Fitness Trackers

[carlh]

<p>
Looking to try a fitness and sleep tracker to help balance workouts, life and recovery. I have been doing everything by perceived exertion for years and know how to push my body but having trouble getting enough recovery now that I&#39;m in my 40s. Activities to track are skiing, MTB, running, lifting and chasing kids/dogs around.&nbsp;<br />
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I want something easy to wear all the time including for sleep tracking, good battery life and not too ugly. I am open to a watch or a ring, I currently wear an analog watch most of the time but would replace that if going the watch route. I am an the anti notification camp on tech so most non fitness smart watch features would not get used and I would prefer better battery life over advanced features. I don&#39;t need gps. &nbsp;I am on iPhone so android only smartwatches are also out.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
current considerations:</p>
<p>
Oura ring: good for everything but lifting, low profile, medium priced but needs a subscription.&nbsp;<br />
Apple Watch: not sure which one and battery life seems pretty garbage. Lots of features I don&#39;t care about<br />
fitbit: probably a sense 2 would be cheaper and longer battery than Apple Watch, questionable support</p>
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Amazfit: bunch of options that seem decently priced and look good. Questionable privacy and business model &nbsp;</p>
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Garmin: lots of options all pretty pricey, lots of outdoor features and good support &nbsp;</p>
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Who&#39;s using any of these and has feedback or suggestions?</p>
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[carlh]

Leaning towards a fenix 7 on sale. Any reason not to buy?

[Mustonen]

Can’t speak to alternatives, but I have an Apple Watch and have almost all notifications turned off (exception for text messages) and still gets lots of utility out of being able to browse and respond to email/teams/whatsapp if I want to, check the weather, review security camera pictures, trail maps on my wrist, and of course all the fitness stuff.

The Ultra is silly expensive, but I get multiple days of battery life. Plus it accentuates my girly wrists.

[zion zig zag]

Regular Apple Watch here; battery won’t last for a ski tour over about [emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]]-[emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]] feet. Now that’s it’s a few years old the battery won’t last for a full day after I do a mtb ride over a few hours long.


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[Mofro261]

Longtime fenix 3/5/6 user. Got my wife a 7 last yr and she loves it.HR, HRV, sleep,

[EWG]

Im Garmin too - Venu 3. Fenix is more of a backcountry watch, Venu more of a smart watch, but they both do great at the other thing. Just pick the one you like and enjoy week long battery life and the best fitness info you can buy.

[carlh]

I ordered a fenix 7 pro which sapphire and solar for $550 on sale. More than I originally was thinking but seems like jut going straight to the best makes sense here and hopefully it lasts a long time.

[carlh]

Also ordered an amazfit active 2 premium for $100 will be interested to compare both ends of the market.

[spanky]

I recently bought a Whoop. Still too early to leverage a lot of the features. But I will say, I’m definitely more aware of my sleep needs and am sleeping much more as a result of that awareness.

[carlh]

Whoop has a nice tracking set but I don’t really want to wear a watch and another band and am anti subscription model for the most part. Curious why you chose it over the watch based trackers.

[Beder]

I have a Garmin Forerunner 55 which can be found for well under $200. I like it for recording data on my hikes/rucks. It does a good job at that, except for assessing VO2 max...it can't account for the weight of my pack or if I'm hiking up a steep mountain.

[Marshal Olson]

Have an Apple Watch Ultra 2.Great for mountain activities imo as it has plenty of battery life for a huge day in the mountain. I have have basically all notifications turned off except Immediate family. I personally think ability to call/text/gps is essential in the mountains for safety reasons, and being able to send a beacon so my wife can find me if ever needed is key imo. It also allows me to leave the phone in the car, which I greatly appreciate. Can’t speak to the sleep type stuff, but are you currently using an iPhone sleep app? Seems like those have come a long way recently and may be pretty effective for at least some people (??)… no way I’d try and wear an Apple Watch while sleeping anyhow!

[Yukonrider]

I have the Fenix 7, and I think you'll like it. I don't have my phone notifications connected to it at all. I have to say my biggest compliment is despite being pretty advanced tech, it doesn't feel "techy". The screen isn't bright, it isn't constantly trying to do something fancy, I can easily ignore it and just tell the time if I want.

I also love it because I connected it to trailforks (through my phone, without having to turn on notifications or anything, amazing) and I can design a route and it will show up on my watch, no more pulling out your phone at every intersection.

Battery life is two weeks or so with no activities, usually around a week with an activity per day

[caulfield]

I have a fenix 6 pro and use it just like yukon describes. I have been impessed with the body battery and sleep score features. I do not really want to be a data-driven asshole in my personal life but I guess I am. If I wake up and kinda feel like shit, it is easy to push through, but if I wake up and see that I&#39;m at a 38, I can more easily convince myself to take it easy that day. Maybe been lucky last two years but I think backing off early has helped me avoid getting colds in the winter when I would have before. Learned a little bit too much about what a beer or affogato before bed does to my sleep, but I guess doing fewer of those is ok. If you are way over analytical, the numbers might put you in a tailspin, but for me they seem ok.

[Dee Hubbs]

Garmin watch is my recommendation, almost all models have fitness tracking, HR, sleep, recovery time, track your menstrual cycle etc. Anything you should need and more. I'm a total Garmin ecosystem, watch, my bike computers, my bathroom scale. All my heat data is saved, my sleep data, I find the gammon app very user friendly. All my activities upload and syncs with Strava when I hit stop. A bunch of new models just released so there are plenty of sales for models that were "top dog" just last month. They even have some stock of 2 cycles ago for great deals. I just went though the shopping/pricing with my niece who was looking to buy one for her fiancé. Depending on your budget, go to the "Previous models" tab on Garmin sight and there are Forerunner 955 Solar for $200 off. Or Forerunner 255 for $150 off. Those a re some of the best deals. I wear my Garmin Vivoactive watch 24/7. I use my bike computer mostly for tracking, but walks/hike with my wife, or a round of golf, I'll track with my watch. Even with 3-4 GPS based activities a week I still get 7-10 days out of a charge, and if I need to charge it 30 mins plugged in gets me to 100% battery.

