Fitness Tracker for Swimming

my wife got a fitbit as part of her work wellness/fitness incentive program. that got me thinking about the same for swimming. imho, there isnt one for swimming yes there are some that claim that they are, BUT (that's a big but) the go on your wrist just like a fitbit or watch. no way no how am i wearing one that way...period! i might be able to handle a neck mount, but a chest mount wont work either. would flap like crazy on a pushoff. or the chest mount ones out there cant handle being in water or want a land based recorder via bluetooth. i think all of the options are blech! steve

My wife purchased for my birthday a Garmin Forerunner 910XT. While it does not tracking walking, it does tracking running, biking and swimming. And you can track pool or open water swimming. It does have some very nice features.

sunruh, here is the link for the Garmin. It does heart rate, distance, and a few other things: sites.garmin.com/.../ I have not seen anything that's ideal, but if you don't mind wearing a watch, this is probably a good option. It's expensive, though. It's $400 on amazon.

i had read it over and didnt see the heart rate part. moo moo my bad. however, note it says heart rate may not work if submerged. ok, call me crazy, but more than half (time wise) of swimming that wrist is submerged. ie the pull!!! so it only monitors heart rate on stroke recovery? what if every time it goes to monitor my wrist is under? since i doubt it is continuously monitoring.

Hi all! I am re-entering the swimming world after a 10 year hiatus! I am in the market for a fitness tracker that will track daily movements/exercise along with my swimming. any feedback from anyone here? I had the fitbit but returned it as I am looking for something that will track swimming without me having to manually enter it and it really isn't water proof. So far, it looks like the polar loop may be a good investment? Thanks for any feedback you can provide! Hi UHCoug -- I thought I'd chime in since I have the loop and a Poolmate HR watch. I used the loop for awhile in the pool since it is waterproof and does continue to track while you swim and it was really nice to have everything - land and water fitness all in one place. I found there were a few negatives though for me: 1. When the capacitive button gets wet , it activates the display, so the display is on again/off again the whole time you swim ... which.... makes the battery last less than 1 day (vs a few days if you don't get it wet). I got around this by wearing a rubber bracelet and pulling it over the loop when I swam. 2. I have very sensitive skin and eventually developed a small rash when the wet metal on the back of the bracelet rubbed against my arm. 3. While the loop tracks that you're doing something , it basically records your strokes as steps ... and not really any other information. Note: I don't believe the HRM works in the water, but not 100% sure as I didn't actually try it (may be like the garmin in that it would 'sort of' work). I also have a Poolmate HR watch that I've gone back to wearing for my swims as it doesn't give me a rash, doesn't have display issues to mess with the battery, records my heart rate (has an HR strap along with it - made to work in water), and gives me useful information about my swim (counts laps, strokes, times, etc). Only drawbacks for me : 1. is a watch so you need to wear it on your wrist (not a huge deal for me, have gotten used to it) 2. Doesn't track the rest of my fitness (so wear the loop the rest of the day ), and it doesn't currently upload data to fitness sites, etc (has its own program for analyzing swim data of course) so is completely separate from any other fitness activities I do. . 3. need to wear the heart rate strap (works fine under my suit -- but I can't imagine this would work as well for men). There are a couple of new trackers about to come on the market that look really interesting: -- I seriously thought about joining the crowd-sourcing on the Amiigo to be a beta , but happened to find the loop on sale first and then decided I'd wait and see how it turned out. -- The Atlas also looked interesting, but seemed too bulky/awkward to me.

sunruh, here is the link for the Garmin. It does heart rate, distance, and a few other things: sites.garmin.com/.../ I have not seen anything that's ideal, but if you don't mind wearing a watch, this is probably a good option. It's expensive, though. It's $400 on amazon. On page 19 of the 910XT user manual its says that it cannot record heart rate while swimming. static.garmincdn.com/.../Forerunner_910XT_OM_EN.pdf

On page 19 of the 910XT user manual its says that it cannot record heart rate while swimming. static.garmincdn.com/.../Forerunner_910XT_OM_EN.pdf Oh, good grief, we can put a man into outer space, but we can't come up with a freakin' swim monitor that records the heart rate while swimming?

Still in development... http://www.instabeat.me/ Actually just read their latest blog posting and they are shipping to the first investors... www.instabeat.me/.../

I have the Garmin Swim. It does not have a heart rate monitor, but does keep track of the yardage and the split times. Here is a review of it and similar products - www.dcrainmaker.com/.../garmin-swim-watch-in-depth-review.html

Misfit makes a waterproof tracker called the Shine. You tap the screen twice before starting your workout and repeat the action at the end. It's very pretty too. The problem is that it only gives you the length of time you swim, no distance or quality taken into account. I already know how long I'm in the pool so I feel like it's not a useful feature for me.