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Workout vs Bootcamp vs Circuit Training

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Im pretty sure this question has been asked before but what is the main difference between: Workout - Circuit Training - Boot Camp. Every other exercise is self explanatory but these exercises are vague and don't provide a hint as to what exactly they track or hey compute your activity. How do they differ on Fitbit? When you should I use which?

Currently I doing a program that involves a quick 10 minute high intensity warmup and they we move on to many different stations and perform different exercises. For example on Mondays we do upper body so each station will feature an upper body workout that involves either weights (kettle bells, Dumbbells, barbell), TRX, or using your own body weight like push-ups. On Tuesdays we would incorporate the 10 minute warm once again but this time the focus is on the lower body, using weights, TRX and own body weight. No matter what day it is in between exercises we perform some type of aerobic exercise (push-ups, High knees, planks, jumping jacks, mountain climbers) in between stations to keep our Heart rate up.

What type of workout is this? Which option should I use on my Fitbit: workout, circuit training, or Bootcamp?
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Hello @sauloibarra, welcome aboard to our community. Your post caught my attention, so I'd investigate a little about your questions and here are my thoughts. So far I know circuit training is the most time efficient way to enhance cardiovascular fitness and muscle endurance. It will helps to achieve fitness goals and maintain them longer than other forms of exercise or diet.

 

With Boot Camp training, these are programs designed to build strength and fitness through a variety of intense group intervals over a 1 hour period of time designed by personal trainers or gyms.These two are very similar but the purpose of each one, focus in different needs, since one is more for strength and the other is for cardiovascular activity.

 

Workout exercise refers to more general set of exercises, that do not fall in any of the other categories explained. I personally use Workout category for weight lifting, as I'm not doing any specific exercise beyond this. I could say your exercise session are designed more for strength so I would say is oriented as a Boot Camp training. Although this is just my opinion based on what I found and your post explained.

 

Hope this give you some of information and wish you the best. Keep me posted how it goes.

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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Thank you for your insights. What about high intensity programs lie Insanity or Max Out 30 with Shaun T? This is program consist of a lot of push ups, planks, legs exercise, abs and cardio. Is that Bootcamp? Thanks.

 

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Hi there @LuisGonzalez, welcome aboard to our Community. Allow me to apologize with you for my delay to reply to your post. With programs with high intensity like the one you mentioned that gather a group of exercise to build strength and fitness; in my personal opinion I will go with using the exercise options of the tracker. If you are using a Blaze the option would be "Workout" as I mentioned before, it will cover a general group of exercises. Note that the intensity wont be based on the type of activity but on your heart rate zones and the intensity itself you put on an exercise.

 

As an additional note, you can always create a custom activity directly from your Dashboard that will served for the same purpose. If you need more information take a look at one of my previous posts here.

 

Let me know if I can share more ideas with you and hope to see you around.

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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So, really, there's no official answer to this question?

 

If FitBit offers the different tracking types, they should also offer an explanation on when to use each one.  Is there anything functionally different in the tracking between "Bootcamp," "Workout," or "Circuit Training"?  It seems like they all track HR w/o GPS.

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Hi there @cannoncd, I see what you mean and thank you for joining us on this thread and share your feedback.

 

In fact there is not an official response since many of the features of the trackers and mobile app is subjective to the use of each user.

 

To explain better this I will start to give you an example: I may prefer to use "Workout" instead of "Weights" to track my exercise at the gym. But there might be other users who actually prefers "Weights" to track this exercise. Note that the final result wont change beyond giving you other details of the exercise depending of the activity, as you mentioned on your post; since other exercises can add GPS data too.

 

Not all the exercises can track GPS data, specially when we are talking about high intensity activities.The only difference in the examples you mentioned is that it will describe better the exercise, but as I mentioned before, the final result should be the same since these activities help to improve the accuracy of the activity's contribution to your caloric bur.

 

For any additional comments, feel free to keep me posted. I'll be around.Robot wink

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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Hi all,
What about when you are using ShaunT exercise (floor exercise, push-ups, jumping jacks, running in place, etc) is that boot camp, circuit or ?? Thanks
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Hi there @LuisGonzalez, good to see you again. The exercises you are mentioning in my personal opinion I think it will fall in the category of Circuit Training if you are using a Surge, or if you have a Blaze or other tracker that does not have this exercise shortcut, it would be Workout to cover a general group of exercises. But as I mentioned before, the final result should be the same as the type of exercise does not change the rate on how you burn calories.

