Choosing an Exercise Mode

[TLSt0ner]

How do I know what exercise mode to pick when manually picking an exercise mode? 

For example, I do alot of Cardio combined with weights.  Would that be bootcamp, circiut training, or "workout".  The auto tracking seems to only pick up aerobic which is not accurate when combined with weights due to the high variance in intensity.

What type of workout is Bootcamp and Circuit Training intended for what is the general "workout" mode?

[Julia_G · Accepted solution]

Hi, @TLSt0ner , yu are right in thinking that the auto recognized actvities are not rally appropriate for a mixed workout, as the detection may not be consistent enough to track accurately.  They really work best for step based activities, or at least activities with significant forward motion (like biking).

For circuits, intervals, weights, yoga, a mixed gym workout, etc, the exercise tracking facility is really best to use.

However, these are really just labels, to help you keep a record of what you did when.  The details, and the way your Fitbit tracks, will be the same whatever label you choose.  The important detail will be in what your Fitbit detects: time, heartrate graph, steps and distance (where appropriate), calories.

I particularly like to track simply using “workout”.  The workout label is designed so that yu can rename it to anything that is helpful and meaningful to you: “gym session” “my workout” , “piano practice” — even “meditation” or “panic attack” — just because it is called “workout” doesn’t mean it has to be one in the conventional sense.  You can track any time you would like to capture and record a particular period of time when you would like to see your heart rate and other stats for that time period... 

If you would like t customize yur activity labels, you must first create a custom activity.  Yu need to do this in your web based dashboard (there’s a link on the top right of every page in the Community Forums).  Choose dashboard —> log —> Activities and find create custom activity on the bottom right.  

Although you can only create a custom activity on the web based dashboard, once created you can find it and log it in the app.

So then just track youe exercise as a “workout”, and once it is synced, simply click on edit to rename and your custom activity “gym session” or whatever, will be there fir you to choose.

Alternatively, just go ahead and track as circuits or bootcamp or whatever.  The stats will be the same.

I hope this has given yu the information you need to get the Fitbit working just the way you like it, but if not, please post again — there is always someone here to help.

Welcome to the forums!

[TLSt0ner]

@Julia_G this is super helpful- thank you very much! 👏😁

[Julia_G]

Hi, @TLSt0ner , I'm glad that gave you the information you needed.  Just ask again if you have any questions. 

[_whataboutbob]

Thanks for the info, I was able to create custom exercises on the web but couldn't get them to sync to the iOS app, they don't show up in Excercise Shortcuts, any idea?

[Julia_G]

Hi, @_whataboutbob , it is not possible to add custom activities to the exercise shortcuts.  You must instead track your exercise as a “workout” and when the workout has synced to your app you simply rename (categorize) it using the edit facility.  Simply type your custom activity in the search box and it will appear and you can select it.  This may sound a little cumbersome, but in practice it until takes a moment.