Garmin watches are like onions: it’s worthwhile to peel down a number of layers of settings to get to the good things (after which cry from the arduous exercises).
Each time I change from Garmin to a different watch model, I find yourself lacking simply how complete and thorough Garmin Join is, actually giving me a whole information to my health coaching.Â
I am going to even be the primary to confess that Garmin Join is a dense, convoluted app the place the data and settings you want are buried and poorly defined and not using a ton of Googling. To not point out the truth that you want a second app (Garmin Join IQ) so as to add new apps and customized watch faces, and that altering settings on a Garmin watch itself is simply as convoluted.
Sunday Runday
In his new weekly column, Android Central Health Editor Michael Hicks talks concerning the world of wearables, apps, and general health tech associated to operating and well being.
If you first arrange your Garmin watch, the app fortunately walks you thru a couple of key steps: including music, wi-fi, Garmin Pay, emergency contacts, syncing to Strava, and LiveTrack. However after that, you are mainly left to fend for your self.Â
For brand spanking new Garmin watch homeowners — or potential patrons questioning what the fuss is about — here’s a set of Garmin ideas and methods on the subject of taking full benefit of your new watch! Word: some options are restricted to newer Garmin watches.
End organising
In case you’re something like me, you may most likely skip quite a lot of the difficult Garmin watch setup and plan to get again to it later. Then you definitely’ll get bombarded with pop-ups asking, “Now do you wish to arrange Garmin Pay?” Spare your self the day by day annoyance and end organising each core characteristic.Â
Within the Garmin Join app, faucet the watch icon on the highest banner, then choose your present watch (or sync it if it is disconnected). Your first possibility will likely be End setup, which guides you thru the aforementioned options like including wi-fi and security options.Â
Or, in the event you’ve already accomplished setup however wish to change issues after the very fact, you may discover these options in the identical watch Settings menu; Garmin Pay and Music are apparent, whereas wi-fi is underneath Connectivity and Security & Monitoring helps you to change your Emergency Contacts or allow LiveTrack.
Change your targets
If you first obtain Join or arrange a watch, it’s going to immediate you to set targets on your day by day steps, weekly depth minutes, or day by day flooring climbed. You may also discover these targets by tapping the watch settings icon > Well being & Wellness.Â
For steps, you’ll be able to set it to make use of an “auto common” or set a particular purpose like 10,000 steps. Auto common modifications primarily based on what number of steps you usually tackle a given day, subtly adjusting increased in the event you match or surpass the purpose or decrease in the event you fail to hit it. An auto-updating purpose will push you to enhance, however could climb too excessive so that you can hit; at that time, you might wish to change to a guide purpose as soon as you already know what you are actually able to.
For weekly depth minutes, the World Well being Group recommends adults aged 18–64 hit 150–300 minutes of reasonable exercise or 75–150 vigorous exercise to remain wholesome. So for instance you select 250 minutes as your goal: Garmin will mechanically use coronary heart price zones to find out if an exercise is reasonable (zone 3) or vigorous (zone 4+), and double the logged minutes in case your coronary heart price is excessive sufficient. You possibly can change these, resembling making zone 2 reasonable or making solely zone 5 “vigorous,” if you’d like.
I additionally suggest checking your precise coronary heart price zones. Go to your watch settings > Person Profile > Coronary heart Fee & Energy Zones. Right here, you’ll be able to regulate your max coronary heart price, lactate threshold, and 5 HR zones.Â
Garmin can solely estimate your max coronary heart price primarily based in your age and health, and your lactate threshold — the extent at which lactate construct up in your blood on account of bodily exertion — will get increased the more healthy you might be, in keeping with this UVA Faculty of Drugs examine.
So you must carry out a stress check to find out your private well being values. I adopted this information by Coaching Peaks and located my common coronary heart price at max effort over the past 20 minutes of a 30-minute exercise to calculate my LTHR, then adjusted my zones accordingly. Ultimately, Garmin will collect sufficient knowledge out of your exercises to offer you extra correct post-run information.
