Garmin - vívosmart 5

I recently got a Garmin Vivosmart 5 to replace my Fitbit Charge I had for many years. Can’t believe I just made the switch, personally, the Garmin blows the Fitbit out of the water!

Apple watch is the best smartwatch, Garmin is the best sportwatch. If your runs are under xhours, than go for the AW; if you are going to train seriously, Garmin all the way

I’ve been using a Vivosmart 5 on one arm, and a traditional watch on the other, as the most minimal Body Battery compatible wearable Garmin makes… but I, too, would like something even more minimal, similar in scope to a Whoop where it doesn’t even bother to display data, just record it, so I could get body battery and resting HR and training status data without the need to wear a Garmin watch full time. I’ve submitted a suggestion over the years but not sure what else to do.

It’s… sort of in a middle ground I don’t really love though. As a fitness watch it’s absolutely skeletal - minimal delay, no GPS tracking of its own instead relying on your phone, limited pairing options (can’t connect it to a power meter on my bike for one), limited activity types… and as a wearable. It’s a little, well, TOO - feature heavy; it has a screen, for one, making it too bulky to wear under a buttoned shirt cuff; its band isn’t breathable or that stretchy, etc. I’d rather it have fewer features, just measure HR and HRV and send it to Garmin connect with no other frills. Barring that, I’d rather it be a bit more of a full featured fitness watch. It’s just in this middle ground where it’s not quite either.

Yeah agreed. It’s still the best option I’ve found, but - as a guy who works in an office and occasionally has to suit up - I wish it was smaller.

I'm a subscriber to the endurance training platform intervals.icu. Every morning, I use a Shortcut to run a questionnaire in which I enter my Vitals heart rate and then a survey of subjective recovery metrics: sleep quality, mood, stress, soreness, motivation, injury, and notes. The only numerical value is my Vitals HR, which represents the early morning, just-before-waking heart rate. This is by far a better predictor of my training readiness and health than any numerical value spat out by any algorithm I've ever tried. It's a much better way to track my long-term health context. I still have a Garmin but I ignore everything except Body Battery, which I actually do think does a great job of capturing my sleep quality and training status. If you listen to top endurance coaches, they don't use any of the numerical, algorithmic values from any devices, other than maybe resting heart rate. What they use is conversations with athletes, questionnaires, and whether the athletes have been adhering to their training schedule.

I'm in the same boat as you. I wish Garmin had a ring or band or something like that. Vivosmart or vivofit are as close as it gets. I actually just ordered a vivosmart yesterday that I'm going to change the band on to something that won't grab the cuff of my dress shirts like silicone. I'm tired of my Fenix ruining the cuffs of my dress shirts and also having a nice watch sitting at home unworn.

I actually ended up getting a vivosmart to wear on R wrist that’s a little more discreet. On non workout days or when the epix is charging I’ll wear it with my mechanicals.

I’ll be the first to admit it’s not perfect, you do have to sync to the Connect app. But if you do it right, your step tracking, health metrics, and sleep metrics should be OK! I would just not recommend the vivosmart for running without your phone since it lacks its own GPS.

I have a Vivosmart 5 which has steps, but there's still the issue of having to tell it you are doing yoga to get HR alerts.

I was a big fan but the more training I do the more I realize that it mostly confirms what I already know. If it says I slept poorly and HRV is low, it's probably because I slept poorly and don't feel up for a big workout. At this point I probably don't need it, but I keep it on my wrist anyways. The biggest benefit I've found is that it can help alert you when things are going pear shaped. If you're usually at like a 42 HRV, and it starts dipping consistently, then it may be time to change something or you may be getting sick or something like that. I noticed my spO2 was dropping and my breath rate was up and it turned out that I was in the early stages of pneumonia. Anyways, I use an apple watch and the metrics are fed into coachcat, but I may dabble in athlytic soon. The apple sensors are the best but apple health doesn't really give you actionable info with their home app. Garmin has usually been mediocre for me (735xt and vivosmart bands) while fitbit was actually really good (luxe was a nice compact band).

This is what I do. I have a Garmin Fenix as my sports watch and switch to the Vivosmart when I am wearing my Speedy.

Moonwatch SS and a Garmin vivosmart daily. The vivosmart is small and discrete. It gives me simple notifications, battery life is multi day, and does basic health tracking. Doesn’t feel like I am dual watching. Garmin Fenix 6 when I am exercising or doing something manual. Large readable, light to wear and hardy. No risk of damage for the nice watch.

I have the vivosmart, its sleep tracking is crap. Doesn't the Fenix do sleep tracking as well?