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The BEST Wearable for the Garage Gym Athlete

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The BEST Wearable for the Garage Gym Athlete

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IN THIS 30-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

• Jerred and Joe talk wearables!
• They give their specific thoughts on wearables they have used
• They rate each device and give their recommendations 
• And A LOT MORE!!

Diving Deeper…

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 Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week 

• The BEST Wearable for the Garage Gym Athlete

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Thanks for listening to the podcast, and if you have any questions be sure to add it to the comments below!

To becoming better!

- Jerred

Podcast Transcript

Joe: [00:00:00] Welcome to the garage gym athlete podcast, where we talk about fitness, health, and anything to help you become the most optimal human beings. Let's dive in.

Jerred: All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the garage gym athlete podcast. Jeremy here with Joe Courtney. What's up, Joe? Hey, how's it going, man? It's going pretty well.

We were just training together yesterday in person, like for reals.

Joe: Yeah. Less than 24 hours ago. No more than 24 hours ago. I time is weird because I'm. Back two hours on my regular time zone, my regularly scheduled time zone.

Jerred: Yeah. You, you move around too much. You rarely know what the actual time is. Yeah, pretty much.

Uh, so today we're going to be diving into, uh, wearables. We've had this conversation multiple times, uh, throughout the podcast history. And we're going to cover it a little bit more. Um, and then if you're watching on YouTube, we actually have our screens pulled up to just kind of look at some of these devices and stuff.

Um, just in the browser on their websites, what they cost, what you can expect, so it can be a little bit more [00:01:00] accurate. Um, but I do think, you know, we, we have a very unique situation, um, as garage gym athletes, because we are. Uh, you know, mixed modal multidisciplinary athletes. We do a lot of different things.

Sometimes something is helpful for one type of athlete, but then not for another. So what I'm hoping to help every garage and athlete out there answer is what's your biggest bang for your buck if you're looking to get a wearable and what's our experience since. We've owned every single one that we're going to cover today.

Um, Joe's actually using two wearables right now. I'm using one. I just tried whoop 4. 0 for, um, a couple of months ago. Uh, just

Joe: a month. Did they just send you the new one? Cause I don't, we're still grandfathered in. Right?

Jerred: Uh, yeah, I just got sent the new one and I sent it back. Um, I don't, well, hopefully we don't, uh, I don't want to, uh, but no, we'll, we'll get into all of that.

Um, but first I [00:02:00] wanted to. I want to see if you had seen this, man. Um... This is a news story. Exclusive, uh, the World Health Organization's cancer research agency to say aspartame sweetener a possible carcinogen.

Joe: I've seen some influencers talk about this a lot and I've more so seen, so like, Some of the, the, the health experts or whatever the people on, on Instagram that, uh, demonize this.

And then I see people like, um, Lane Norton, who basically who drinks Diet Coke, who, yeah, who, who attack those people who attack aspartame and they're just like fighting each other. I'm like, you know, it's not F to me. It's not the end of the world. I don't think it's going to be one of those. Uh, I mean, just to, you know, put my own two cents in, I think it's, I don't think it's going to be that.

I don't think that the aspartame sweetener is probably that bad for you. If you religiously drink, you know. So it is even with that probably isn't still isn't the best if you could if you could eliminate them Then it's probably the best for you. [00:03:00] But the other day calorie wise it's not gonna be I don't think that bad

Jerred: Yeah, the reason I'm bringing this up is because I've been asked two questions lately.

I was asked about this one by more than one person about my thoughts on diet coke because I have a family member who Religiously drinks diet coke and they saw this and they asked me about it And then I have also seen social media wars going on. So, um, I just want to give my take on it because I'm, I'm not a health, um, I mean, I'm not a nutrition expert or like, you know, scientist PhD on any of this crap.

Um, but I think I fall in line in alignment with what you said. Like, yeah, if you, if you're drinking one every once in a while, probably not a big deal. Um, but like, why consume it at all? Like just. Cut it out, you know what I mean like that when they when they look into the research and they're like, oh well You'd have to drink 1600 cans of coke in a day to get the toxicity.

I don't look at it that way [00:04:00] my my view is like Oh, this is bad. I won't touch it. Like that's it Is that simple because I don't think humans work that way, you know what I mean? Like if if all humans works the exact same way, we'd all die of the exact same cancer Or the exact same heart disease at the exact same point in our lives, at the exact same time, the exact same way.

