Swimming, Heart Rate data collection

[SteveMarshall]

Any updates on its ability/inability to record Heart Rate in water and/or buffer and send out of water at the end of session ?

I have my iphone 7plus in belt while swimming, and I am looking for THE LATEST smartwatch/tracker that will send live/buffered from wrist watch

[POTATOEMAN]

I did read a review where they said heart rate tracking worked during swimming....that is contrary to everything else I have heard. I'll try to find the link.

"In the pool, however, it works a treat. As with running and cycling, detailed stats are available on the app once you’ve completed your swim, including lap count, duration, a breakdown of calories burned and your heart rate data."

http://www.coachmag.co.uk/wearable-technology/6933/fitbit-ionic-fitness-tracker-hands-on-review

[SteveMarshall]

Thanks for your response 

Hopefully we can have others here that are using for swimming, to let us know how they are getting on and their experience with HR recording pros and cons etc...

So, any swimmer users, please let us all know how the Iconic functions

in/under/after water

and the HR logging along with the lap etc etc data,

and how they use their app/phone/pad/etc to record, including if on a belt or at side of pool and distance, etc..

Thanks in advance community 

[datalore]

I don't know of any smartwatch that tracks heart rate under water without the use of a chest strap. The water interferes with the light I think. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm mistaken, but I think you can't track heart rate in water without a chest strap. I know garmin has a set-up that uses a chest strap to connect with a watch to get an accurate heart rate. I'm currently training for a long swim, and I'm more interested in SWOLF score than heart rate honestly. I just like having a SWOLF score as a benchmark; even though I think it can be slightly misleading. But, I digress; to answer your question I don't think the ionic will track heart rate under water.  If I'm wrong; I'm sure someone will log-in and set me straight. 

[SunsetRunner]

While swimming the Ionic only tracks time, distance and lengths, with pace (average) and calories burned at the end of the activity (presumably estimated using distance and pace and your personal metrics) 

[agsurf5]

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

While swimming the Ionic only tracks time, distance and lengths, with pace (average) and calories burned at the end of the activity (presumably estimated using distance and pace and your personal metrics) 

---

The garmin fenix 5 tracks HR while swimming, even if it is not precise as a chest strap.
On the Ionic, can you create a custom activity that tracks HR while swimming. And as well as GPS data while in the water (e.g. SUP, surfing, and so on)?

[Pd1972]

I took my Ionic swimming yesterday... At the end it gave me an average heart rate for the session. So... Either there's some sort of guestimate here or it's recording some data. It doesn't give details though like it does for cycling and running.

[MattyW]

I swam today - it was apparently tracking my HR, but I think the reading was low to be honest

[SteveMarshall]

MattyW,

Does Iconic track a normal (not lower), heart rate on non-under-water exercises ? are you able to test/compare/benchmark ?

Did Iconic fully track the heart rate over the swim recording ?

Do you have a snap/screenshot of the full swim recording ?

Does the Iconic under-the-water affect the screen ability ?

Were you able to test if the watch was reading and phone was capturing real-time while holding both under water ? or did it buffer/save/store in watch then send to phone when out of water ?

Thanks

[SteveMarshall]

Pd1972

,

So there was no HR measurement trace of the variance on a plot/graph along with session time ?, just and average score ?

Do you have a screenshot ?

[SteveMarshall]

agsurf5,

Do you have screenshots of the Custom HR swim activity setup and an actual recording ?

[SteveMarshall]

datalore

I think it is something to do with the frequency and maybe the ant+ thing, not the light, that determines the under-water transmit/receive-ability as the older polar equipment was good at live tracking.

Most reviews are unclear about this underwater transmit-ability so I am asking the experienced community, to help me and others with this functionality.

[Pd1972]

Steve.. Here's the screenshot! 

[datalore]

You're a fairly fast swimmer; decent 100 time. 

[SteveMarshall]

Pd1972

Good screenshots.

Any HR plotted over-time-graphs or just a summary average ?

Yeah, my jogging tick-over (not the average, but the bpm i feel comfortable at), is 157 BPM

I am not a good swimmer, but want to get good, my upper does most of the work as my legs technique is lazy, yes I need some teaching lol.

I use runtastic app, an iPhone 7 plus, and an Adidas Fit_Smart tracker, and have this waterproof iphone in a flipbelt with me swimmimg, but l lift myself out of water onto side of pool during laps to buffer-send data.

This session was completed over a total of 1hr 10min (but as 10x 50 meters = 1 x 50meters every 5 mins start to start): 
Breast stroke only.
Routine is to do 1 x 50meter length (50meters or 2x25meters if pool is split-up) every 5 minutes, start to start (as my technique is not good, never was a swimmer, but membership includes swimming, so lol), and this is a good CV exercise for me.
FYI
PB breast stroke: 1min 36sec for 50meter
( Initially 1:46 PB ).

https://www.runtastic.com/en/users/653d86ee-af62-d1e2-cb15-b90d4ce10cda/sport-sessions/591c7dbb34f12...

[Pd1972]

Cheers- would like to be a lot faster! Interestingly the Fitbit time is
pretty much bang on the time my Garmin used to give so pace seems OK... But
distance measure is a country mile off- how can 2.26 per 100m average for
21 mins = 425m Off swimming tomorrow so will see if it's a quirk. Would be
good to get some other metrics like strokes per min or a measure like SWOLF.

[bbarrera]

@SteveMarshall I’ve used Wahoo Tickrx in the pool, it buffers up to 16 hours of HR data. Garmin has a swimming chest strap HRM that also buffers for syncing after you finish swimming. 

The problem with Bluetooth while swimming is that water absorbs RF energy at 2.4GHz and blocks the signal. It’s the same principle used to heat water in a microwave oven.  

[datalore]

---

@Pd1972 wrote:
Cheers- would like to be a lot faster! Interestingly the Fitbit time is
pretty much bang on the time my Garmin used to give so pace seems OK... But
distance measure is a country mile off- how can 2.26 per 100m average for
21 mins = 425m Off swimming tomorrow so will see if it's a quirk. Would be
good to get some other metrics like strokes per min or a measure like SWOLF.

---

Yeah, noticed the times were a little off, but thought maybe you were just hanging out in the water. I'm with you on SWOLF score; I'd really like to see that feature on the ionic. Speed comes with practice, I guess. That's what they keep telling me, but I'm not sure I believe it. I love swimming and I'm training for a 1 mile open water swim, so I'll need to track my pool time. Are you happy with the watch so far, or is the jury still out?

[Pd1972]

Wonder how ionic does in open water?

I used to swim long sessions of 2.5-3k but was finding it boring and never
saw much improvement. Short sets work loads better.

Jury is still out... As a watch it's great and probably is as a fitness
tracker but I do miss having some of the granular metrics. Notifications,
music and wallet don't really work for me so will be keeping a close eye on
the 45day return window. On the plus side- have barely charged it and love
the display and sleep tracking; works well when cycling- off for a run soon
to test intervals.


How are you finding it?

[bbarrera]

Fitbit told DCRainmaker that gps wasn’t accurate enough when swimming in open water. I’m sure we will see some reviewers and users test it and report results.