't know. But I can show you how many steps or calories or step miles from the last month. Same for VO2max. It is inconsistent, Fitbit if you are going to track and graph stuff then please be consistent. 

Ionic looks like a winner for Fitbit faithful, I've really enjoyed AW for two years and glad that my Fitbit friends will have a chance to enjoy a smartwatch.

[SunsetRunner]

The iconic looks to be a SURGE replacement and a cross between the Blaze. In the commercial on the website, it hints at it being able to track reps by showing a guy working out using the Fitstar Workout Program. I'm not sure if it will or will not but that's what they hinted towards in the video. If you're looking to track reps/sets and weight EVEN Vo2Max, there are wrist based devises that will do the trick. Check out the following:
https://www.thisisbeast.com/en
https://www.atlaswearables.com/
http://mashable.com/2017/05/16/garmin-vivosmart3-review/#Sj6Ll5KwlPq4
Polar has the M600 Android watch where you can download apps that will track your reps/sets along with any android watch and Apple Smartwatch. There are many forums with people asking, suggesting that feature AT LEAST be added to the dashboard. Don't hold your breath. Fitbit won't even partner with Apple Healthkit or Samsung Health.

[bbarrera]

Years ago I was a Fitstar paid user, and while it only supported bodyweight exercises from the iPhone app you could adjust the plan's reps and time to what you actually did (plus how it felt / perceived level of exertion). Then Fitstar uses actual reps/time and exertion feedback to adjust the plan for the next session. That didn't make it to the Blaze, would be nice to see at least that info added to Fitbit dashboard and Ionic.

[ErickFitbit · Accepted solution]

@CopperWolf808 For more active users who want to ensure you’re optimizing each workout, Exercise Mode lets you track specific activities like weights and view real-time stats based on the activity on the device. While using Exercise Mode, you will get more precise heart rate tracking, see what heart rate zone you’re working in, and view post-workout summaries on-device to see how all of your efforts add up.

Ionic does not track reps and sets but I recommend voting for this existing idea in our Feature Suggestions board. The more votes the ideas receive, the more likely they are to be considered in future releases for implementation.

[WavyDavey]

As someone who's tried some of the competing products that claim to count sets and reps, I hope Fitbit doesn't implement it. The tech isn't there yet. Typically, these trackers will miss or add reps, which will have to be edited later. Also, you'd need to put the weight in manually, since they aren't aware of the weights you may be using.

[runwithnewmedia]

@WavyDavey Have you tried the Atlas watch? https://www.atlaswearables.com I saw a demo at SXSW a few years ago and was fairly impressed by its ability to identify exercises and count reps. (It's ugly as sin though)

[WavyDavey]

@runwithnewmedia,

I haven't tried that specific one, and agree it's not very aesthetic. The real-world reviews I saw/read of it, weren't very impressive.

For me, it comes down to, does this device measure with 100% accuracy most of the time? I'm not that interested in editing a device's tracking. Currently, I use FitNotes, which has some nice charting and graphing to monitor progress.

[SunsetRunner]

the fitbit ionic and the fitbit coach will turn me into a high performance athlete !  

at least compared to where I'm at now !

[hadesjack]

Even if it does not count the repetitions, I would like to be able to easily choose its execution with an illustration and to be able to manually add my number of repetition and the weight, the tracker used for the cardiac activity, the duration of the exercise

[CopperWolf808]

---

@hadesjack wrote:
Even if it does not count the repetitions, I would like to be able to easily choose its execution with an illustration and to be able to manually add my number of repetition and the weight, the tracker used for the cardiac activity, the duration of the exercise

---

Exactly! Thank you! I just want to be able to see everything from one place/app. IIRC you can input weight but not reps or sets.

[HyperV]

It's interesting to read this thread.  As I am also mostly a weight lifter, and I would like to add one vote to having some tighter integration for the weight lifters who has an Ionic.

I guess what I am looking for are two things:

1. Ability to enter my own weight reps/sets on the watch (so I don't need to bust out the phone or even carry it with me while I work out).  E.g. I also use the Strong app, if I can, for example, get a weight lifting app on Ionic that syncs a weight training workout I am going to do, then, during workout I can use the app ON THE IONIC to enter in sets, and count down rest times etc..  I guess this is mostly left to someone working on a 3rd party app to spend some cycles developing something on the watch directly, but it would be nice to have this so I don't need to carry my phone.

2. As mentioned before, other than #1 what I would like is a holistic view of all the exercises that I have performed say, in a week, and since a big majority of that is weight training, if I can see what I did, with the steps I took, or other exercises etc, and (however inaccurately) how my calorie consumption and intake matches to that, that would be the ultimate dream for me.  right now it all has to be managed in a number of different places, it would be nice, if all this can be aggregated in one location (and I think seeing it in the fitbit app or in the fitbit website should be the right place)...

[SunsetRunner]

 I currently own the Atlas 2 wearable. While it has its issues and it's big , for me, it's the best on the Market. The thing I love the most is, they know they're not perfect and they know the tech is not totally there yet, but the CEO is sooo accessible, he makes you feel like you're a part of development. So while you will have to make some adjustments, you can just hit Mr. Peter Li and tell him what the issue is and i swear you will hear from him within the same day. On top of that, he will do everything he can to resolve YOUR issue. 

I personally haven't had that many issues with the watch itself. I do not use it to track runs or walking (it can) I use my Charge 2 for that. I use the Atlas strictly for weight lifting. As soon as I'm done with a set, I immediately enter my reps and the weight right on the watch. It's great for me. 

I'veused other weight lifting apps but for the people in this forum, on this thread particularly is not the integration of the technology into Fitbits devices, it's having your information in ONE place. They don't have to add rep tracking tech to the Ionic or any of their devices, just give people the ability to add the info themselves on their dashboard via the phone app and it sync to the online dashboard with something to track progress. That's it. Personally, I don't like having to use 2 different devices for my workouts. I especially don't like having to use 2 different apps for tracking that don't sync with each other. Give me one device with one app or just give me the one dashboard where I can at minimum, enter the information myself. This is why I'm thinking of getting the Garmin Vevo 3, it's all of what I said. Tracking steps, runs (Garmin has proven to be really good at those 2 things) and it tracks reps, sets AND you only have 1 dashboard. Hell if I get that i won't need my Atlas anymore either. 

[Harboe]

I hope they add weight lifting exercise recondition.

Android Wear has it via Google Fit and it learn from you over time. When you do an exercise and it guesses wrong, you can correct it and after a few times doing this, it actually gets surprisingly good.