How to Do Strength Training on a Garmin Watch
Fitness watches are great for running and other continuous activities, but some can also track and even guide you during strength training. Today we’ll look at Garmin’s strength training features: how to structure your workouts, how to use them, and even take a look at the new Strength Coach.
How to Find Strength Workouts in Garmin Connect
We’ll get into how to create workouts in a minute, but first I just want to let you know that there are some strength workouts already available for download if you want to just pick one and start doing it right away. Open the Garmin Connect app or the Garmin Connect website , click Training & Planning, then Workouts, then Find a Workout.
You’ll be able to select workouts from a library and search by type (including strength training, yoga, and bodyweight cardio). Most workouts are short, simple, and don’t require a lot of equipment. If you have experience with strength training, you’ll probably want to create your own workouts or use the trainer feature, but for now, this will get you started.
As for this coach feature, it works the same way as the adaptive running coach plans. You can read more about Garmin here , but basically you set it up by selecting Garmin Coach and telling it your goals and schedule. Workouts will appear for you every day. The image above shows a Push/Pull/Legs workout programmed by Garmin Coach. It allowed me to choose which workout would happen on which day, allowed me to set max lifts as benchmarks (this program uses percentages), and even allowed me to edit workouts to change exercises before finally adding them to my calendar.
How to Create Strength Workouts in Garmin Connect
I’m going to walk you through this step by step because I was so confused when I first tried to build a workout. Again, you can do this either on your phone or online. I usually create my workouts on my phone, and it’s not difficult once you get the hang of it.
Go to the More menu on your phone (or the sidebar on the web) and select Workouts & Planning, then Workouts, and then Create Workout. From here, select Strength and you’ll be given a skeleton workout with a warm-up, recovery, and one exercise slot.
To start adding exercises, click “Add Round,” which will give you a workout card and a recovery card, both in a small box that says “2 rounds” at the top. Here’s what you need to do to turn this into a traditional sets and reps format. In this example, we want to do four sets of five deadlifts with a weight of 200 pounds:
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Click on the card that says “Workout.”
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Select an exercise (deadlift), weight (200 lbs), and target type. In this case, the target type would be “Five”. Click the arrow in the top left corner of the screen to return to the main workout editing page.
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For the recovery card, you need to change it to “Rest” rather than “Recovery”. In this case, the target type should be Time. Let’s set it to three minutes. Return to the main workout screen again.
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Now tap the drop-down box at the top of the round and set the number of sets you want to do (four). If your watch supports this feature, you can select “Skip last recovery” to avoid the final rest period.
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Before you add another set, go to the bottom of the screen and click Add Step. Change this new step to “Rest” (it will be outside the repeat) and set the goal to “Circle Button Press”.
You now have a rep that will give you four sets of five deadlifts with a three-minute rest timer in between. After you finish this, there will be a rest period that will last until you press the circle button. This will give you as much time as you need to find your equipment and prepare for the next exercise.
Continue adding reps and steps as desired and be sure to save the workout when you’re done.
How to send Garmin workouts to your watch
Once you create a workout, it doesn’t automatically appear on your watch. You’ll need to tap the “Submit for Review” icon that you’ll see in the top right corner of your screen when you’re viewing a workout.
You can also schedule a workout (which will automatically send it to your watch on the scheduled day) using the three-dot menu to add it to your calendar.
How to Use Garmin Strength Training from Your Watch
There are several ways to access strength training, but here’s the easiest: When it’s time for the gym, click the button that starts the activity, and instead of selecting “Strength,” scroll down until you find “Workouts.” Click on the one you want to do.
Please note that you will need to select a workout, indicate that you want to do it, and begin the workout. (Just keep pressing the select button until the workout starts.)
The exact details of which buttons do what will vary from watch to watch, but on the Forerunner, the top right button starts and stops the workout, and the bottom right button is the circle button. (During a timed rest, you can press the circle button to jump to the end of the rest and begin the next set.) Using the top right button, you can also skip a group of sets (say, if the squat rack was occupied). , you can skip squats) and then use the same menu later to review the ones you missed and add them back.
Why I Love the Strength Training Feature
I like to use the strength training feature for one main reason – timed rest. It’s easy to sit scrolling through your phone between sets and realize too late that ten minutes have passed since you did your last deadlift. But when I program the workout as above, all I have to do is press the lap button after the set. In three minutes my watch will ring, telling me it’s time to do my next set.
Pro Tip: Set your rest timer for maximum rest time between sets. If you’re aiming for three to five minutes, set it to five minutes. If you’re ready to go after three, just press the circle button to skip the rest of the rest.
You can also program exercises in other ways than traditional sets and reps. For example, set Goal Type to Time to perform a five-minute density gain . Or do EMOM (every minute intervals) by placing only one card on repeat and setting a target time of one minute for that card. You will receive a beep every minute.
Garmin Power features I don’t use
Honestly, I don’t worry too much about the weights and reps in the app. By default, after each set, the watch will ask you how many reps you did and what the weight was. I turned the feature off and didn’t even bother setting rep targets or weights in the app. I use workouts to time myself, not to record the details of my workout. (I have a notepad for this.)
I also don’t find automatic set detection or rep counting to be very helpful. Sometimes the watch is impressively good – how did it know I was pulling up?! — but they’re not good enough to be useful at all. It also doesn’t take into account many of the Olympic weightlifting exercises that I do. And counting reps? Sometimes it’s good, but more often it’s useless. Again, I prefer to write down my reps in this notebook rather than fiddle with selecting a number on the clock screen after each set.