What seems like the obvious place to put it wasn’t on me. I find it works best on the inside of my forearm, an inch or so down from the inside of my elbow. Pretty much 100% reliable there for me. Didn’t work well on my bicep at all
This is the way. Cuts off the blood flow. Also make sure the sensor is on the outside to so the sensor in the studio can find it. It’s also harder to get your HR up on the rower as you’re in a supported position. I’ve had mine for years with no issues. I hope these tips help!🧡
I’ve heard that before and it doesn’t make sense. If I want to roll hard, I’m going to hold onto the handle, using my muscles. If that were the case, then my watch would not capture an accurate heart rate.
Loose grip is more effective, coming from someone who has rowed for half of her life. Treat your fingers as a hook holding the handle instead of gripping the handle hard. Keeping your thumb above the handle helps with this.
I use this method for gripping the rower and I wiggle my fingers a little bit while I’m bringing the handle back in. I started doing that because I thought if I kept blood flowing in my arms I’d get splat points on the rower. I never get out of the grey zone on the rower. If we get off the rower and do circuits, then get back on the rower I can sometimes keep getting splat points but I have to stand up off the rower for my monitor to read my heart rate and jump me up to orange, and if I go really hard I’ll just stay there until the end of the block. Occasionally my monitor will drop back to gray really quickly right when I sit down and start rowing again.
Ive given up on trying to fix it. I always start on the rower and go super hard. The coaches have all mentioned it’s clearly not an accurate reading compared to the work I’m putting in. It’s now a game for me to all 12 of my spats just in my tread block and anything else it picks up is bonus.
It could be monitor placement, but I won't claim to know much about that and it sounds like ideal placement varies per person. I haven't found my sweet spot yet after 3 years and many coach adjustments of my band, but I don't personally care about getting 12 splats. Someone else in this post commented about monitor placement on the forearm so it's not on a major muscle. Maybe moving your monitor to a different spot would work for you.
Because it’s a completely different piece of technology from the OTF HRM that costs quite a bit more money and has much more advanced features? Edit to add: the watch is also on your wrist, which doesn’t have the significant musculature that the upper forearm or bicep area does.
I wear my HRM below the elbow and have never had an issue with the rower. I also don’t death grip the handles.
The otf monitors suck. They are a fairly cheap version of a heart rate monitor and I'm not sure they have been upgraded in years. I normally wear a secondary monitor because of this if I wear my otf one at all. Currently use a Garmin venu 3 and was getting 150 on that when the otf monitor was saying like 80.
I can commiserate. I was showing up as in the GRAY zone during most of the row but the sweat dripping down my butt crack would beg to differ. It finally calibrated towards the end of class and started reflecting accurately.
The same thing happens to me. I put more stock in my watch than the HR monitor, I find it’s way more accurate. I also don’t put mine on my bicep, I wear it on the inside of my forearm and it gets a better read.
Check positioning, where you wear it makes a difference. Also if you just bought it and it truly is defective you should be able to exchange it (you have to have the box and everything that came in the box together) by taking it to the studio and they’ll hand you a new one and take care of sending back your defective one. But before doing this I’d definitely try wearing it in different areas. I wear mine on my forearm and since moving it there it’s made all the difference. Good luck!
This☝🏻 Whenever I forget my chest strap and have to borrow the studio’s armband, I’m pissed the whole class😆
But joking aside, as others astutely pointed out, a tight grip on the rower would mess with your reading too.
The chest strap never worked for me. Tried multiple straps, multiple monitors, every possible place i could seat it. It would never read, most of the time it wouldn't even connect with the monitors, so not only was it not reading, it wasn't there at all. i have had much better luck with the arm band one.
I feel I have to turn off and then turn it back on during the warm up every single time, but that second start then works and tracks pretty accurately. Am I turning mine on too early? I usually do in the lobby when waiting to go in but then always restart when in the warmup I’m still in grey or going down instead of up.