But humans don't work that way. Some people get cancer, some people don't get cancer. Some people get heart disease, some people don't. So I do, my, my opinion, outside of science on this is like, who knows, 7 cokes a week, uh, 7 diet cokes per week for somebody who might be really sensitive to this carcinogen might end up with cancer.

And then someone who's not sensitive to this carcinogen can have 37 diet coats a day and not have a problem. And I don't like to play Russian roulette, so I'll just stay away from it altogether. That's my, my two cents as a non expert opinion. Like

Joe: I avoid artificial sweeteners. Cause I just don't think, I really don't think they're, they're very good for you.

And then when. You tell the people like, like that are trying to limit their soda and they go to diet sodas. And it's like, okay, well, I just can't give [00:05:00] up this beverage. I have, I still have to have it. So for those people, Aspartame is, is whatever, but to me, it's like, okay, maybe the problem to me, the problem is if you're so dependent on one beverage, you can't even give that up.

That to me is kind of. An issue like there should be nothing like that that you can't get that you can't give up like even coffee. I love coffee. I'm a coffee snob. I've given up coffee before. You just did it before too. You love coffee too. I'm not doing coffee anymore at all. Yeah. So like, yeah, so like you should not have that.

Dependent on almost anything that you just can't give up, can't live without, so I'm gonna take this, you know, possible carcinogen drink, even if it's complete BS. Um, we've started drinking, or what we like to drink is, um,

what the heck is it called? It's basically sodas, but they're sweetened with stevia. So it's a little bit, it's not aspartame, so it's a little stevia. Zevia. Zevia? Zivia is like a brand. Oh, Zivia. Okay, yeah. [00:06:00] I knew it was close. So Stevie is the sweetener, Zivia is the brand. Yeah. And they basically just make, um, imitation sodas from Zivia and they're still like zero calorie, still tastes pretty much the same.

You have that, that same like fake aftertaste, but diet sodas have a pretty bad aftertaste to me as well. So like there's not, and you get all the flavors that you want. And they even have our favorites, the, the cherry Coke, not, you know, not a sponsor to Zivia. Obviously I don't even know their name.

Jerred: Obviously, none of these, we're talking about a lot of brands today, and none of them are sponsored or paid for any of this, um, just so everyone's aware.

Joe: But hey, Garmin, if you're listening. Yeah,

Jerred: yeah, yeah. Hey, you're supposed to remain a secret. We're supposed to be unbiased. Unbiased, okay. Uh, so this is kind of the question of the week.

Um, I have another question I got asked, but, uh, we don't have, again, by a couple of people, and it had to do with, um, running and muscle building. But we're going to save that one for next week. So for today, this was kind of the question of the week. Now we'll get into, uh, what we want to cover. [00:07:00] Uh, we're just going to kind of go one wearable at a time and I'll, I'll pull them up and we can kind of talk about them.

Uh, but one that we both have, uh, experience with is the aura ring. Um, so you're actually still using the aura ring right now. Um, Emily, my wife has the newest edition of the aura ring. She got it in December. Um, and I have an aura ring. I've actually used it off and on quite a bit. I was even using it up until some of last year, but I haven't used it really any in 2023.

Um, so I'm just going to go over the quick specs and then we can talk about pros and cons of aura ring. So. It is a ring, obviously. Um, they're a little bit more expensive upfront, um, than some of these other ones. So you're looking at the horizon version can be 349 and you can get more expensive by selecting the gold version, which would be 499 and they have different styles.

So you're looking at, you know, maybe the cheapest being. [00:08:00] Um at 300 bucks up to 500 bucks or more if you're getting one of the one of the crazy ones And then the membership is five dollars and 99 cents a month afterwards to maintain Um, basically keep all your data to get used to get more of their features So it says in depth sleep analysis every morning personalized health insights and recommendations live and accurate heart rate monitoring temperature Trend monitoring as a tool to predict periods and to identify early signs of sickness.

Um So what do you think of the aura ring? I mean, you must like it. You're still using it and you have a garment. So what are your thoughts on the aura ring?

