The Real Measure of Fitness Tech: Motivation Over Metrics

When I ended my run today, it was a great feeling of satisfaction and gratitude that I was able to run those 12 km in a dreamy forest with a friend, chatting and enjoying at the same time the nice morning nature.

Breaking away from that idilic image, as a geek I was wearing two watches – a Garmin EPIX Pro and a Apple Watch Ultra and I couldn’t help but comparing the distance measure by the devices, as I did with the measured HR or altitude.

The conclusion is that it doesn’t matter the accuracy, what’s important it how you feel with a particular device (and ecosystem) and how that motivates you to move forward and move, be active.

Now, diving into the details and stats collected by the devices, I concluded:

• Garmin usually measures a longer distance than Apple
• The altitude reporting from Garmin is better than Apple’s
• The oHR sensor from Garmin (Elevate V5) is not perfect and had some hiccups during the run

I had worn the devices on left (Garmin EPIX Pro) and right (Apple Watch Ultra) and that is obvious from the tracks..they were consistent and generally followed the real tracks.

Both were using the oHR, which is considered generally reliable and usually they are. Apple is not without fault, I’ve seen it missing some beats and not collecting data for some minutes during the activity (not this one though). Garmin this time had a period of “reset”, when after a pause it didn’t follow the real heart rate value (perceived at least), but stay low for a while.

Apple Watch (Ultra) has a good reputation for the HR sensor, it was ok today, no surprises.

In terms of altitude measurement, things are different – Apple is not that accurate .. it might not count on flat courses (like mine), but for longer trail runs I imagine things won’t be as pretty.

This is not the first time I see that Apple Watch Ultra is not a “champion” for altitude .. it’s generally ok, but if you add all the differences, you may end up with a lot more movement “up-down” than in reality. It’s not critical, it doesn’t differ by hundreds of meters .. but it adds up.

For distance, Apple displayed 12.37km and Garmin EPIX 12.46km. In the analysis displayed by quantified.io (and Strava if you insist in the distance correction) they recorded 12.47km and respectively 12.59km – so the difference stays. I reflects what I’ve seen when wearing both devices at the same time, usually Garmin measures a longer distance than Apple, not a big difference .. but usually longer distance.

The conclusion is that, picking the “right” device for you is not that much about the absolute precision, but rather about the way you feel encouraged to move and be active, how comfortable are you with the ecosystem. All devices have their measurement flaws during activities, but as long as you are persistent and motivated to continue, that’s the most important aspect you could take into consideration. Everyone’s priority list is different, but in my view it should start with “what makes you feel right and move” more than the raw functionalities.

With that, enjoy your active life and pick whatever device supports you in achieving the goals!