"I'm an idiot": Garmin user reveals how fixing one setting completely changed their training after months of making no progress

(Image credit: Future / Matt Evans)

A Garmin Epix user has revealed how one setting completely ruined months of their training
They spent months "feeling like a failure" and not making any progress or improvements
Turns out their max heart rate setting was wrong the whole time

The best Garmins on the market are all formidable training tools for running and fitness, but if you've got your max heart rate setting wrong, you might be wasting your time, as one very unfortunate Redditor found out recently.

u/Lurking_Geek took to the r/Garmin subreddit with a public service announcement, after finding out a critical setting on their Garmin Epix had been wrong for nine months.

The 52-year-old described how they'd spent months "feeling like a failure, a loser, not pushing hard enough, always told I was 'maintaining', never improving, never productive, no movement on my VO2MAX, not able to run fast enough for the daily suggested workout," and even having to switch to pace training from heart rate, despite feeling "like I was running faster and further than I had in years."

Fix your Garmin's max heart rate

Your maximum heart rate is generally considered the highest number your heart can beat safely during exercise, and is usually defined as a value of 220 minus your age.

As such, it decreases yearly to reflect your age, a crucial factor in determining the efficacy of your training. Understanding your heart rate, BPM, and training zones is vital to exercising effectively and hitting your target goals. The change with age is why heart rate zones are always expressed as a percentage rather than a specific BPM.

Generally, zone one is 50-60% of your max heart rate, and is where you'd find your heart rate during a warm up, or a brisk walk. Zone two is 60-70%, a popular training zone for building endurance, zone three (70-80%) is for aerobic fitness and endurance, while zones four and five are for much more intense training that can't be sustained for nearly as long.

That's why fixing your Garmin's max heart rate setting could be the key to unlocking the true value of your training. This unfortunate user only needed to clock 101-118 bpm to enter zone two and start making progress towards endurance gains, but their Garmin would have barely registered this as zone one.

So if you've bought a new Garmin recently or you've never double checked your max HR, head to the Garmin Connect app, enter user settings, and select Heart Rate Zones. You can also do this on your Garmin Watch by selecting User Profile > Heart Rate & Power Zones > Max Heart Rate.

While Garmin recommends the average measurement – the aforementioned 220 minus your age formula – you could also put yourself through some very high intensity interval training to figure out your true max HR, which might be slightly different.