Joe: I, I like it for, for some specific things. I I'm at, at the point where I don't feel like I need it that much, but I'm still going to use it because I, cause I have it and it doesn't cost me anything.

Um, there are a few metrics that I do like to pay attention to, especially if it's, you know, traveling or if I start to feel either sickness or even like, um, drinking and stuff. So there's a few metrics that I do pay attention to. And then. [00:09:00] It's one of those things that I'll, I'll dive into it. If I wake up kind of feeling crappy or dependent on what my workout is, it might dictate if I switch out a workout.

So I do still like it. I think for some people that they might want to monitor that, they like it even more to monitor certain things. I know Liz really likes the ring and does it even more. So she, um, We'll have like certain parameters that like, if she doesn't get, you know, six hours of sleep, she's not going to go do certain kind of workout.

Or, uh, if her body temperature is too high, like stuff like that, she like really pays attention to it even more and we'll edit how she, how she trains and, um, and the like.

Jerred: Yeah. Uh, what's the biggest con? Like, what do you not like about it?

Joe: That it's, so it's solely just for recovery and, and sleep. And, um.

Uh, we, we, we said that before that usually like when you get your, I pretty much don't, I almost don't even pay attention to, they give you a readiness score and a sleep score. Sleep score, [00:10:00] I kind of pay attention to, and I, and I, I'll look into, to why I might have that. But readiness, like there's plenty of days where I'll wake up and like, man, I don't want to train today.

And I got like an 85 readiness score. It's like we, or, or even vice versa, like readiness score. We don't technically, we don't, we usually don't pay attention that much too, because I don't know how they go into their algorithms and how they do it. And I'll even. Compare readiness to like aura will tell me, I like, you're great.

Go, go out and do a workout. And then Garmin will be like, eh, you might need to take it easy today. You might need to do this. You might need to just do like a zone two kind of thing. Uh, so readiness scores are, you know, I don't really care about, but the other metrics that I like, like I said, the individual metrics are good, but the overall scores, um, I don't really pay that much attention to con wise.

Yeah. I'll say

Jerred: pros for me and using the aura ring. Yeah, great data. You could just put it on. You could only use it during sleep if you wanted to. Um, I'll be 100% honest. It's a horrible fitness [00:11:00] tracker. Um, even their new one. I tried their new one because that's like the new thing. Like they, they said they could auto detect stuff and detect stuff.

It's the worst fitness tracker. I'm talking about like for training. Like if you want to train things, it's bad. It's a good step counter. It's a good sleep tracker. It's a good if you just want a readiness score in the morning and then you kind of take it off and leave it next to your bed, that's probably the best way to use an aura ring.

Yeah. To me,

Joe: it is not a fitness

Jerred: tracker. No, like it, it can do almost, almost nothing in the fitness tracking realm. Um, it's not a good training tool if you're just looking for recovery. Um, it's good for that, but overall I would say I don't. I don't see it to be really helpful. And to be honest, Emily, she's not a big tracker and she got this in December and then she used it for like three or four months and then like canceled their membership.

And like, isn't that interested anymore? Because like, that's how quickly she got everything she needed to know out of it. Like three or four months. And then she was like, I get it. Like I know what to do, what not to do. Yep. Like I'm, I'm done. Like, and [00:12:00] it only took her like three months and then she's like, I don't really see the point.

And continuing to use this, which is a bummer because it costs, it costs a good amount of money. Right. And she still uses it like periodically, but, um, there's not a lot of utility, um, after, especially if you already have a lot of good habits, because I think the only thing you really learn when you're tracking like heart rate variability is don't, don't eat too late at night because your body's going to be digesting.

So you're resting heart rates going to increase, which will decrease your heart rate variability. And I think everyone should memorize that correlation. If you have an increased. Resting heart rate, you have decreased heart rate variability. They will go in conjunction with one another. So like if you are running as fast as you could, and your heart was a hundred, your heart rate was 175 beats per minute.

Your heart rate variability would be very low, which is like the lowest it probably could be. Um, and the reason I say that is because anything that. Now that you know, anything that could possibly increase your resting heart rate before you go to bed is going to decrease your, uh, increase your resting heart rate is going to decrease your HRV.

