Comparing Garmin Vivoactive HR and Fitbit Blaze for HIIT
I have been using a Fitbit Blaze for my activity tracking for the past year and half.
My workout activity each week is typically 4–5 days of High Intensity Interval Training at Tri Valley Trainer and 1–2 days of biking and / or hiking. Biking and hiking go up during friendlier months to do those activities.
I like the Blaze for HIIT workouts and general heart rate monitoring, however it fails for tracking biking.
For instance, compare the two bike rides:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1021078790
and
https://www.strava.com/activities/1011452198
They are separated by a week, I did not get 30% faster in one week, the top activity was tracked by a Garmin Edge 25 and the bottom activity was tracked by the Fitbit Blaze tethered to my iPhone.
Fitbit does not even get the basic moving time information correctly and its OCX format transfer is broken somewhat.
Likewise, this was my hike to the summit of Mt.Diablo:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1052391688
See that near vertical drop? That is data lost. The Fitbit Blaze is all but useless for hiking and biking — at least to me.
I have been intrigued by the Garmin Vivoactive HR — as the one device to track all activities, at least hiking, biking and HIIT for me.
Here is the same workout from Garmin using the built in strength training app:
and Fitbit:
In general, the HR reported by Garmin is much lower than Fitbit. This workout was broken down into the following sets of 1/1.5 min followed by a 30 sec break:
- Lunges with a 12lb medicine ball overhead
- Squat jacks
- Dead lifts
- Lunges with a 12lb medicine ball overhead
- Squat jacks
- Dead lifts
- Ball slams
- Lunge curls
- Pull overs for back
- Ball slams
- Lunge curls
- Pull overs for back
- Bridges
- Tricep extensions with a squat swing
- Pushups
- Bridges
- Tricep extensions with a squat swing
- Pushups
If you notice the pattern, there are activities that push your heart rate way up followed by a strength training routine that slows down your heart rate. This is typical of my HIIT workouts.
I was monitoring the HR reported by the Garmin (left wrist) and Fitbit (right wrist). The Garmin was lagging reporting the HR by over 20 seconds and the Fitbit was reacting quicker. Given the nature of these quick bursts, by the time Garmin reports the correct heart rate, I was in the resting zone and it is incorrect.
I suspect the Garmin has been optimized for steady heart rate conditions where the heart rate remains steady and grows / shrinks gradually such as biking and running. I see a lot of rounding of the numbers happening.
I am going to redo this exercise with a Garmin chest strap on next week and see if it makes a difference.
I would also like to try using a different tracking application like the X-Fit app on the Garmin. I will post those results later.
