Hacking a HR monitor

I'm not sure that athletic HR monitors have the capability to actually track each individual heart beat the way medical ones do. I think that on some models, you can adjust the time interval over which it displays the average heart rate (I know I can do this with power for my bike Garmin), but it's not determining if the beats are normal or not. If your doctor thinks it's a problem, then he/she should have you wear a kind of monitor called a Holter (sp?) monitor that record all this data, usually for 24-48 hours, so it can be reviewed in detail. Not sure what the procedure is in New Zealand, but my mother was given one of these to wear at home for two or three days after a suspected TIA (mini-stroke) episode to rule out irregular heartbeat as a cause.

I am not sure how irregular heartbeats would show up on a regular monitor. My own HR has a weird characteristic where it tends to go up and down a bit for no obvious reason at steady low to moderate effort levels (by about 3-5 BPM), particularly if I'm warming up or cooling down, and then smooth out at higher ones. So my line on BPM graph for a workout often looks a bit more erratic than some people's. It will trend up with some small spikes and drops, rather than sailing smoothly up, as effort increases, but then smooth out as I approach max effort.

I've had tons of EKG's as part of various work physicals and physicals for races, and no one's ever found an actual problem--the beats are normal ones. I've been told that unless the drops are associated with symptoms like dizziness, etc.(they aren't) not to worry about it. I'm guessing a truly irregular heart rate would result in larger spikes and drops, but not sure a regular monitor is the right tool for the job.

Edited by Hot Runner 2016-06-01 8:39 AM

Thanks for the replies - my condition does not show itself when I am training. I have had to use a Holter monitor for a hospital but no episodes occurred during that time period. I was under the impression that some HR monitors were advertised as ECG accurate and the software just smoothed out the average readings. I am due another 48 hours with a Holter soon and will see if anything occurs.

This is raw data from a Garmin HR strap. As you see it gives data more than once per second on provides R-R Interval and HR data
If this is sufficient and you are technical and good at programming, you can program a Garmin that supports ConnectIQ apps

Time Beat Count Beat Time Count Heart Rate Packets Per Second RawData RR Deviation RR Interval RSSI
0.223 97 18540 61 3.75 84060446C48613D -51.71875 1011.719 -27
0.607 98 19534 60 3.75 8406C484E4C623C 4.906631 970.7031 -27
0.716 98 19534 60 3.75 8406C484E4C623C 4.906631 970.7031 -27
0.962 98 19534 60 3.75 8406C484E4C623C 4.906631 970.7031 -27
1.208 98 19534 60 4 406C484E4C623C 4.906631 970.7031 -40
1.455 99 20512 61 4 404E4C2050633D 36.65741 955.0781 -40
1.701 99 20512 61 4 404E4C2050633D 36.65741 955.0781 -40
1.957 99 20512 61 4 404E4C2050633D 36.65741 955.0781 -40
2.194 99 20512 61 3.75 8404E4C2050633D 36.65741 955.0781 -25
2.51 100 21463 62 3.75 8402050D753643E 63.0246 928.7109 -25
2.686 100 21463 62 3.75 8402050D753643E 63.0246 928.7109 -25
2.934 100 21463 62 3.75 8402050D753643E 63.0246 928.7109 -25
2.937 100 21463 31 3.75 4AFD9CEB1E3861F 63.0246 928.7109 -25
3.179 100 21463 62 4 402050D753643E 63.0246 928.7109 -34
3.426 101 22381 63 4 40D7536D57653F 79.12538 896.4844 -34
3.429 101 22381 31 4 4AFD9CEB1E3861F 79.12538 896.4844 -34
3.671 101 22381 63 4 840D7536D57653F 79.12538 896.4844 -34
3.918 101 22381 63 4 840D7536D57653F 79.12538 896.4844 -34
4.164 102 23315 65 4.5 8406D57135B6641 47.89062 912.1094 -11
4.507 102 23315 65 4.5 8406D57135B6641 47.89062 912.1094 -11
4.657 102 23315 65 4.5 406D57135B6641 47.89062 912.1094 -11
4.903 102 23315 65 4.5 406D57135B6641 47.89062 912.1094 -11
5.149 103 24173 66 4.5 40135B6D5E6742 99.60938 837.8906 -12
5.395 103 24173 66 4.5 40135B6D5E6742 99.60938 837.8906 -12
5.641 103 24173 66 4.5 840135B6D5E6742 99.60938 837.8906 -12