Garmin’s health-tracking metrics defined – perceive what your smartwatch is telling you
There’s a wealth of wearable sports activities gadgets providing perception into our coronary heart price, respiratory, restoration, coaching, and well being. Of the manufacturers competing on this sphere, Garmin is likely one of the largest and greatest identified – however what are the metrics that Garmin’s smartwatches truly observe? And what are these measurements actually telling you?
I’ve been coaching with a Garmin Fenix 7one of many best smartwatches we’ve examined and one in all Garmin’s high fashions. Right here I’ll take you thru the biomarkers Garmin screens and aid you higher perceive what all these numbers imply to your coaching and recovery.
Resting Coronary heart Price
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Your Resting Coronary heart Price (RHR) is the variety of beats per minute (BPM) your coronary heart performs whereas at relaxation. Elevated ranges can point out a lack of health or that you’re ailing, fatigued or missing in sleep. Usually, a wholesome grownup may have a RHR of between 60-100 BPM. Nonetheless, among the high endurance athletes have been discovered to have a RHR of lower than 30!
A decrease RHR can point out that you’ve got a stronger coronary heart and/or are higher at extracting oxygen from the air, by your lungs, blood, and into tissue. With a big stroke quantity, fewer beats are required to move the identical quantity of oxygen. With higher oxygen utilisation, we require much less blood to be pumped round – so it may be a helpful indicator of cardio health.
The way in which the Garmin Fenix measures that is utilizing an array of inexperienced LED lights on the underside of the watch. That is mirrored off the purple blood cells and may present when your coronary heart beats. A number of research have questioned the accuracy of wrist primarily based HR screens, however the Garmin line has been discovered to be above 95 per cent correct at studying HR at decrease intensities (with some variance at increased intensities).
Coronary heart Price Variability
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Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an indication of how properly your physique’s sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous techniques are functioning. Unpacking that a bit of bit, ‘parasympathetic’ refers back to the system which slows your coronary heart price down, whereas ‘sympathetic’ refers back to the system that will increase your coronary heart price as a part of the struggle or flight response.
Ideally, we would like each to be lively and having enter on our physique – moderately than one system being extra dominant than the opposite. When you may have an excellent stability between the 2 techniques, there may be truly better variability within the time hole between your coronary heart beats – therefore the metric of Coronary heart Price Variability (HRV), which is measured in milliseconds.
There’s usually an excellent vary for every particular person individual, typically coming in between 50-100ms. When your HRV is decrease, this implies that your stress ranges are elevated, or that an sickness is coming, or that your sleep is impaired. The Garmin Fenix also can give a measurement to your general ‘Stress’ by conducting a 3 minute check through which you stand nonetheless and HRV is measured. The Stress rating that the smartwatch determines is available in on a scale between 1 and 100.
The Garmin Fenix solely measures HRV throughout sleep or the Stress check, and it requires the gadget to be worn for 3 weeks consecutively so as to collect an correct baseline. The watch will then offer you a 7-day common rating of Inexperienced (HRV inside vary), Orange (HRV a bit above or beneath), or Crimson (HRV properly out of vary).
Nonetheless, it’s value noting that in our HRV article by Marco Altini, it’s advised that moderately than automated measurements, we’re higher off taking guide ones very first thing within the morning whereas seated to get an correct comparability of HRV from each day – that is the place performing the Stress check could possibly be most helpful for us.
Physique Battery
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Linked to HRV, the Garmin Fenix also can offer you a measure of your ‘Physique Battery’. That is completed utilizing a mix of HRV, Stress rating, sleep high quality, and knowledge from coaching. It’s scored from 0-100 with every 25 level stage going from Low, Medium, Excessive and Very Excessive Power Reserve. It’s a helpful function for anybody because it balances each coaching stress together with whole stress and relaxation.
For an expert rider, they might have a excessive physique battery after a 6 hour experience as they’ll relaxation your entire day and never fear about going into work. For somebody working 9-5, doing an intense one hour interval session within the night might go away you fairly fatigued.
Understanding when your Physique Battery is low might help you make knowledgeable choices about coaching – moderately than doing an excessive amount of with not sufficient relaxation, and changing into ailing or slipping into overtraining.
Sleep
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We all know that to enhance in our efficiency we have to prepare, as coaching stress is the stimulus for our physique to adapt through coaching diversifications. Nonetheless, these diversifications solely happen when the right quantity of relaxation is achieved – and sleep performs an enormous a part of that relaxation equation.
The length of sleep required will differ from individual to individual, in addition to being depending on the extent of coaching or life stress that you just’ve encountered. It might probably additionally change seasonally. Nonetheless, Garmin recommends a blanket 7.5 to eight hours of sleep an evening. I listened to Garmin’s sleep recommendation and tracked my cycling performance – here I covered the difference that I found it really made.