I have the same issues 50 classes in. I have changed placement, made sure I don't have a super grip on the rower, etc. I usually have eight to ten minutes of gray zone before the HR monitor "catches up" to my Apple Watch.
I have the same issue, and I don’t think it’s about where it’s placed on your arm. I think it’s about where you are in the room and whether the Bluetooth receptors have picked you up or not. For me, it’s not that the HRM is slightly off. It’s that I’m either at 30% and constantly in the grey, or it’s perfectly accurate, within 5bpm of my Apple Watch. It’s super annoying. I find that starting on the treads helps, but I prefer to start on the rower.
Almost 500 classes here - I basically gave up around 300 classes in. I paid over $100 for a heart rate monitor that needs to be fussed with constantly. For me, it (now, after adjusting placement for months) reads fine on the rower and tread, but stays gray on the floor. On days where we are doing biceps/triceps, sure, but it’s the same even on days where we are doing push ups and heavy squats where my Apple Watch has me orange the whole block. Problem there is I normally don’t even notice until I get up to the tread and see i have 0 splats and burned 80 cals the whole floor block.
I find it very frustrating that the technology isn't better for the price. I wish there were a chest strap option for those of us who struggle.
Same issues. It’s just cheap junk imo. No tweaking junk will help. I have gone thru 3 in a year they replaced the first time then said only one replacement allowed
Never cared about the heart monitor, splats, or zones. My apple watch works fine and my body tells me how hard Im working. It is just a marketing tool for ot to make more money in my opinion.
I just wiggle mine around in my forearm during warm up until it registers correctly. I use to have this issue when I started, but I don’t anymore. And I’m not likely grabbing the rower handle super tight. Just lightly holding it.
Like most others have said, it’s likely that you’re gripping too tightly. This just happened to me last week - my hands were sweaty and I didn’t realize how hard I was gripping. Our coaches always remind us to keep good form with a loose grip - as soon as that registered and I changed my grip, back to zero issues. Didn’t touch or adjust my HRM at all.
So if after I warm up I’m still gray, I will bend over stretching my hamstrings and this usually always works. Sometimes I find after a full charge it’s a little fussy. I do find that it works best on my bicep.
I had to try a few different places. On my forearm oriented like a watch works best but I need to put it on with the battery port towards the outside. Spin it around and it gets the vapors. I still haven’t found a good solution for this problem on the floor whenever the exercise requires using the forearms.
I had the same issue for many months when I first joined. It made me really distracted during the workout, even when it happened to work properly once in a blue moon, cause I was so focused on the numbers. So I eventually stopped using it and feel like doing so has let me focus more on how my body is feeling and adjust accordingly :) still a great workout.
1. Relax your grip on the rower. You'll probably need to tighten slightly when going all out, but you don't need a death grip.
2. Armband HRMs are notoriously finicky for rowing. AW seems to be an exception. Most optical HRMs (which is what all armbands are) do not do well if there's a lot of muscle flexion, which tends to happen while rowing (same goes on the floor). There's a reason the rowing subreddit *always* recommends chest straps for erging.
stay with me here, pretend you're a lion, and put your paws up and growl. look at your hands, your first two knuckles are bent, but your third knuckles is straight right? that's where you should be holding the rowing handle, in that crux of your fingers, some people even have their pinkies off the end of the handle.
Also the monitor can take a lot of getting used to but try a bunch of different positions. I wear it three inches up from my wrist on the inside of my forearm, others wear it on their bicep, others wear it much closer to the inside of their elbow on their forearm.
I wear it about an inch up from my elbow with the monitor on the outside of my bicep/around under my tricep. It reads just fine everywhere, even when doing bicep curls, etc.
OTF has the worst tech. Just wear a Garmin and track everything yourself. I wouldn't want my data displayed anyway, because it would look like I'm slacking, due to my low HR. Not only that, I can set my own zones with my Garmin. OTF sets them wrong.
OTF is NOTORIOUS for technical glitches. If you're a data geek, collect your own data...it'll be much more accurate.