 

Please refer to my earliest post of this thread about the difference of Circuit and Boot Camp training for additional help.

 

Catch ya later and stay awesome fellows. Let me know if you have additional questions.

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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This doesn't answer the question as to what the Fitbit does for each exercise type. Obviously the exercise types are different, but does Fitbit do anything differently depending on which choice is selected? Does it count calories differently? Does it do nothing differently?

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From what I understand, it doesn't do anything differently.  The different categories are purely for the users organization of activity.

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@Csf3232, I'm glad you have joined to our Community and I'm sorry you haven't found a response for your concerns. In my previous post, I tried to explain the different categories does not change the rate on how you burn calories.

 

This information is as @cannoncd said before. Is for organization of activity as the calories are managed mostly by the demographic configuration of your Fitbit account.

 

Hope this helps and let me know if there are more questions.

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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Yes, I have similar questions/concerns.  Using Carge 2.  What does fitbit measure when you are using Workout.  What does fitbit measure when you are using Weights.  What does fitbit measure using Bootcamp; etc. etc. Does it count steps in some modes?  Does the fitbit become more sensitive to arm movement in cetain modes?  If you are using weights what does fitbit measure?  

It does seem useless to have the different modes if all it is doing is measuring duration and heart rate. I don't need the fitbit if that's all it's doing for me.  I have been tracking all of the other stuff on my own for years.

Perhaps fitbit should think about addressing this in future software upgrades.

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I believe the FitBit face will tell you what is measured for each
category. In some cases, it might just be motion, in others it might be
motion and heart rate. The "type" of workout is strictly for your history
of what type of workout was performed. Steps should be counted regardless
of the workout. I highly doubt the sensitivity of the motion tracker is
changed for different workout types.
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I think the question was referring to the FITBIT and how it records the data...

 

AGREED! Why isn't there a simple one-page chart explaining the exercises? There is no swim log... no sexual activity log.... so although I'm very fit and active, according to my Fitbit I'm not hitting m,y goals. If the options aren't standard at least make them available.

 

 

Moderator edit: merged reply

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No I see the point. The Fitbit tracks the same regardless. You choose your categories to track your type yourself. It makes sense. I can go back to my activity log and not just see exercise listed 4 times each day. Now I see walk, yoga, aerobics, bootcamp. So I know what I've done. It might all be exercise and activity to the Fitbit but it's definitely different programs for me. So by choosing my own categories I can see what's making me feel fit but not overtired. What's making me sleep better. Part of the journey is making yourself more aware of what you're doing.  

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So actually by selecting different activity the only thing that changes is the name of the activity recorded?

For ex. if I exercise in the treadmill and I record that as simple Workout it will not track or calculate HR/calories etc in a different way that recording as Treadmill. It will just record the exercise as Workout. 

Do I get it right?

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Yep, exactly!
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This has been the most helpful thread! Was so confused if with each activity if FITBIT logged the HR and calories burned etc differently. Glad to know FITBIT doesn't. Makes choosing a workout activity less daunting. I was always worried I was logging it wrong and therefore getting in correct info. 

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You would think that the Fitbit tracker could be programmed with a different algorithm for each different kind of exercise (e.g., run, weight lifting, bootcamp, pilates, circuit training), in order to better detect the movements associated with the different types of exercise.  

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Hello @QuantSelf, good to see you here in this topic. I know it can be a tricky subject as I've been reading all the post and comments here.

 

When you select a category of exercise it does not mean it won't do anything beyond changing the name. No this is not the case; each category indeed will help you to know what activity did you do during the day. It wont change the algorithm or the rate your are burning calories or how your heart rate is being recorded.

 

These stats are based on your demographic information registered on your account configuration. The heart rate, including other data like active minutes depend also on the intensity of the exercise and how much effort you invest in a period of time. This works equally in all the trackers regardless of the activity you are choosing.

 

Now this is the part I want to clarify, with the categorization of your exercise you are telling your tracker which stats will be more important to show. With some type of exercise you will get additional information that you won't get with other activities. (This will depend of the activity itself.) It doesn't mean some stats will be skipped though. It will only prioritize the data is showing you in summary but either if you are looking this through the app or the online-Dashboard, you ca get all the details of the exercise.

 

I think a good reply to summarize my words, is like @ConnieRea said before on her post.

 

See you later and I will be reading your future comments.

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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