Heart rate from a watch when walking with poles: how far to trust it

A watch measures heart rate with light on your wrist. When you walk with poles, your hand keeps moving and holds a pole. How accurate is that?

What the study did

In 2021, Korean authors compared three heart-rate measurements in 15 young men (average age 23.7 years) during ordinary walking and Nordic Walking: a 12-lead ECG as the reference, a chest strap (Polar H7, which measures ECG) and an optical wrist sensor (Fitbit Charge 2).

Results

• The chest strap agreed with the ECG very well (agreement coefficient 0.96), the wrist sensor less well (0.84).
• For the chest strap, the error did not differ significantly between ordinary walking and Nordic Walking.
• For the wrist sensor, the average error in Nordic Walking was larger: 6.60 beats per minute versus 3.68 in ordinary walking.

How to read this

The study is small, done in a laboratory, with only young men and two specific devices. It is not a brand ranking, and other models may give a different result. The authors conclude that ECG-based straps may be better than optical sensors in Nordic Walking, while both types are adequate in ordinary walking.

What follows

If an exact heart rate matters to you, for example with heart problems, a chest strap is the better choice. For ordinary relaxed walking a watch or the talk test is enough.

Sources

• Accuracy of Wearable Devices for Measuring Heart Rate During Conventional and Nordic Walking (PM R, 2021)

Text: Kompas.