So [00:13:00] drinking alcohol is going to do that. Eating late is going to do that. If you're really stressed or whatever, like all these things. Um, I mean, once you kind of know that, just try and avoid those things. Don't, don't drink before bed. That means you should do all your drinking early in the morning. Um, first thing when everybody wants to, you know, I just wake up and start.

Chugging those beers and you'll be, you'll be good by, by nighttime. Um, no. So, I mean, I think that's, that's basically all you need to know. I would say that this is not an awesome device for garage gym athletes. It's good if you have one, I don't, I don't hate on it. Like I said, I've already wasted my money on all these things.

So, but if you're looking for a training tool, this is not it. It's more like a recovery, recovery tool. Yeah,

Joe: yeah. So I'd say probably the only reason why I still wear it is because we got it. We were on the ground floor and we're grandfathered in as well. So we're not paying for membership. They I had the very first gen and I, um, my battery was basically not holding a charge, so they sent me the new one like for free.

So I have the new one, so I use it. And that's the main reason why is because I'm not paying for it anymore. I, I got the new one and it's it's a [00:14:00] good tool to have. But I think if you if. If not, like, um, if you're getting into fitness or if you're, if for some reason your life is changing, you're not, uh, you're not recovering well, you're, you're having some difficulties or shift work or anything like that.

And you need to kind of like dial in more. I think it's really good to do that for three months, especially if you haven't been, if you haven't done any tracking in the past, we've been tracking for seven years now or eight years now, I think, I don't know, whatever it was way too long. And we're just used to it.

But if you've never really tracked before, then it would be good to like what Emily did do it for three months. Okay. And now, and now I kind of know what, what certain feelings mean and how to do things. Then good to go turn it right off. Maybe even like once a, once a year progress check and that's

Jerred: about it.

And she will say, or I will say that she told me from the female perspective, it was actually pretty good at. Period tracking and predicting all that stuff. Uh, she keeps track of, and she has for years, she keeps track of all that stuff, uh, separately. So she already like has her own [00:15:00] way and method of doing that.

Um, but she did say it was like fairly accurate with what she was already tracking. So, um, we owe it to them for figuring that out, I guess.

Joe: Liz had it and used it for, as I think that maybe the first reason why she got it was, um, for a track ovulation

Jerred: and stuff. Yeah. All right. So. Or a ring, what, I don't know what to give this, like if we're rating like a, let's do like a A, B, C, D, E, or A, B, C, D, F, like fails, not good for garage gym athlete, A is like hit it, hit it out of the park.

So

Joe: just for garage gym, like the total encompassing garage, cause like.

Jerred: For the garage gym athlete community, yeah. Okay,

Joe: um, oh wait, we're doing letters?

Jerred: Yeah, like, like grades, like grades in school. Okay. Cause we're not, I'm not going to say it's like no good, but like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How good is it, you know?

Joe: Either a C plus or B minus.

Jerred: Yeah, I'm leaving it in the C, solid C, maybe even a low C, just because, um, if you're an athlete, like if you're doing our training, you're, you're going to want to [00:16:00] track your stuff. You, you want to see your heart rate when you're lifting the barbell without having to scratch it up when you get on a pull up bar, all this kind of stuff.

So like, I think for, you're, you're probably going to want to track your training and, and the ORA ring is just not it. Um, so that moves us into our next heavy hitter. We have a lot of experience here. The Whoop, and they've kind of taken, taken the world over. Um, so Whoop, uh, they changed their model. They used to be like Oura Ring, and now it's a membership model.

So you can actually get like 30 days free. Um, and then I think the pricing, yeah, it's like 30 bucks a month or something like that. So here they are. Annual membership is two 39 if you pay up front. So that'd be 1992 a month, 30 bucks a month. If you want to do, uh, Monthly, but it's a 12 month minimum. And then the 24 month membership is 399 or 1663 per month.

Um, and it does a lot of different stuff. So the whoop, uh, has it till time [00:17:00] has its pros and cons. Um, and you know, it's really big on the recovery. It's kind of like a, it's a more athletic version of the aura ring. So it gives you a recovery score every day. Um, it can give you, it gives you a strain score and it even has kinda like a strain coach.

