Heart Rate Monitor
I want to train at a lower heart rate to gauge the impact on fat burning etc.. but we haven't had any discussion on swimming heart rate monitors for a number of years?
Previous comments were the tradition chest monitor rolled down the chest, are there any more advanced systems out there, watch related or...?
Anyone train by heart rate?
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I don't train by heart rate, and don't remember any product names off the top of my head, but I know that there are products that will measure heart rate near your Temple and tell you the information via bone conduction, similar to the technology used by the finis mp3 players
Page I found with a quick google. A lot of these are chest based monitors, but if you scroll a little futher down, there are some other options:
https://www.wareable.com/fitness-trackers/best-heart-rate-monitors-for-swimming-waterproof-4052
Here's DC Rainmaker's review of garmin's swimming (well, tri) focused HRM. I think Suunto also does something, but I'm pretty sure they're designed to store and show you later, not show in real time. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/07/garmins-hr-swimming-straps.html
I have a garmin 935 with optical wrist-based HR, and garmin disabled it during swims because it's just not very accurate. I've previously swum with a separate (Mio Link) wrist-based optical HRM with a the garmin 920, and while I can't remember if HR was visible while I swam, it did store it for later. But the harder I swam the less accurate it was (force of the water over the rather tight strap).
My Garmin 735xt does HRM in the water but it's not that great. There's two different swim related ones - the HRM-Tri is good for open water and will sync after the event is over and the HRM-Swim is more rubbery and good for pools. I had issues with my HRM-Tri strap FWIW and had to get a second one that works well.
I tried to start training based on heart rate, 2 years ago. According to the standard formula (220-age) my Max HR was 179 bmp, so my anaerobic threshold was at 152 bpm. This seemed consistent with my own observations/feelings; so I based the speed of my sets on this.
But a few months later I performed a cardiac stress test. The results: MaxHR= 154 bpm (which in fact I was using as anaerobic threshold), and an actual anaerobic threshold of 131 bpm. Much lower than I had "calculated".
My CSS must be somewhere around 1'25'' (short course). Should I use 131 bpm as anaerobic threshold to guide my sets, I would risk falling asleep while swimming! Since then I just do my sets based on "effort sensation". Highly subjective, but I train happier.
dieciseisgrados.com/