HEART RATE MONITOR: Chest Strap vs Wrist Based HR

[@Readytogo11111]

the problem with wrist heart rate monitor only works accurately when we are in static position or walking but once we start moving little bit faster sometimes it just went off either HR reading is either too low or too high. Chest HR is still superior compare to any other HR monitor

[@bdumais1]

Nick, great info, wish I had seen before taking Wahoo’s advice on their arm based HRM strap. I was looking for alternative to chest based for XC skiing. I find a chest strap tends to slip down while skiing, not always, but an issue with really hard efforts. As point of reference, the Wahoo Tickr is better staying in place than the Polar straps, not sure why. Back to Wahoo arm strap - due to above issue, I purposely purchased for XC skiing. It is very comfortable, but, while XC skiing (or roller skiing) , I find the readings under exertion are extremely high. At 63 years, my max is ~ 165 bpm, I have seen rates over 200 bpm with the Wahoo arm HRM. Given your technical description of how arm /wrist based optical HRM work, the readings I am seeing make total sense. Now, only to get Wahoo to own up to this reality and add disclaimer to their sales/marketing. I have an open ticket in with Wahoo on this issue, with no response/update for weeks!

[@johnnykilo4967]

I did a stress test at a cardiologist yesterday. During it I compared my Apple Watch to the monitor and it was bang on. I was super impressed considering I was hooked up to highly sophisticated machines.

[@NJSportScience]

Wearable tech is getting better and better. However need to keep in mind in medical and lab settings using a gold standard device is still necessary as the wearables will always need to estimate or calculate certain metrics in some form, for example VO2 given it’s not indirectly obtaining a number. But very true, newer devices are surprisingly very very accurate at times!

[@johnnykilo4967]

@@NJSportScience Thanks for the insightful reply and the great content.

[@khieua]

Great video! Concise and very informative

[@jamesdudley7135]

Good video Nick!

[@davidcross1425]

Great video and explained the issue really clearly. Training with a Garmin Forerunner 620 and will treat myself to an upgrade. Will now definitely get a chest strap to go with the new watch.

[@Ollay245]

I concur, and the Aussie accent always helps 👌

[@BlackR92]

Hey may i know can you wear the chest heart off centered? I notice with my chest strap if i placed the pod centered on my chest there will be a gap behind it little bit. Or it doesnt really matter as long as the left and right contact point on the strap snug on our rib cage.

[@NJSportScience]

Shouldn’t matter too much just as long as the electrode pads on the strap are flat on your skin.

[@BlackR92]

@@NJSportScience Ty for clarifying!

[@rangersmith4652]

We all know a chest strap is the more accurate device, but I'm a "casual" cyclist and runner (when my knees say OK) who often goes shirtless. For my purposes, an optical wrist strap is accurate enough, and a chest strap sure makes a dorky tan line.

[@NJSportScience]

The arm band HR only devices are not bad. I know Wahoo make one that works actually pretty well up until HR of approx 180bpm. So if you’re below that, definitely a viable option. Regardless…you’ll end up with a dodgy tan line whichever way you go haha

[@mr.c6674]

Excellent delivery of information. Thank you.

[@Ballissle]

I have a wahoo tickr. Sometimes when doing some extreme cardio, it shows a value over 200 max I've hit 208bpm. My max possible HR should be about 201bpm. Is that right or is it being inaccurate? It does step up to it slowly and gradually and then will slowly drop back down to about 160 or so after I slow down. Also how does holding your breath affect your heart rate? I've found that it seems to stop changing the reading then when I breathe again it rapidly rises.

[@NJSportScience]

Firstly, you’ve got it backwards. Max possible heart rate is obviously 208bpm. The estimation equations are way outdated and borderline useless for most people. In theory HR will keep going up until you cannot increase your cardiac output anymore or you begin to fatigue limiting the increase in intensity. Holding your breath will play with your HR, typically suppressing it because of the limit to oxygen supply. You see this with free diving where they drop their HR super low while holding their breath. Normal response, wouldn’t necessarily deliberately practice this though in endurance training.

[@MFQuinnCyclist]

I recently had open heart surgery. Since then I have to position the strap so that the center is now under my left pec. I’m guessing the wire holding my chest together was messing up my readings

[@georgefirth]

Wishing you a great recovery!