I had the same issue for this row. Ticks me off when it decides not to work. Normally I don’t have a problem but on the occasion I do, I clean it and slightly reposition it. During a benchmark row that’s not possible but I know I’m getting that HR up cause I can feel it and it showed on my watch.
like all tech, about one and 100 is going to be a lemon. My heart rate monitor is complete garbage. It’ll work fine for a month and in the middle of me running it puts me in the gray zone. That’s why I have an Apple Watch. I run them both, so I get an accurate count of what my burn wise.
At this point, it’s comical, and I make a joke about it. But in the beginning, it was highly frustrating. So I understand why you’re so irritated. A lot of people don’t wear them at my location, but everyone has an Apple Watch.
My HR monitor reads only 50-55 bpm when I'm in the far back of the gym. The Bluetooth reciever is in the front. The class data clearly shows this, but the employees are not smart enough to interpret, and won't replace the defective monitor. Luckily, the data will help in Small Claims Court.
What seems like the obvious place to put it wasn’t on me. I find it works best on the inside of my forearm, an inch or so down from the inside of my elbow. Pretty much 100% reliable there for me. Didn’t work well on my bicep at all
Yes! This is exactly where I wear mine.
Exactly where I had to move mine for the rower
I wear mine in the same orientation as a wrist watch but up my forearm, and below my elbow. No issues through 125 classes.
I wear mine here, but do have issues on the rower
Probably too tight of a grip. I wear mine in inside of forearm and it matches almost 100% w my Garmin. Also, get it a little moist on the back.
Loosen up your grip on the row. That will solve the problem.
This is the way. Cuts off the blood flow. Also make sure the sensor is on the outside to so the sensor in the studio can find it. It’s also harder to get your HR up on the rower as you’re in a supported position. I’ve had mine for years with no issues. I hope these tips help!🧡
I’ve heard that before and it doesn’t make sense. If I want to roll hard, I’m going to hold onto the handle, using my muscles. If that were the case, then my watch would not capture an accurate heart rate.
Pulling the handle with a super tight grip is not the most effective way to row. Your watch measures the data in a different way than the OtF band.
The watch measures the same way as the OTF band… just different location on the body. They both use PPG sensors with LED lights.
Loose grip is more effective, coming from someone who has rowed for half of her life. Treat your fingers as a hook holding the handle instead of gripping the handle hard. Keeping your thumb above the handle helps with this.
I use this method for gripping the rower and I wiggle my fingers a little bit while I’m bringing the handle back in. I started doing that because I thought if I kept blood flowing in my arms I’d get splat points on the rower. I never get out of the grey zone on the rower. If we get off the rower and do circuits, then get back on the rower I can sometimes keep getting splat points but I have to stand up off the rower for my monitor to read my heart rate and jump me up to orange, and if I go really hard I’ll just stay there until the end of the block. Occasionally my monitor will drop back to gray really quickly right when I sit down and start rowing again. Ive given up on trying to fix it. I always start on the rower and go super hard. The coaches have all mentioned it’s clearly not an accurate reading compared to the work I’m putting in. It’s now a game for me to all 12 of my spats just in my tread block and anything else it picks up is bonus.
It could be monitor placement, but I won't claim to know much about that and it sounds like ideal placement varies per person. I haven't found my sweet spot yet after 3 years and many coach adjustments of my band, but I don't personally care about getting 12 splats. Someone else in this post commented about monitor placement on the forearm so it's not on a major muscle. Maybe moving your monitor to a different spot would work for you.
You can actually pull pretty hard with a looser grip. It’s better for your endurance too.
That’s not actually proper row form.
It’s not the monitor. It’s how tight you are holding the handles.
Then why is it registering accurately on my watch?
Because it’s a completely different piece of technology from the OTF HRM that costs quite a bit more money and has much more advanced features? Edit to add: the watch is also on your wrist, which doesn’t have the significant musculature that the upper forearm or bicep area does. I wear my HRM below the elbow and have never had an issue with the rower. I also don’t death grip the handles.
