How (and Why) I Use My Garmin Running Watch to Track Rests During Strength Workouts

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The strength training mode in Garmin watches like the Forerunner 570 is a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's incredibly useful in the gym. Garmin handles rest timers better than any other wearable I've tried, and when combined with a third-party app called LiftTrack, you can even track your volume and PRs. I'll lead you through how I use this workout mode, and how it's helped me do more work in less time in the gym.

How to find strength workouts in Garmin Connect

Credit: Garmin

I’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’d like to just select one and start doing it right now. Go to either your Garmin Connect app or to Garmin Connect on the web, tap Training & Planning, then Workouts, then Find a Workout. 

You’ll be able to choose workouts from a library, and you can search by type (including weights, yoga, and bodyweight cardio). Most of the workouts are short, simple, and don’t use much equipment. If you’re experienced at strength training, you’ll probably want to create your own workouts or use the coach feature, but these will get you started in the meantime.

Credit: Garmin

As for that coach feature, it works much like the adaptive running coach plans. You can read more here from Garmin, but basically you set it up by selecting Garmin Coach and telling it your goals and schedule. Workouts will then appear for you each day. The image above shows a Push/Pull/Legs workout programmed by Garmin Coach. It let me choose which workout happens on which day, had me set my max lifts as benchmarks (this program uses percentages), and even let me edit the workouts to swap exercises before finally putting them on my calendar.

How to create strength workouts in Garmin Connect

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Garmin

I’m going to walk you through this step-by-step, because I was so confused the first time I tried to build a workout. Again, you can do this either on your phone or on the web. I usually end up creating my workouts on the phone, and it’s not hard once you get the hang of it. One tip, though: you can skip this whole process if you're willing to install a third-party app. LiftTrack takes care of workout planning and syncs to your Garmin account, and you can read more about how to use that app here.

Go to the “More” menu on your phone (or the sidebar on web) and select Training & Planning, then Workouts, and then Create a Workout. From here, select Strength, and you’ll be given a skeleton of a workout with a warmup, cooldown, and one slot for an exercise. 

To start adding exercises, tap Add Round, which will give you a workout card and a recovery card, both in a little box that says “2 Rounds” at the top. Here’s what you do to turn this into a traditional sets-and-reps format (in this example, we want to do four sets of five deadlifts at 200 pounds):

1. Tap the card that says workout. 

2. Select an exercise (deadlift), a weight (200 pounds), and a target type. In this case, the target type will be Reps (five). Hit the arrow on the top left of the screen to return to the main workout editing page.

3. For the recovery card, you’ll want to change that to Rest rather than Recovery. For that one, the target type should be Time. Let’s set it to three minutes. Return to the main workout screen again.

4. Now, tap the dropdown at the top of the round and set it to the number of sets you want to do (four). If your watch supports it, you can select Skip Last Recovery to avoid the final rest period.

5. Before you add another set, go to the bottom of the screen and tap Add Step. Change this new step to Rest (it will be outside of the repeat) and set the target to Lap Button Press.

Now you have a repeat that will give you four sets of five deadlifts with a three-minute rest timer in between. After you finish that, there will be a rest period that lasts until you press the lap button. This is to give you as much time as you need to find your equipment and set up for the next exercise. Continue adding repeats and steps as desired, and make sure to save the workout when you’re done.

How to send Garmin workouts to your watch

After creating a workout, it doesn’t automatically show up on your watch. You need to tap the “send to watch” icon that you’ll see on the top right of your screen when you’re looking at the workout. 

You can also schedule a workout (which will automatically send it to your watch for the scheduled day) by using the three dots menu to add it to your calendar. 

How to use a Garmin strength workout from your watch

There are a few ways to access the strength workouts, but here’s the easiest: When it’s gym time, hit the button that starts an activity, and rather than selecting Strength, scroll down until you find Workouts. Tap the one you want to do. 

Pay attention here: You’ll need to select the workout, tell it you want to do the workout, and start the workout. (Just keep pressing the select button until the workout actually begins.)

The exact details of which buttons do what will vary from watch to watch, but on a Forerunner, your top right button starts and stops the workout, and your bottom right button is a lap button. (During a timed rest, you can press the lap button to skip to the end of that rest and start the next set.) From the top right button, you can also skip a group of sets (say, if the squat rack was busy, you can skip squats) and then use the same menu later to View Skipped and add it back in. 

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Why I like the strength training feature

I love using the strength workout feature for one main reason: the customizable timed rests. Rest is important in the gym because you'll be able to lift more if you dial in the perfect rest time for each exercise. It’s easy to sit around scrolling on your phone between sets and realize too late that it’s been 10 minutes since you did your last deadlift. But when I program the workout as above, all I have to do is hit the lap button after my set. Three minutes later, my watch will buzz to let me know it’s time to do the next set. 

Pro tip: Set your rest timer for the longest time you might want to rest between sets. If you’re aiming for three to five minutes, set it for five minutes. If you’re ready to go after three, just hit the lap button to skip the remainder of that rest. 

You can also program exercises in other ways besides the traditional sets and reps. For example, set the Target Type to Time to do a five-minute density set. Or do EMOMs (every-minute-on-the-minute intervals) by putting just one card inside a repeat, and setting that card to a one-minute target time. You’ll get a beep at the top of each minute. 

The Garmin strength features I don’t use

I don’t worry too much about the weights or reps in the app, to be honest. By default, the watch will ask you after each set how many reps you did and how heavy the weight was. I’ve turned that feature off, and I don’t even bother to set rep or weight targets in the app. I use the workouts for timing, not to log the details of my workout. (I have a notebook for that.) 

I also haven’t found the automatic set detection or rep counting to be very useful. The watch is impressively good sometimes—how did it know I was doing pullups?!—but it’s just not good enough to be generally useful. It also doesn’t recognize a lot of the Olympic weightlifting exercises I do. And the rep counting? Sometimes OK, but more often useless. Again, I’d rather jot down my reps in that notebook than fiddle with selecting a number on my watch screen after each set. 

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