So it'll be like, oh, you're so recovered today. You should hit a 17 strain today. And then it's saying that you should like, shoot for that. Um, anyway, so it, it, uh, monitors sleep. They just a added this, I actually saw it. They monitor and manage stress levels, so it, it, um, It monitors your stress. And I just said, shout out, you know, who's been doing that for like a couple of years, Garmin, uh, Garmin has been doing stress levels forever.

Whoop just added it recently. Um, and yeah, they track your respiratory rate, uh, blood oxygen levels, resting heart rate, HRV. They give you the recovery score. Um, so pros and cons with, with the whoop. [00:18:00] Um, like I said, I've used it even more recently. Uh, and. We've both used it over the last couple of years. I think, I mean, we were honestly some of the first early adopters to, to whoop.

Uh, so what are your thoughts on, on whoop?

Joe: I, so like with whoop, when I remember when I had it is it's, it's just, it's a glorified heart rate monitor. So think of like, if you have a chest strap or just monitor your heart rate, it's the one you wear all the time, but you wear it on your arm and, but it doesn't do anything else.

Just. Does your heart rate, you're not going to tell time it's on a watch. So then you have to wear a watch on top of that. So you're wearing something on both wrists and especially like if at night, I mean, we have a, um, an alarm clock that projects the light onto the ceiling. So it doesn't like, you're not actually seeing the light.

You're seeing a projection. Because I like to know what time it is at night or when waking up. So, but I still will wear my watch at night so that I can see time or do whatever. I remember not liking having two things on my wrist at night. But that's what you have to do because if you want to get the sleep metrics on, [00:19:00] on whoop, you have to wear it at night.

And then if you also like to wear a watch for whether you wake up at night, you know, you used to said, used to do alarm, silent alarms on your watch that would just vibrate to wake you up. So you're wearing two watches and it's a pain. Whoop

Jerred: can do that now though. They did add that feature in 4. 0. So it has a vibration alarm.

Oh,

Joe: well, that's, I guess that's, that's useful, especially

Jerred: for you. That you set on your phone because it doesn't have a screen. Yeah, let's be real clear about that.

Joe: Yeah. Um, the, I don't know what their battery life has improved. I, I did their, their, at least they made, yeah, yeah. At least their charging system makes a lot of like, actually it's kind of cool cause you don't have to take it off.

You just, you charge this little puck that slides over top of it. And then you take that puck and you put it on top of your wrist. So like it makes it chunky, but you're still wearing it. It's not you have to, it's not like, um, uh, the, the Apple watch, where you have to take it off, put it on your charger, and then come back later

Jerred: and get it.

Yeah. I would say that they, if we're talking just battery, they win there with, and I'm not talking about battery life. I'm talking about [00:20:00] that recharge capability you're talking about, because like, uh, you know, Apple watch Garmin watch, or, uh, they all have to be taken off to, to be charged, which is really, I mean.

Let's be real. It's not that big of a deal, uh, to take off, take something off for a short amount of time for it to charge or whatever. But, um, I did think that their charging mechanism was cool. Cause it does just like slide on and there you go. It's got a picture of it right there. It's just the battery that goes on there.

And then you, um, can, you never really have to take it off. Um, so I would say this one is pretty solid for the garage gym athlete. It is, I still throw it like in that aura camp when I don't, I don't feel like if, if we're talking Garmin and whoop, I don't feel like we're. In the same category. I feel like we're talking almost about different things.

Um, but when we're talking about whoop and aura, I feel like they're the same thing. So whoop is really just there to give you, um, your, your recovery score in the morning. I mean, that's what most everyone cares about. It has a lot of other health metrics now too. I think their strain coach is kind of silly.

[00:21:00] Um, because I dunno, I just didn't, I don't see that there's a lot of benefit in the, the strain coach. Like, Oh, you're really recovered. Go work out harder today. Most of the time, I'm just following a training program and I don't want to move my days around, you know, I just want to know I'm doing what I'm doing today because that's what's already planned.

Um, and I don't feel like I need to like save myself for a certain day or whatever. Um, so the whoop is pretty solid. One thing that they did change. That I used to have a lot of gripes about was, uh, their HRV used to be only taken during the last stage of your, the last stage of your last deep wave sleep in the night for like a minute.

And that was it. That was the whole HRV that gave you a recovery score. And they say all this other stuff is factored into the recovery score, but it's like, they don't release the algorithm, but it's gotta be like 80. 90% HRV and then they factor in sleep and everything else. Cause I've, I've had some shitty nights of sleep and I had like [00:22:00] super high HRV and they were like, you're ready to go.