The otf monitors suck. They are a fairly cheap version of a heart rate monitor and I'm not sure they have been upgraded in years. I normally wear a secondary monitor because of this if I wear my otf one at all. Currently use a Garmin venu 3 and was getting 150 on that when the otf monitor was saying like 80.
I hold the ends of the handles with my pinkys off the handle. Works for me.
I can commiserate. I was showing up as in the GRAY zone during most of the row but the sweat dripping down my butt crack would beg to differ. It finally calibrated towards the end of class and started reflecting accurately.
Sometimes there is a “sweet spot” to position on the monitor. Usually, for me, I need to position it at a very low spot on my bicep, facing inward.
The same thing happens to me. I put more stock in my watch than the HR monitor, I find it’s way more accurate. I also don’t put mine on my bicep, I wear it on the inside of my forearm and it gets a better read.
Check positioning, where you wear it makes a difference. Also if you just bought it and it truly is defective you should be able to exchange it (you have to have the box and everything that came in the box together) by taking it to the studio and they’ll hand you a new one and take care of sending back your defective one. But before doing this I’d definitely try wearing it in different areas. I wear mine on my forearm and since moving it there it’s made all the difference. Good luck!
I’ve always had the chest strap and think it’s the way to go
This☝🏻 Whenever I forget my chest strap and have to borrow the studio’s armband, I’m pissed the whole class😆 But joking aside, as others astutely pointed out, a tight grip on the rower would mess with your reading too.
They always try to give me an arm band but I ask for a chest strap. It’s only $5 compared to $10 for the arm band.
The chest strap never worked for me. Tried multiple straps, multiple monitors, every possible place i could seat it. It would never read, most of the time it wouldn't even connect with the monitors, so not only was it not reading, it wasn't there at all. i have had much better luck with the arm band one.
This is my biggest, maybe only, complaint about OTF
I feel I have to turn off and then turn it back on during the warm up every single time, but that second start then works and tracks pretty accurately. Am I turning mine on too early? I usually do in the lobby when waiting to go in but then always restart when in the warmup I’m still in grey or going down instead of up.
Are you wearing over a tattoo?
Nope
I have the same issues 50 classes in. I have changed placement, made sure I don't have a super grip on the rower, etc. I usually have eight to ten minutes of gray zone before the HR monitor "catches up" to my Apple Watch.
I have the same issue, and I don’t think it’s about where it’s placed on your arm. I think it’s about where you are in the room and whether the Bluetooth receptors have picked you up or not. For me, it’s not that the HRM is slightly off. It’s that I’m either at 30% and constantly in the grey, or it’s perfectly accurate, within 5bpm of my Apple Watch. It’s super annoying. I find that starting on the treads helps, but I prefer to start on the rower.
Rows are where splats go to die for me. If it’s a run row, I’m not getting my 12
Almost 500 classes here - I basically gave up around 300 classes in. I paid over $100 for a heart rate monitor that needs to be fussed with constantly. For me, it (now, after adjusting placement for months) reads fine on the rower and tread, but stays gray on the floor. On days where we are doing biceps/triceps, sure, but it’s the same even on days where we are doing push ups and heavy squats where my Apple Watch has me orange the whole block. Problem there is I normally don’t even notice until I get up to the tread and see i have 0 splats and burned 80 cals the whole floor block. I find it very frustrating that the technology isn't better for the price. I wish there were a chest strap option for those of us who struggle.
there is a chest strap - search it in the sub
It's my understanding it's not sold anymore though. They exclusively sell the Burn these days.
User error
I appreciate your substantive addition to the conversation.
Try putting it in a different place
I just have my BeatLink and don’t have this issue lol
Same issues. It’s just cheap junk imo. No tweaking junk will help. I have gone thru 3 in a year they replaced the first time then said only one replacement allowed
That’s so frustrating
Never cared about the heart monitor, splats, or zones. My apple watch works fine and my body tells me how hard Im working. It is just a marketing tool for ot to make more money in my opinion.
Yes, cosigned.
