Anyone use an Apple Watch for indoor rowing?

[JGJG]

Just wondering if the HR sensor is up to snuff?

Received wisdom is that you need a chest or arm strap for the rower, and that a wrist based HR monitor won’t offer sufficient accuracy. Is that still the case, or has Apple got it sorted?

Any real world experience appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[stooo]

I do and I dont.

I record the workout using the watch so it appears on my activity, but I use a HRM (or not if I forget) for HR display on the rower.

This is all because my Model D can neither send activity to apple nor connect to the watch for HR.

Even my far more modern wattbike won’t use Apple Watch HR.

I do have a chest HR belt for the rower and somehow ended up with an optical arm HR for the wattbike.

A modern chest strap would do both I’d imagine.

[Thewatchbloke]

I use an apple watch on one wrist to record my daily activity and a Garmin on the other to record my heartrate for my concept/strava data. The latest PM5 update automatically starts my apple watch recording when I start rowing so I could update strava and concept using it but using the Garmin is habit now!

[Bravo73]

Received wisdom is that you need a chest or arm strap for the rower, and that a wrist based HR monitor won’t offer sufficient accuracy. Is that still the case, or has Apple got it sorted?

I use an Apple Watch and a Garmin chest strap for indoor cycling.

The BPMs are either the same or within 1 or 2 beats of each other.

[Captain Morgan]

I use a wahoo tickr fit arm optical hrm on my bicep linked to my fenix 5+ when rowing.

It’s not optical hrms themselves that’s the issue, it’s there placement on the wrist & the movements in the rowing stroke that throws off the hr measurement.

[ManCityDG]

I use a wahoo tickr fit arm optical hrm on my bicep linked to my fenix 5+ when rowing.

It’s not optical hrms themselves that’s the issue, it’s there placement on the wrist & the movements in the rowing stroke that throws off the hr measurement.

I agree with this really. I’ve had some very accurate (compared to a chest strap) results but it’s the placement on the wrist that determines the connection. I’m either getting accurate readings or no readings at all

The new ergdata app is great if you find your Apple Watch gives you reliable readings by the way. Assuming you have a concept 2 with a PM5 monitor?

[Captain Morgan]

Nope, waterrower.

At the time I did some basic tests of wrist vs biceps hrm & cycling was minimal difference rowing much more pronounced.

[JGJG]

Nope, waterrower.

At the time I did some basic tests of wrist vs biceps hrm & cycling was minimal difference rowing much more pronounced.

I’m on a WaterRower too, commingling HR data from a Polar Verity Sense with the S4 data from the ComModule.

No problem with it, but I would like to move to a wrist (rather than arm) based solution that covers all activity. That’s why I’d love to hear specifically of any Apple watch users who are getting good results on a rower….

[Captain Morgan]

I’m on a WaterRower too, commingling HR data from a Polar Verity Sense with the S4 data from the ComModule.

No problem with it, but I would like to move to a wrist (rather than arm) based solution that covers all activity. That’s why I’d love to hear specifically of any Apple watch users who are getting good results on a rower….

As per my earlier post.

It’s not optical hrms themselves that’s the issue, it’s there placement on the wrist & the movements in the rowing stroke that throws off the hr measurement.

It’s a long while since I looked at it but iirc some folk were looking at strap extensions to move wrist based devices up to the bicep for rowing.

[JGJG]

As per my earlier post.



It’s a long while since I looked at it but iirc some folk were looking at strap extensions to move wrist based devices up to the bicep for rowing.

Yep I’m kinda doing the opposite, or trying too - Polar have a strap that is *just* too large to fit a wrist ; if I could get something more adjustable it would probably be the answer…

[ptcoll]

My Garmin watch records heart rate pretty well on a rower. Can’t say the same on a bike, when the scrunched up wrist causes problems, which is why I then use a chest strap.

Pete

[Casper]

Yep I do. I link it to the Concept 2 Erg data app on my phone which in connects to the rower and logs all the data including HR.
HR seems pretty accurate imo

[pacifichrono]

Anyone use an Apple Watch for indoor rowing?

I find the Apple watch too small to still on, and there are no oars!

[Thewatchbloke]

Yep I do. I link it to the Concept 2 Erg data app on my phone which in connects to the rower and logs all the data including HR.
HR seems pretty accurate imo

That's my experience with the apple watch, even though I use the Garmin, which is also accurate. Just about to do my daily 10k now!

[JGJG]

Yep I do. I link it to the Concept 2 Erg data app on my phone which in connects to the rower and logs all the data including HR.
HR seems pretty accurate imo

That's my experience with the apple watch, even though I use the Garmin, which is also accurate. Just about to do my daily 10k now!

Excellent info - I’m going to go ahead, though it will be a couple of weeks before I can get one.

As well as hearing that the wrist position is working well, the specs of the sport strap mean I think I could move it up my forearm to improve accuracy if needs be… though that might alter other metrics.

Will report back :)