[@eLpELoNdeJaPoN]

Very clear explanation. I just had a question. Is posible to sync this wrist bands with a cycling computer and share the HR information? I know this probably isn't the best question of the day but I'm trying to get my own readings. Thanks in advance

[@NJSportScience]

Good question. I know with garmin you can “broadcast” HR from your wrist to a bike computer. I personally don’t use that method but I believe it should be possible. If you have a watch with wrist HR then I’d just record the ride on your wrist, or if you have just an HR wrist strap it should connect to your bike computer via bluetooth or ant+

[@sreenathmn3913]

Hi Nick, great info. Whether wahoo works with Iphone? will I be able to know the calories burnt etc? Sorry am a beginner

[@DJLOUIE1000]

I know chest straps are best, but what is a good wrist alternative? Thanks.

[@NJSportScience]

Newer rather than older devices generally. Most however are pretty on par, the dedicated HR only wrist straps seem to be better than whole smart watches but it mainly comes down to what else you need from the device (ie gps etc).

[@CmaganaL]

Thank you Nick for such a great piece of information. I did not know about the very useful lights on the Wahoo HR Monitor, I am buying myself one of those. My question is, if wrist based optical monitors are not accurate all the times how that innacurate data can be used in our training? how can I check progress or make pertinent modifications to my training plans if the data is not correct? I love the quote you have on Linkedin. " What gets measured gets improved " but if it's not well measured???... Thank you

[@NJSportScience]

But if you always use the same metric it’s consistent in that you have a point of comparison. Same goes for weighing yourself on scales at home vs on calibrated medical scales, as long as you can replicate the same output the numbers really don’t matter that much BUT you need to still understand where the discrepancy is. Thanks for the support on the channel!

[@CmaganaL]

@@NJSportScience Valid point Nick thank you for taking the time ro reply. Kudos

[@ConnorCurtis]

Not a fake comment like the others just happened to find this video and was only uploaded 30 mins ago, great vid. Do you think it is better to get a Garmin watch with gps or just a chest strap and link it to Strava? I already use a fitbit versa 2 but it does not have gps and hard to get accurate hr when running, but I like it for sleep and calories.

[@NJSportScience]

Connor Curtis Hey Connor, appreciate the positive feedback! It depends on what other metrics you want to use and your goals. Cheap option is a HR strap only to your phone, but if you want the accurate gps then get a garmin watch. Don’t have to go for the top of the line watch, go for a base model forerunner or something similar. You can get the strap with the watch usually in a package. Maybe then use the fitbit for everything but running? I currently use an apple watch for daily use then a garmin for training. Not the most streamline solution but it works for me. Hope this helps!

[@s3kat04]

Got aw3 and garmin dual hrm and got problem with that when using them together apple stop calculating vo2 max. Is any one got the same problem and know how to solve it ????

[@adeelali8417]

Just received my Wahoo Tickr. I'm going to to test it out tomorrow against the optical HR monitor on my Forerunner 245. Is there a good way to collate the results?

[@NJSportScience]

Awesome! I would just look at the general trends or maybe 30s averages to compare. Don’t worry about every single second by second reading because there will always be error

[@CmaganaL]

Hello Adeel I would like to know your conclusion after using optical and chest strap. After using myself chest strap for quite a while I switched to Optical HR and could not been more disappointed, despite the convenience the readings are so erratic and inaccurate which for me all that data is useless if it's not accurate, so I am going back to chest strap. Thank you for reading.

[@adeelali8417]

@@CmaganaL oh yeah I agree. The chest HRM is way more reliable. I would go back if I were you.

[@RXP91]

Nice explanation - didn't realise why Pulse != heart rate

[@NJSportScience]

Glad it was helpful!

[@orion9k]

How safe are these electro chest bands? Are they in theory hackable and able to output electricity back to your heart? I've heard about a lot of athletes dropping 0ead to the floor for the past 2 years and noone has any clue why so many more are dropping compared to before 2021..

[@NJSportScience]

That’s the most conspiracy theorist idea I’ve ever heard…not a chance that could happen. It doesn’t emit anything purely just measures the signals.

[@orion9k]

@@NJSportScience its right next to your heart and its potentially connected to bluetooth, so its atleast emitting and receiving emf of some sort, who knows what a hack to promote malfunction could do 🤷‍♂️ a malfunction doesnt need to be a result of conspiracy, and a lot of Chinese hardware are hackable by design due to data harvesting, so who knows what these devises emit, could be directly connected to satalites for all we know.

[@NJSportScience]

I’ll keep using my HR strap, good luck to them if they can work out how to remotely taser me on my sunday run…

[@klrdto3250]

How about using an oximeter attachsd to your finger tip? Accurate?

