Recommendations for heart rate pacing with smart watch vibrations to keep below anaerobic threshold

[Azariah]

Please can someone recommend smart watches that may be suitable that you have or have tried yourself? I am having such an extremely difficult time in researching myself

I'm looking for a smart watch which:

*monitors heart rate
*has the option to vibrate when a set hr rate is reached or gone over
*and that the vibrate does not only occur after 10 minutes of inactivity, but immediately as soon as the set HR is reached
*the options for the watch to vibrate to not be limited. by this I mean that it doesnt limit from between 40-60 and 100-200. I need to atleast be able to use the numbers in between these heart rates. probably between 60-100
*accurate HR monitoring
*options to adjust vibration intensity
*option to adjust brightness on the screen and possibly turn it off/on
*no wifi
*where bluetooth can be turned on/off by myself. I can't have constant or sporadic and unknown exposure to bluetooth if it tries to sync several times throughout the day. I want it to only sync when I decide this
*preferably a small screen for smaller light exposure
*preferably slim silicon with slim/small face
*reasonably priced. I'm hoping for 200 pounds or less
*compatible with samsung galaxy s7edge or ipad 16
*being able to monitor different heart rate zones might help if possible
* possibly able to measure HRV. can someone please explain to me why this is so important?
*what can I do to find my anaerobic thresthold HR? I find the calculations I have seen previously elsewhere confusing. Is there a device that can work out things like resting HR and AT? and possibly for other zones?

Edit: without camera or any voice recognition, no alexa or siri and no built in satelite gps.

 

[Tootiredtothink]

I haven’t tried a smart watch but I highly recommend the free or subscription ”Visible”app with arm heart monitor specifically designed for ME/CFS therefore safe heart rate monitoring. I use it with an old Galaxy phone! It cleverly works out a lot of things for you once you have built up a few weeks of data.

 

[TJ_Fitz]

Don't waste your money! In my experience, heart rate pacing is unnecessarily limiting for some kinds of activities and not limiting enough for others. Even with the numbers I got from my Workwell study, it was useless. For example, holding my arms above my head will immediately drive my heart rate way up beyond my AT without causing PEM (unless I keep them up for too long), while extended periods of mental work can cause PEM without any significant change to my heart rate. I'm sure that these phenomena are not specific to me.

Heart rate pacing will probably help avoid PEM for large muscle movement activities like walking, and may even help you build/maintain your aerobic capacity (see here for the general idea, even if the given formula doesn't work for us ME/CFS patients). But if you want to avoid flare-ups from overexertion, you need to watch for signs of fatigue in the muscles that are working, or mental fatigue in the case of your brain.

I know that heart rate monitoring is touted as the silver bullet to solve PEM, but it just isn't. The real solution is awareness of how your body is responding to exertion.

 

[Azariah]

I haven’t tried a smart watch but I highly recommend the free or subscription ”Visible”app with arm heart monitor specifically designed for ME/CFS therefore safe heart rate monitoring. I use it with an old Galaxy phone! It cleverly works out a lot of things for you once you have built up a few weeks of data.

Thank you i just looked it up but says not compatible with my phone. Mine is galaxy but maybe its too old?

 

[Azariah]

Don't waste your money! In my experience, heart rate pacing is unnecessarily limiting for some kinds of activities and not limiting enough for others. Even with the numbers I got from my Workwell study, it was useless. For example, holding my arms above my head will immediately drive my heart rate way up beyond my AT without causing PEM (unless I keep them up for too long), while extended periods of mental work can cause PEM without any significant change to my heart rate. I'm sure that these phenomena are not specific to me.

Heart rate pacing will probably help avoid PEM for large muscle movement activities like walking, and may even help you build/maintain your aerobic capacity (see here for the general idea, even if the given formula doesn't work for us ME/CFS patients). But if you want to avoid flare-ups from overexertion, you need to watch for signs of fatigue in the muscles that are working, or mental fatigue in the case of your brain.

I know that heart rate monitoring is touted as the silver bullet to solve PEM, but it just isn't. The real solution is awareness of how your body is responding to exertion.

Thank you for your feedback.

Are you able to expand futher on limitations of heart rate pacing please?
I saw that HRV is better to monitor if overdoing things cognitively compared to heart rate pacing. Have you any thoughts or experiences using HRV for exertion including mental exertion?

 

[TJ_Fitz]

Thank you for your feedback.

Are you able to expand futher on limitations of heart rate pacing please?
I saw that HRV is better to monitor if overdoing things cognitively compared to heart rate pacing. Have you any thoughts or experiences using HRV for exertion including mental exertion?

HRV is useful at distinguishing how well you are recovered, assuming you can get a good baseline, which is quite difficult if you're constantly yo-yoing from overdoing it. I have a high-quality chest strap HR monitor, and have tried using HRV in my efforts to understand where I'm at on a given day, but I really haven't been able to get much use from the data. I can't afford something like the Oura Ring, which uses HRV and might be helpful for determining how well recovered you are, but I suspect it would be useful. They are getting better and cheaper every year, so maybe I'll get one at some point.

As far as pacing by HR goes, HR and blood pressure changes are systemic responses, and may not change significantly, or, alternatively, may show an outsized change, as a result of exertion in this or that part of your body. To go back to the first example I used, HR can change rapidly with changes in position. If you sit up after lying down for a while, your HR jumps to compensate for the resistance of gravity in getting blood to your brain and upper body. It does the same thing, for the same reason, when you raise your arms. But just because your HR jumps after raising your arms doesn't mean that you're overworking your shoulder muscles. You have to pay attention to how the muscles under strain are responding to the strain. If you hold your arms up for too long and those muscles get pushed to the point at which whatever cellular responses cause PEM happen, then you'll probably have a flare-up, but just having your HR go up above your AT isn't a problem.

Regarding my second example, let's say you sit and read a book for 2 hours. Your HR isn't going to go up because of that activity. However, some parts of your body are working hard for a long time to keep your book in position: muscles in your hands and arms to hold your book in position, muscles in your eyes to focus on the words, and various parts of your brain are working to convert the images from your eyes into words and to process language so you can comprehend and remember what you read. Even without elevating your HR, all these local exertions tax energy production on the involved cells, and those cells produce waste products, and if you, like many ME/CFS patients, have poor microcirculation, those waste products may build up faster than they can be removed, or your those cells may not get enough oxygen locally, or maybe there's some other local phenomena that triggers PEM.

HR is only an indirect indicator of exertion. There's something abnormal that happens to us at the cellular level in response to overexertion that causes these reactions, and HR doesn't always tell us when we are in danger of reaching that point.

So what is the answer? Self-awareness. You've got to notice, in the moment, how your body is responding to what you're doing, and that takes practice. Are your hands starting to shake, is your vision getting a little blurry, is your mind getting foggy, etc.? At least, that's been my experience. I wish there was a "silver bullet"!