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Home » Fitness » The Secret to Finding a Waterproof Fitness Tracker – ConsumerReports.org

For Connor Jaeger, who won the silver medal and set an American record in the 1500-meter freestyle at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, fitness trackers are less about distance and strokes and more about calculating the full impact his workouts have on his bodynot only in the pool but also on dry land.

He started using the $500 Whoop Strap fitness tracker in December 2015 and wore it every day in preparation for the Rio Games. Geared toward elite athletes, the Strap doesnt track speed and laps but rather heart-rate data, which can be used to monitor the toll that swimming, cycling, and other activities take on the body. With info like that, you can adjust your training schedule to allow ample time for recovery between workouts.

When you're training cross-discipline, everything becomes a best estimate of what your aggregate workload is, the Olympian wrote in an email. Whoop helped us say definitively just how much stress our bodies were under and how the out-of-the-water workouts were contributing to it.

This raises an important shortcoming in swim-related trackers: They rarely monitor heart rate. Thats because the water interferes with the optical technology employed by most trackers, which uses green LEDs to detect heartbeats by measuring the light reflecting from your wrist. (Blood absorbs green light and reflects red.)

Another trade-off? The trackers rarely have displays, which means you have to use a mobile app to view the results of your workouts.

In fact, that explains in part why the Misfit Shine, the Moove Now, and the Fitbit Flex 2, which offer swim-related tracking, received less-than-stellar scores in our ratings despite having excellent water resistance. All lack the versatility of trackers with heart-rate monitors and screens.

Even Apple's swim-tracking smartwatchthe Series 2which has a touch screen and delivers on its promise of water resistance to 161 feet for 10 minutes, comes with the caveat that the heart-rate sensor may not function properly in the pool.

Garmin has ventured to solve this problem with specially designed heart-rate monitor straps (the HRM-Swim and the HRM-Tri) that fit snug against the wrist and pair with its Swim smartwatch.

Of course, if you're willing to forgo competing in the Olympics (or a triathlon), you may be perfectly happy with a tracker that counts breast strokes instead of heartbeats. In that case, you should look for a tracker that claims to be swim-proof.

And, just to be certain that it meets that claim, consult our ratings. To pass our tests, a swim-proof tracker must survive for 10 minutes in the dunk tank at the equivalent of 50 feet of water.

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The Secret to Finding a Waterproof Fitness Tracker - ConsumerReports.org

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Home » Fitness » The Secret to Finding a Waterproof Fitness Tracker – ConsumerReports.org