step counts while sitting and drumming

[sshouston]

I have a bit of a problem here...I play Indian persussion instruments (drums/tabla)...Today I played drums for an hour and I raked 4000 steps while sitting and drumming. I saw some posts where folks were unhappy about less than a 100 steps during a drive which is not be a big deal for me. It even counts few steps even during sleep...no issue there too. But few thousand steps is a big deal...Is there any solution other than taking it off while drumming???

[MikeF · Accepted solution]

No. It's strapped to your wrist and so counts steps based on the movement of your wrist. The impact of stick on drum is suspiciously close to the impact of foot on ground as far as your Fitbit is concerned so this gets counted.

if you really want to try and eliminate steps for a time period, loggingg a manual 'driving' entry via the app is about your only option.

[sshouston]

Thanks Mike...They should add a DRIVE or some STATIONARY activity just like the exercise shortcuts so that I can manually activate it on the device before the drumming sessions. This would be a good enhancement.

[Thenewplaid]

I've had the same issue!

[Thenewplaid]

How do you log driving?

[Thenewplaid]

Oooh, sorry, found it. So it won't log steps while I have driving activated? Thanks for the tip!

[Drumser]

I play drums utilizing both arms and legs. There are times this is a highly cardio driven activity and the heart rate is higher. However, the gauge for such activity (even though flattering to clock in 14k steps) is not realistic. Since some hand movements are not as physical as others. There needs to be a better sensitivity gauge on this device to measure the intensity of the overall body movements. 

[vinnie2k]

Vote for this enhancement:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Drum-Tracking/idc-p/2505474#M151034

[Jeromebrn]

Hi, I just tried to edit a past activity of drumming). So i changed it to "driving" expecting steps to get deleted. But steps seem to remain counted with this activity.

Does it only work when activity is started at the beginning? And then, not with editing old activities?

[Jeromebrn]

Can someone light me? I started drumming activity using "weight" option. After 30 min, it was displaying more than 3000 steps.

I've read here that "weight" mode doesn't count steps.

All i want to know, in the end, is: "does the number of burned calories correct for this activity?"

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Jeromebrn Welcome! It's nice to have you on board! Sorry to hear that your Drumming activity is counting steps. You can't delete steps but you can negate them by logging a driving activity (instead of using any other type like weights). Please follow these instructions to negate these steps.

Let me know how it goes!

[Jeromebrn]

Hi, thank you for answering.

I tried to negate my steps as you advised: here are the results:

Before negating:

23 min Drum activity: +/- 240 calories burnt /// 2900 steps counted

After:

23 min Drum activity: 69 calories burnt

23 min Driving activity: 47 calories burnt

no steps counted

==> A total of 116 calories burnt instead of 240. Is this normal?

[reddusk]

same here are the steps counted meaning more calories burned?

[sugglew]

Theoretically I think what we need for drumming is something that tracks heart rate but not steps. I’ve tested rowing, boxing, workout, yoga and Pilates with 1 hour 20 mins of activity with avg HR of 125BPM.

- rowing was off the charts

- Boxing (which in retrospect does count steps I guess) way overestimates at 999kcals

- Workout at 509kcals seems excessive

- yoga at 364kcals also seems excessive

 - pilates seems reasonable at 262kcals

Hope that helps.