And I was like, I don't feel like it.

Joe: I remember there's being very erratic.

Jerred: Yeah, that's, that's what I ended up hating about the loop, but they did, I pulled up this article cause it was updated June 19th of this year. And I'll pull it up here. Um, basically saying they still do that, but it's a weighted measurement.

It says whoop calculates your HRV using a weighted average each night while you sleep measuring using a weighted average throughout one sleep, giving more weight to periods of slow wave sleep. Again, I'm sure that they have some research behind it. I don't know why you wouldn't just throw in why the hell you do that.

You know what I mean? Like, they, they just, like, that article ends right there. That's it. That's the end. And that's how it's always been. They just kind of tell you, like, that's how we do it. They don't say, like, oh, well, the latest scientific research says that there's a correlation between your last, or your, your deep sleep and [00:23:00] HRV, opposed to, uh, as opposed to an HRV average over the entire night.

They don't really talk about the why. Um, and I'm sure that they pulled it from somewhere, but in my experience doing that caused, yeah, for very Unusual readings, things that wouldn't make sense. Like if your training is kind of the same for the next four weeks and everything else is kind of the same, it doesn't make sense to have a red day all of a sudden, and then a green day and then a yellow day, and then two red days and a green day, like it just doesn't actually really make sense.

Um, so I didn't, I, that's why I ended up sending my book back. Um, it did not feel like a solid training tool. Um, I feel like it's more, it's so retro, retroactive. It's, uh, it's looking back, right? It's like. You can see what you did, what happened, but you can't like project forward about what you should do or anything like that with your training.

That's my biggest gripe with loop, but it far, far outweighs, um, aura in the sense of what aura could do. This is [00:24:00] definitely built more for athletes. Would you agree? Yes. A hundred percent. Yeah. Um, so where would you rate the whoop on the, the scale that we're giving today? I'd

Joe: probably give it a mid

Jerred: B. Yeah, that's where I would put it.

A B mainly because if you're a garage gym athlete and you're not actually leaving your garage that much. And then the whoop can work out really well because you can just pull up your phone and you can have the whoop and it does like live heart rate and stuff and you can see that and you can even take it on runs.

I, I like set it up on my bike when I used to bike with the whoop and, um, it can track your, your route and all that kind of stuff. So as long as you have your phone, the whoop is still super, super useful. And so if you're not leaving your garage that much, I give it a B for that reason. But the second you want to leave.

Like, if you're trying to do any heart rate based training.

Joe: I was gonna say, zone training is

Jerred: possible almost. Yeah, like, any heart rate based training, or if you want to know, like, where you're going or you want to see your pace for the mile, like, anything like [00:25:00] that. I mean, which just blows my mind that they, they, you know, don't care about any of that stuff.

Um, anything like that and, and whoop is immediately at bottom of the, bottom of the barrel here as a wearable.

Joe: And I don't know if they, if they have the capability, but they, can you project your heart rate from whoop? Like to other devices?

Jerred: Yeah. Yeah. I think you can now. Okay. They, they used to make it to where it was like, no, it was like proprietary.

They also wouldn't allow you to integrate with like Apple health and stuff. They were trying to be super stingy, but I think they got enough of a foothold in the market that he started to open these things up. So you could, I think you could protect your heart rate. Um, and I think it integrates with Apple health now as

Joe: well.

Yeah. Which is useful if you have like some machines would do that, but it's going on a run. You wouldn't really have that unless there's maybe a watch that it would act as your heart rate monitor.

Jerred: Yeah. So you're, I'm giving it a B minus and you're giving it a B.

Joe: Yeah. Cause, and the last part reason why I opted from a B minus to a B is because I do remember enjoying their community aspect.

We had a team. [00:26:00] Yeah, that was cool. And I remember going, going on there all the time, looking at it, especially cause like for, there was a cycle where we all had whoop, like all the coaches had whoop and we were all doing hard to kill and we get on there and it's like, I know what training day they just did.

And like, we would see who's, who's, who's metrics are what. And um, that was, that was kind of cool. And I, and I know that there's other people that, um, that are on loop now that, that I'm friends with, they are, they're talking about how they, they wake up and we'll check their friends, uh, metrics and stuff like that, which is, which is kind of cool.