Arrange a coaching plan
Most up-to-date Garmin watches have day by day urged exercises that suggest how lengthy and arduous to coach, primarily based in your current coaching knowledge, VO2 Max, restoration time, and sleep knowledge. Whereas helpful, these exercises lack context if, as an example, you are coaching to hit a sure distance or time; they usually do not account on your day by day life and schedule.Â
Runners and cyclists could wish to arrange an precise, official coaching plan as a substitute of counting on the algorithm. In Garmin Join, go to Extra > Coaching & Planning > Coaching Plans.Â
Runners will select a 5K, 10K, or half marathon plan primarily based on what number of miles they run every week, their purpose (whether or not to merely end a race or hit a sure time), and which fashion of Garmin Coach they need. Cyclists will purpose for a particular mileage purpose like Century or Gran Fondo, a time trial purpose, or to enhance their mountain biking skills.Â
You may also obtain customized, self-guided Garmin Join coaching plans not obtainable by way of Garmin Coach, resembling a marathon coaching plan or triathlon coaching. On the internet, go to this Garmin Join hyperlink, select a plan, and add it to your schedule.
As soon as you’ve got arrange a Garmin Coach coaching plan, day by day exercises will seem within the Calendar in your app and watch, so you’ll be able to see forward of time how rigorous at present’s exercise will likely be. Some newer watches just like the Garmin Forerunner 255 also have a Morning Report that offers you that information as quickly as you get up.Â
Create your personal exercises
Throughout a urged or scheduled exercise, your watch exhibits how your present tempo or coronary heart price falls inside a goal vary, buzzing your wrist to let you know in the event you’re too excessive or low, or if it is time to shift to the subsequent a part of a exercise. It is a implausible self-training too; however as I discussed in my current Garmin characteristic wishlist, you’ll be able to’t simply edit a exercise previous to beginning it, in case you are feeling too drained or wired for what the Garmin algorithm is suggesting.Â
I like to recommend making your personal customized exercises and saving them to your watch so you’ll be able to entry them at any time. Return to Extra > Coaching & Planning and choose Exercises > Create a exercise. You possibly can arrange a run or biking session, put it aside underneath a customized identify, after which ship it to your Garmin watch by tapping the cellphone icon.Â
When you’re on the exercise begin display, maintain the Menu button (left-middle) on 5-button watches or the Again button on 2- or 3-button watches. Choose Coaching > Exercises > Customized exercise identify > Do exercise.Â
I’ve a couple of generic exercises saved like “Future” that warn me if I fall under a sure tempo, or extra particular Monitor Run coaching plans for intervals. That means, if I do not like what’s on the Calendar for the day, I can simply drag-and-drop it to a unique day and do my very own exercise as a substitute.Â
In case you’re extra eager about indoor energy coaching, yoga, HIIT, or different actions than operating, you are in luck. On the Exercises display within the app, you’ll be able to Discover a exercise and select between a ton of exercises centered on finishing reps, both at residence or within the health club.Â
Garmin has over a thousand exercise varieties, animated so you’ll be able to examine on the shape earlier than you begin a rep your self. Watches with AMOLED shows just like the Venu 2 Plus provide the greatest expertise on that entrance.Â
Change your knowledge screens
Every sports activities exercise exhibits important knowledge in your wrist throughout a run. The Run exercise exhibits the timer, distance, tempo, and coronary heart price, for instance. However you’ll be able to see a lot extra throughout a run, if you wish to: coronary heart price zone, stamina, operating energy, your operating dynamics (aka stride size, cadence), a map/compass, elevation modifications, and so forth.Â
You possibly can change an exercise’s default knowledge fields in your wrist or within the app; I like to recommend the latter. Go to your watch settings > Actions & Apps, select a particular exercise, then Knowledge Screens > Add Knowledge Display screen.Â
You possibly can add a default display themed on particular knowledge (like stamina or elevation), or you’ll be able to create your personal customized screens with as much as six fields of knowledge. The latter is particularly helpful since you’ll discover tons of choices that are not on the generic screens, like real-time charts of your tempo/velocity/coronary heart price over time.Â
You possibly can combine and match knowledge that will usually seem on separate screens, so you may hopefully spend much less time scrolling by way of them when try to be staying within the zone. Or you’ll be able to prioritize much less mainstream knowledge fields; for instance, you might want seeing your Common Tempo or Lap Tempo as a substitute of your real-time Tempo.