Monitoring your sleep – and making certain that you just attempt to persist with a sleep schedule – are nice methods to attempt to assist make sure you get the correct quantity of sleep. The Garmin Fenix has a pleasant function in that once you set a sleep time, it’s going to mute notifications within the lead up so that you just spend much less time your telephone and being uncovered to blue gentle – which might impair sleep.
Sleep rating
Transferring on from whole sleep, we’ve the ‘Sleep rating’. Not all sleep is created equal – there may be deep sleep, gentle sleep, fast eye motion (REM), time awake, and disrupted sleep. Utilizing the Garmin Fenix in a single day, you’ll be able to see the way you sleep, in addition to an general sleep rating.
This sleep rating is predicated on a mix of whole time asleep, stress skilled throughout sleep, the period of time spent within the various kinds of sleep, and period of time awake or stressed. That is helpful as you’ll be able to then see patterns which may be affecting your sleep rating, permitting you to handle them and hopefully enhance the standard of your sleep and relaxation. On the subject of sleep, it’s amount and high quality mixed which makes the distinction.
VO2max/Coaching Standing
Garmin watches can provide you an thought of your general ‘Coaching Standing’, utilizing a mix of your VO2maxHRV and the coaching that you just carry out. The VO2max estimate is decided by monitoring your coronary heart price and energy over a couple of minutes of average depth biking and ends in a rating which is graded from poor as much as superior, and corrected for warmth and elevation.
Within the Coaching Standing abstract, it’s going to state in case your VO2max is declining, growing, or remaining static. Naturally, we would like it to be growing. HRV is then measured to see whether or not it’s remaining at optimum ranges, growing, or lowering, while the Acute Coaching Load (ATL) tracks the stress of latest coaching classes primarily based on quantity and depth.
If the ATL is appropriate and your VO2max is growing, in addition to your HRV being inside the best ranges, you’ll get a Coaching Standing of ‘Productive’. In case your VO2max goes down, ATL is beneath or above optimum, and your HRV just isn’t throughout the appropriate vary, then you’ll get one in all these descriptions:
- Detraining (not coaching sufficient)
- Restoration (decrease coaching stress however wanted to get well from robust block)
- Sustaining (sufficient stress to keep up health however not enhancing)
- Productive (progressing and enhancing, bear in mind to incorporate restoration rides)
- Peaking (diminished coaching load after a coaching block, kind shall be excessive)
- Overreaching (coaching an excessive amount of and have to relaxation)
- Unproductive (good coaching load however health is lowering, give attention to relaxation and vitamin)
- Strained (extra restoration, much less coaching load. Regular after a tricky occasion or session)
You need to use the Coaching Standing function to information your coaching programming and guarantee that you’re coaching sufficient, resting sufficient, and peaking for key occasions and/or your cycling goals.
Coaching readiness
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Transferring on from Coaching Standing is ‘Coaching Readiness’. It may be tempting if we see that our Coaching Standing is that we’re detraining, to then improve our coaching depth and quantity to attempt to make up for this lack of health. Nonetheless, the explanation for our detraining could also be as a result of we’re experiencing increased ranges of stress and decrease ranges of restoration. That is the place Coaching Readiness is available in.
By way of a mix of sleep monitoring knowledge, your HRV and your earlier coaching load, Garmin determines in case you are in the best state to execute conduct coaching which is able to increase your Coaching Standing.
The classes it’s going to place you into include: Poor, Low, Average, Excessive or Prime. You probably have slept properly, have an excellent HRV stage, have low stress and in case your coaching load has not been excessive, then you’ll doubtless have a ‘Prime’ readiness. You probably have slept badly, your HRV is out of the right vary, your stress is excessive, or in case your coaching load has been unusually heavy, you’ll doubtless have a decrease stage of readiness.
Menstrual cycle monitoring
Significantly helpful for feminine athletes is the menstrual cycle monitoring. There was a myriad of latest research into the results of various phases and subphases of the menstrual cycle, and its results on coaching and vitamin necessities.
Though many of those research discovered no scientifically statistical variations between phases throughout the individuals, this was typically right down to a big variation between people. What we will infer from that is that every individual’s menstrual cycle will have an effect on them otherwise – which is why monitoring it turns into so necessary.
For instance, if you already know that in the course of the ovulatory section you get cramps and don’t really feel as your strongest, you would possibly discover it greatest to regulate the restoration section of your coaching plan to particularly overlap with this time interval. Alternatively, in the event you are likely to really feel significantly robust in the course of the early follicular section, you already know that this can be a level to stack up a few of your hardest exercises.
Monitoring your cycle also can aid you see if there have been any adjustments, akin to variations which might point out points akin to Relative Power Deficiency in Sports activities (RED-S) – flagging that it’s good to gasoline and relaxation greater than at present.
Right here you’ll find out extra about how to adjust your fuelling at each stage of the menstrual cycle.
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