[zion zig zag]

Looks like the Garmin Epix Pro Gen2 sapphire is on sale for prime day at $600, normally $1000. Anyone have experience with it?

[skis_the_trees]

I have worked my way through Garmin Fenix 3, 5X, and 7 while doing a fair amount of aerobic base training for a while. For sure, the Fenix 7 is an amazing watch and a significant upgrade on the 3 and 5. I imagine you will be very stoked on it. Some random thoughts that relate to your first post: -If you want good quality HR data, you need a chest strap. For real, no exceptions. -If you want to recover well, consider building a large(r) aerobic base. If it isn't immediately apparent what that means then check out the book Training for the Uphill Athlete which lays it out well for the average reader who doesn't have a background in physiology. The Evoke Endurance website has a link to YouTube videos where the author Scott Johnston goes through the chapters - you could just check out those before buying the book. Simply having a large aerobic base allows you to recover from exercise much quicker/easier. -RPE (relative perceived exertion) typically leads to a lot of high intensity workouts which are physiologically taxing and take much longer to recover from. It's hard to do a zone 1/2 trail run by RPE alone (or it is for me) - whereas the watch and HR strap make it easy to dial it back even when it "feels" like I'm not pushing hard but the truth is that my HR is in zone 3. -Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is of dubious quality in order to judge recovery. Unfortunately, it seems to be pushed on consumers in the absence of another easy to quantify metric for a watch/ring/etc. I would just ignore HRV and the body battery stuff. I've got several big seasons of training with my Fenix 7 for it to have gathered data yet it is still wildly inaccurate with the automated recommended rest periods after workouts. The above book has some info on how to judge recovery.

[Going Coastal]

I bought a Garmin Venu 2 4yrs ago because it was cheap (relatively) and did everything I was looking to do. It has been really solid and I'm still happy with it and not looking to upgrade. I have had an ongoing battle with AFIB and find that being able to track my HR and heart stress levels (basically the HRV and Body Battery) can help prevent an episode by dialing back or declining to do something too strenuous. And even though I can tell when I'm in AFIB, it's nice to be able to look back and have records on when an episode started/ended.

If you have the finances, the expensive watches probably offer some great benefits, but I like the Venu especially after a lot of customizing of apps and the watchface.

[Danno]

This thread has me considering a Venu 3s. But not sure if I am willing to take the very expensive plunge into the world of smartwatches.

[Muggydude]

Pretty happy with my Fenix Six X Pro, mostly use it for notifications, workout tracking, calorie expenditure tracking, heart rate/hrv/blood ox, altitude, compass, time/date keeping. Don’t ever really use the gps other than sometimes I track runs when I don’t bring my phone.

[coldfeet]

I am a cheap bastard, especially when it comes to electronic gadgets, because I don't know if I'll use them or they'll wind up sitting idle. I have bought GPS watches and then a smartwatch used and thus saved a shit-ton of money, at the cost of not having the most up to date features, and also not the fullest battery life (although I've actually done fairly well with that). What kind of thingy you get depends on what you want it for. Like, I got an Apple watch a few months into COVID, because I realized that remote work meant I was in danger of sitting on my ass all day and the fitness monitor noodging features would help me. But it is not the best watch for GPS tracking a remote trail run or navigating.

I have used several Garmins for primarily-GPS and the fenix series is good (I still haven't mastered all the navigation stuff), but with my skinny arms and wrists, I'm not sure I could wear it as an everyday watch without feeling awkward. Actually, years before smartwatches, I started with a Forerunner 305, which had a great GPS and I even opened it to replace the battery myself when it got old, but even the Incredible Hulk would have looked like a dork wearing a Forerunner 305 on the street.

[NBABUCKS1]

zzz - if your battery health is below 80% you can pay $100 (I think) for a new battery - which is a new watch from apple on that same modelI have the Apple Watch Ultra 1 - got it for $399 on fb marketplace with 99% battery health. I like it because when I go on runs and walks I can leave my phone at home. I have cell and download podcasts directly to the watch. Everything else is pretty much a deal breaker for me because I love NOT taking my phone with me on those activities.

[dmcd]

A Garmin Forerunner is $200 brand new and has a 2 week battery life. I don't think there's a better combination of price to features in the market. Combined with getting access to all of Garmin's ecosystem with it I think it's the only way to go. I've had an older model for 5 years now and still use it from time to time because it just works.

[zion zig zag]

zzz - if your battery health is below 80% you can pay $100 (I think) for a new battery - which is a new watch from apple on that same modelI have the Apple Watch Ultra 1 - got it for $399 on fb marketplace with 99% battery health. I like it because when I go on runs and walks I can leave my phone at home. I have cell and download podcasts directly to the watch. Everything else is pretty much a deal breaker for me because I love NOT taking my phone with me on those activities.

I found the Garmin Epix 2 Sapphire for a little over $500 and pulled the trigger. Figured I’d stray from apple this time and see how it compares for me. I will miss the ability to answer calls and respond to texts from my watch but looking forward to the better battery and features.


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[muted reborn]

I have a coros pace 3 I bought last July and it's been sitting in a drawer for about 6-7 months. Anyone want it for $100? And $10 for shipping? Great condition.