[@NJSportScience]

In my experience similar to wrist based, it works fine at rest/low intensity. With more movement it tends to struggle (eg when I’ve put one on an athlete while running it doesn’t work great)

[@klrdto3250]

@@NJSportScience thank you

[@davidnewman6912]

Hi Nick, I use a Garmin Fenix 5 with a Garmin chest strap for indoor and on-water rowing. The wrist sensor doesn’t work well with rowing at all. Love your channel!

[@NJSportScience]

Yeah personally I’ve always struggled with wrist based but know plenty of athletes who it works really well for. Just need to find the best method for you to give the most accurate data.

[@sportmensch]

Hey Nick, that was a good Video really appreciate you work on this, I myself use a Polar H10 Cheststrap along with the Vantage V , have been stuck with Polar since 2013 and since then always Cheststrap measuring. I'm very interested in the topic of burning 10 000 Calories (opposing to eating those) Have done that in 2017 (but despite having all material never managed to cut it and upload it) Now I have seen qute some Videos of people attempting it with all kinds of measurements...yes also using myfitnesspal and no heartrate measurement whatsoever. Then also a lot with the wristbased measuring and i had the feeling those might read the heartrate higher. You said because of bloddpressure the reading might be higher on the wrist. WOuld you assume in a quite heavy lifting session as the bloodpressure shoots almost through the roof the wristbased measuig would give a higher average heartrate than the cheststrap? Cheers mate greetings to Australia I'd guess from your accent...but only after having posted this comment will checkout your other videos where you might have revealed that alrady. Sporty Greetings from also a Sportscientist from Germany living in Dubai.

[@NJSportScience]

Sportmensch great question. The higher reading is one likely possibility in wrist based, it’s an indirect measure so it’ll always have variability. Chest strap is the way to go for accuracy. As for calories the only real way to get an accurate measure is measuring gas exchange during activity with a metabolic analyzer. Every other measure (ie wrist based HR) would then estimate/calculate and will inevitably have some error. You are bang on with guessing the accent haha! Thanks for commenting and hope you enjoy some of my other videos and subscribe!

[@sportmensch]

@@NJSportScience yes yes I agree the most exact we can get is throgh Caliometrie (hope it' the same word in English as in German) however thats gonna be a little hard for a Burn challenge which might also include swimming. I did it once during my studies it was quite similar the reading to the heartrate measurement. Definetely will stick to the chest strap even if I cuould get there faster with a wristbased measure nevertheless want to have it as accurate and transparent as possible. Did watch your 30min low carb vs high fat video...also very well put together from the performance perspective , I guess you'd know the name Tim Noakes?! He did develop Type 2 Diabetes being an avid Marathon Runner. I'm testing kind of low carb for my strength training and thus far it works alright. Keep up your good work. are you going for a Phd? Good night to Australia

[@NJSportScience]

Sportmensch you can get garmin chest straps that are swimming friendly now so might be an option to look at. As I think I mentioned in the low carb video, periodized high and low carb could be a way to go. Also need to just think about the sources of carbs, not all high carb diets will lead to diabetes. It depends on the quality of the diet. High carb isn’t a green light on eating junk. Be sure to trial over a long enough period to ensure you can quantify an effect. A large part of any diet can still be placebo so keep that in mind. Haha no phd at this stage, have to finish my masters degree first!

[@williamkterrell]

chest strap still only option to have accurate results, Thanks. I use Garmin, Suunto and have been great went 6x pro wrist only, what a nightmare, way off.

[@lazy_dad]

i play the drums, and i notice my samsung sport watch goes bonkers when i check my heart rate while playing. thanks for explaining why that is!! i was going to get a cheap-o chest strap and see what sort of difference it makes.

[@NJSportScience]

Haha that’s awesome. Really interested to see what your HR gets to. I can imagine quite high if you’re on stage under heavy lighting as well with the additional heat.

[@lazy_dad]

@@NJSportScience i ordered a KYTO 2809 for about 25 cdn dollars, so when it comes i will be doing some tests for sure!! checking the watch and seeing at reading 169bpm when i am barely grooving is just wrong! thanks for the reply and the great viddy!

[@sezerarslan604]

i am sorry mate but after few minutes i left the video due to not getting info clearly. at least someone can keep it short, chest is the best or not. what is the difference shortly?

[@mixedfuses8pack48]

Latvian Aussie ?

[@livamilAVA]

Unrelated quastion… your surname looks Latvian.. grandparents fleeing war?

[@mowhugspanda7769]

Bottom line?

[@NJSportScience]

Chest strap generally better

[@livamilAVA]

Thank u