Make your GPS monitoring extra correct
The most recent and biggest Garmin watches assist all-systems or multi-band GPS, making them the most correct GPS watches in my assessments. A lot of them use SatIQ to change to higher satellite tv for pc knowledge as soon as it detects a sign blockage or delay; however you’ll be able to select to at all times use the highest-level monitoring if you’d like the very best knowledge always.Â
Maintain down the Menu button and choose Actions & Apps > Run (or one other exercise) > Run Settings > GPS and select All + Multi-Band for the very best accuracy. In case you solely see GPS and UltraTrac, your Garmin does not assist the newer choices.Â
You may most likely wish to do the identical on your Stroll or Hike exercise, which additionally auto-selects on some watches. Some will want UltraTrac, which takes rare GPS readings to avoid wasting battery; others will want one thing extra correct, particularly in the event that they’re utilizing a longer-lived Garmin watch just like the Intuition 2X Photo voltaic.Â
Battery life vs. options
You most likely selected a Garmin watch regardless of its lack of conventional smartwatch “smarts” due to its lengthy battery life, amongst different issues. However generally, you may wish to minimize into the battery capability for particular options — or in the reduction of to make it last more. The GPS setting above is only one instance.Â
With regards to blood oxygen monitoring, Garmin is likely one of the solely manufacturers to supply 24/7 checks, during-sleep monitoring, or spot checks, as a means for athletes to examine their altitude acclimation or normal well being. In your watch, maintain down the Menu button, scroll all the way down to Well being & Wellness, choose Pulse Oximeter, and select both All Day or Throughout sleep in the event you assume your battery can deal with it.Â
If in case you have a memory-in-pixel show, you might not like how dim the show is, particularly indoors; Garmin tends to make 20% the default outdoors of actions, which is fairly arduous to learn. Maintain down the Menu button, then scroll all the way down to System > Show > Common Use. You possibly can change the default brightness, allow raise-to-wake so you do not have to press a button, alter the display timeout time to be slightly longer, and even make always-on the default.Â
I am assuming that your new Garmin watch has a powerful battery life and may stand up to extra demanding settings. However in the event you’re having the alternative downside and wish to extend your battery, I wrote a information on learn how to repair Garmin watch battery issues that will help you out. Lengthy story brief, you’ll be able to activate a Battery Saver mode that disables the most typical battery-draining options.Â
Customise your watch face
Your Garmin watch face is what you may spend most of your time gazing, so be certain it is enjoyable (or informative) to have a look at! As soon as once more, maintain down that trusty Menu (or Again) button, relying in your watch’s variety of buttons, and Watch face ought to be your first possibility.Â
Choose it, then scroll by way of the generic watch faces obtainable in your watch by default. Choose a watch face you want, then select Customise. You possibly can change the general format, which knowledge is displayed, and/or the accent shade for the watch face.Â
The Garmin icons’ meanings are slightly obscure, particularly when you’re first beginning out and your knowledge is empty. Go to this Garmin assist web page, change the watch identify to your present mannequin, and see (A) which icons can be found in your watch and (B) what they imply.Â
In order for you recommendation, my private favorites are remaining restoration time (so you already know when your physique is able to work out once more), step depend (duh), earned depth minutes, weekly operating distance, and climate. I am not a fan of displaying my coronary heart price or different well being knowledge, because the fixed replace burns by way of battery and in addition offers me anxiousness if my coronary heart price is just too excessive; nevertheless it’s as much as desire!
