Using Apple watch with Scosche rhythm24
You probably heard a lot about Apple watch. It’s the best smartwatch (not fitness watch like Garmin Fenix 6 series, Polar Vantage V and so on) available in the market. It has one of the best heart rate accuracy for a wristwatch (including the fitness watch). There are more chances of getting unjustified readings of heart rate from the Garmin Fenix series than the Apple watch. However, the sampling rate of Apple watch heart rate readings is not as good as many other fitness watches (or bands). Sometimes I have noticed especially low priority workouts like outdoor walk, it doesn’t even record heart rate continuously for a long time. It’s a good thing that it can pair with external heart rate monitors (not to be taken granted for apple devices).
I recently bought the Scosche rhythm24 heart rate monitor. Scosche rhythm is an armband heart rate monitor. So, unlike a somewhat tedious process of wearing a chest heart rate monitor, it’s as easy to wear as any smartwatch. The best selling point for me for this Scosche rhythm24 is its ability to measure heart rate variability (HRV). If you haven’t heard about HRV yet, you should definitely check this out on Google. There are so many blogs explaining the capability of HRV to capture the best body response, much better than heart rate or resting heart rate. I will talk about my experience for HRV with Scosche rhythm24 in another post. There is no way so far (I did not find anyway) that you can use Scosche rhythm24 with your Apple watch to record HRV. We need to use an iPhone for that. Btw, don’t confuse Scosche rhythm24 with its predecessor Scoche rhythm+, which doesn’t have the capability of recording HRV.
The way I use Scosche rhythm with the Apple watch is very simple. Open the Settings on your Apple watch, navigate to Bluetooth, scroll down to search for new Health devices, and you shall find the Rhythm 24, connect to it. This is a one-time process, next time when you turn on your Scosche rhythm24, it should automatically connect to your Apple watch.
Now, if you open your Heart Rate app on the Apple watch, you can notice a quick recording of your heart rate. The Apple watch by itself record heart rate roughly every 10 minutes, but with the heart rate monitor, it does it more frequently.
Now, you can go out for an outdoor walk with the peace of mind that your Apple watch with record your every heartbeat and will count it as your goal towards 30 minutes workout. And since you’re using external heart rate monitor, Apple watch doesn’t need to use much of its battery for recording heart rate, although, for outdoor activity, it will still use GPS and GPS take a good toll on the battery. The new series 5 Apple watch (Series 3 supports 4 hours of GPS uses) promises to support 6 hours of GPS use, so it’s not so bad for regular uses. The use of armband heart rate monitor is even more useful for strength training where the differences in the consistency with the wrist based Apple watch heart rate monitor (Apple watch is infact better than any other wrist based heart rate monitor for strength training) is more pronounced.
