Garmin Workouts Can Now Sync to Peloton

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Peloton's app and its fitness equipment have tons of options for workouts, but they can't do everything. If you track some of your workouts with other devices, like a Garmin watch or bike computer, they wouldn't show up in your Peloton workout history—until now. A new Garmin integration is rolling out, and here's how it works.

How to link your Peloton and Garmin accounts

The new integration allows Peloton to import workouts from Garmin Connect. Garmin Connect is the name of the Garmin app, so this means workouts you do on a watch (say, your Forerunner 570) sync to the Garmin Connect app, and from there to Peloton. This does not require a Garmin Connect+ paid subscription, nor a Peloton paid subscription. I have neither, and I was still able to set up this integration. Here's how you do it:

1. In the Peloton app, go to the You icon in the bottom right.

2. Tap the hamburger menu in the top right.

3. Select Connected Apps & Devices.

4. Tap the Garmin icon and follow the prompts.

You can choose whether to automatically import activities (you'll probably want to say yes), and you can also select specific activity types. For example, you can tell it to import only running and cycling, or you could tell it to import everything except hiking. Peloton says that imported workouts will count toward goals and challenges, but not toward your Peloton streak.

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Once you've set this up, new activities you do with Garmin will appear in your workout history. Some information comes through, but not necessarily everything. For example, I did a short Pilates workout with named exercises. The Peloton app shows me its duration, calories, and a heart rate graph including zones. But it does not include the names of the exercises, even though the Garmin app has that information. My treadmill running workout showed the above, plus graphs of pace and speed, but didn't mark laps or give any of the advanced data that Garmin collects, like running dynamics.

How to sync both ways

Unfortunately this new integration only goes one way. Garmin workouts show up in your Peloton app, but Peloton workouts don't sync to your Garmin history.

To sync Peloton workouts to your Garmin account, one popular way is to use a third-party app called SyncMyWorkout. This service isn't affiliated with either company, but you can sync it with both your Peloton and Garmin accounts so it acts as a middleman. When you set it up, it will import your past week's workouts for free, as a demo. To continue using it, there's a subscription fee of $7 per month or $25 per year. This assumes you have an active Peloton membership but does not require a paid Garmin membership.

For a more expensive but more DIY approach, there's also the DFC, a $125 box that plugs into your Peloton Bike and transmits workout data via Bluetooth directly to your Garmin device. No Peloton account is needed, and I was able to get it working perfectly with an out-of-subscription Bike.

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