In order for you watch faces past what Garmin provides by default, you may must obtain a second app — Garmin Join IQ — on the Google Play Retailer or iOS App Retailer. You should use Face it to create a customized watch face with your personal private pictures, or go into the IQ Retailer and discover/obtain a watch face made by the Garmin group.Â
Arrange Scorching Keys
Most Garmin buttons have set shortcuts while you maintain them down, like opening the music participant after squeezing the bottom-left button. However you most likely do not know (I did not till very not too long ago!) that there are six different shortcuts you’ll be able to arrange on a 5-button watch: Maintain START, Maintain BACK, START + Down, START + UP, BACK + LIGHT, and BACK + UP.Â
With any of those shortcuts, you’ll be able to pull up a favourite characteristic instantly, as a substitute of getting to scroll by way of widgets or menus to search out them. Go to Menu > System > Scorching Keys so as to add your new shortcuts — I depend 24 choices on my Garmin Forerunner 965.Â
These are my private favourite Scorching Keys that I would suggest including to your watch:
- Pockets: In case you arrange tap-to-pay, you wish to pull up that possibility instantly as a substitute of protecting the folks behind you ready as you swipe by way of submenus.Â
- Flashlight: Most Garmins do not have a built-in flashlight just like the Intuition 2X Photo voltaic, however this setting will make the display 100% brilliant, serving to you see your means at the hours of darkness in a pinch.
- Timers/stopwatch: These useful instruments do not want any rationalization.Â
- Navigation: It is good to have the ability to pull up your present environment throughout a GPS-tracked exercise; this solely applies for watches with correct mapping, like a Garmin Fenix or the Forerunner 955.
- Brightness: As I discussed earlier than, you might wish to hold your brightness low to avoid wasting battery, however have the choice to lift it shortly at any time.Â
As a aspect word, in case your watch helps emergency help and also you set it up, then you will need to maintain the designated button for about seven seconds, when the watch will vibrate 3 times and your your real-time location will likely be despatched to your preloaded emergency contacts. You possibly can’t change which button triggers this.Â
Use Discover My Telephone / Discover My Watch
As long as your smartphone and Garmin watch are related by way of Bluetooth, you should use both gadget to search out the opposite. Garmin’s Discover My characteristic is not almost as sturdy as a Put on OS or Apple Watch, because it is dependent upon Bluetooth. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless fairly useful to have in the event you’re in a rush and your watch or cellphone is buried within the sofa cushions.
In your watch, go to the Controls menu; maintain the Mild button on a 5-button watch, or the Begin button on a 2-button watch. Discover My Telephone is the icon with a cellphone and query mark; choose it. Your cellphone ought to make a loud ringing noise, whereas your watch will show a colourful indicator exhibiting how shut you might be to it.Â
Within the Garmin Join app, choose the watch icon and scroll all the way down to Discover My Gadget. Your related watch will vibrate till you dismiss the pop-up notification, serving to you to trace it down if it is close by.Â
Hopefully, these Garmin ideas and methods will provide help to get extra use out of your new Garmin watch! When you do the early work of getting all the pieces arrange, Garmin’s analytics and algorithms deal with the remaining, so you’ll be able to simply take a look at your wrist and see what sort of exercise you must do subsequent.
Not the entire greatest Garmin watches share each characteristic. The extra you pay, the extra Garmin crams into the watch. So in the event you’re shopping for a top-end Forerunner watch or Fenix watch, you may wish to transcend what I listed above and actually dive into menus and settings your self, so that you’re getting your cash’s price.
Now that you simply’re all set in your Garmin settings, it is time to hit the observe or path and get transferring! And even in the event you do not use each Garmin trick within the ebook, it is okay; we not too long ago examined the Garmin Forerunner 265 in opposition to different manufacturers for step depend accuracy, and it outperformed the opposite manufacturers.Â