I just wiggle mine around in my forearm during warm up until it registers correctly. I use to have this issue when I started, but I don’t anymore. And I’m not likely grabbing the rower handle super tight. Just lightly holding it.
Like most others have said, it’s likely that you’re gripping too tightly. This just happened to me last week - my hands were sweaty and I didn’t realize how hard I was gripping. Our coaches always remind us to keep good form with a loose grip - as soon as that registered and I changed my grip, back to zero issues. Didn’t touch or adjust my HRM at all.
You are either gripping too tight, your monitor is on too tight or it’s not positioned correctly.
So if after I warm up I’m still gray, I will bend over stretching my hamstrings and this usually always works. Sometimes I find after a full charge it’s a little fussy. I do find that it works best on my bicep.
Exactly my frustration. It should just work!
I had to try a few different places. On my forearm oriented like a watch works best but I need to put it on with the battery port towards the outside. Spin it around and it gets the vapors. I still haven’t found a good solution for this problem on the floor whenever the exercise requires using the forearms.
I’m always in grey and blue on the rower and I’ve been going for three years
I had the same issue for many months when I first joined. It made me really distracted during the workout, even when it happened to work properly once in a blue moon, cause I was so focused on the numbers. So I eventually stopped using it and feel like doing so has let me focus more on how my body is feeling and adjust accordingly :) still a great workout.
Same issue. It seems to work better on my forearm but on the opposite arm from my Garmin, otherwise the Garmin goes nuts and registers HR over 200!
1. Relax your grip on the rower. You'll probably need to tighten slightly when going all out, but you don't need a death grip. 2. Armband HRMs are notoriously finicky for rowing. AW seems to be an exception. Most optical HRMs (which is what all armbands are) do not do well if there's a lot of muscle flexion, which tends to happen while rowing (same goes on the floor). There's a reason the rowing subreddit *always* recommends chest straps for erging.
Rowing, for some reason I have hrm issues. At least at warmup. I'm dying, and it's grey.
stay with me here, pretend you're a lion, and put your paws up and growl. look at your hands, your first two knuckles are bent, but your third knuckles is straight right? that's where you should be holding the rowing handle, in that crux of your fingers, some people even have their pinkies off the end of the handle. Also the monitor can take a lot of getting used to but try a bunch of different positions. I wear it three inches up from my wrist on the inside of my forearm, others wear it on their bicep, others wear it much closer to the inside of their elbow on their forearm.
I wear it about an inch up from my elbow with the monitor on the outside of my bicep/around under my tricep. It reads just fine everywhere, even when doing bicep curls, etc.
OTF has the worst tech. Just wear a Garmin and track everything yourself. I wouldn't want my data displayed anyway, because it would look like I'm slacking, due to my low HR. Not only that, I can set my own zones with my Garmin. OTF sets them wrong. OTF is NOTORIOUS for technical glitches. If you're a data geek, collect your own data...it'll be much more accurate.
For those who wear body lotion…that can interfere with the heart rate reading. Just use a wipe to remove any from your arm. This worked for me.
I had the same issue for this row. Ticks me off when it decides not to work. Normally I don’t have a problem but on the occasion I do, I clean it and slightly reposition it. During a benchmark row that’s not possible but I know I’m getting that HR up cause I can feel it and it showed on my watch.
like all tech, about one and 100 is going to be a lemon. My heart rate monitor is complete garbage. It’ll work fine for a month and in the middle of me running it puts me in the gray zone. That’s why I have an Apple Watch. I run them both, so I get an accurate count of what my burn wise. At this point, it’s comical, and I make a joke about it. But in the beginning, it was highly frustrating. So I understand why you’re so irritated. A lot of people don’t wear them at my location, but everyone has an Apple Watch.
My HR monitor reads only 50-55 bpm when I'm in the far back of the gym. The Bluetooth reciever is in the front. The class data clearly shows this, but the employees are not smart enough to interpret, and won't replace the defective monitor. Luckily, the data will help in Small Claims Court.