Jerred: Yeah. I think that's one of the coolest features of loop. They have really mastered that community aspect and kind of gamified fitnessing with your friends, you know, like who, who strain cores, but strain scores better, who slept better. All those kinds of things. All right. So solid B now I'm actually just going to pull up, I don't have this.

My father in law has it. I've been checking it out. Uh, very interested ever since it came out. So the Apple watch ultra, you seen this thing?

Joe: Uh, no, actually I saw, I mean, I've seen people wear it, but I haven't [00:27:00] really looked into it.

Jerred: Yeah. So it's a 800 Apple watch. It's their com competition to, what I would say is Garmin, they're trying to compete with Garmin with this, uh, this watch.

It's 49 millimeter titanium case. It's water resistant, dust proof, all this stuff. You have to get the, uh, the g p s plan with it or the cell plan with it. You can't. You cannot buy this without it. Um, they require it. And so overall, um, having had an Apple watch and then been checking out my father in law's lately, cause I'm, to be honest, I'm not going to buy one of these because I came to the same conclusion after checking his out and asking a bunch of questions and scrolling through some things and Apple watches and Apple watches and Apple watch.

Um, And so ultimately, they had a revolutionary breakthrough with their battery life, and it now lasts two and a half days. Um, so they went from the regular Apple Watch lasting about [00:28:00] 18 hours to maybe 24, if you're lucky, to the Apple Watch Ultra, much larger, much better battery. They say three days. That's like my father in law who's not even like an adventurer is he's saying it's like two and a half days.

Uh, so anyway, this is the, the Apple watch slash Apple watch ultra that we're kind of reviewing because you had an Apple watch, didn't you have an Apple watch?

Joe: Yeah, it was like first

Jerred: gen. I guess I had mine more recently. Um, I think up until, up until 2020. So I haven't had one since then. 2020, 2021, maybe something like

Joe: that.

I got mine in 2017. And it wasn't even, it wasn't even like the latest gen at the time. And that's when I paired it with Whoop. So those are the two watches that I wore at the same time.

Jerred: Yeah. So overall Apple watch is great. Um, I think that they do a lot of great things. Like I have it pulled up on the screen right now.

They do like, you can try track your heart rate zones. Um, I, I [00:29:00] have not tried the newest, newest new garments, but as far as I have experienced the best risk based heart rate monitor on the market is Apple's Apple watch, it is the most accurate from just being on your wrist. Um, which is pretty. Which is saying something, because I feel like no other company's really been able to master that.

Um, and so yeah, the Apple Watch, pretty solid, my opinion, um, it can do all the training stuff. It's, it's great for tracking your workouts. So it's a leg up on a whoop and an aura. So you can like, see in the moment, you can like, see your mile pacing, all those kind of things. Um, so that's definitely a huge plus.

It doesn't have as much in the way of recovery. They do have like a, their own sleep trapping, tracking app. You used to have to do that through third party. Now it's built in, but they're not sharing, they don't have. It's not as athlete based and to be honest, that's not who, to be honest, it's not my, I don't think that's who their market is.

I think the Apple watch ultra might [00:30:00] be trying to get geared towards more athletes, but at the end of the day, um, it's whether it's an ultra or just a regular Apple watch, it's not truly geared towards an athlete. In my opinion, I think it's just people want a cooler looking Apple watch and they get this one.

Um, but it doesn't have like, you don't wake up with a recovery score, um, or look at your, your load or. Any of those kinds of things. And it can do HRV. Um, what's your opinion on the Apple watch?

Joe: So again, this is my first gen opinion when I had it. I do like, I did like certain things about it. Um, it's, it's an Apple product.

I do. I w I'm an Apple person. All of our laptops and phones are Apple. And, uh, but one thing that I, that I remember not liking was, especially on runs is that you get nice and sweaty, but it was just a touchscreen and touchscreens when you're sweaty. Don't really work that well. Yeah. I see. They actually have a button and a scroller.

So that, that, that to me is a really nice problem. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. The titanium case also better, [00:31:00] like, you know, okay, it's going to be tougher. That's great. So I think, you know, you're getting into now the realm of, okay, what do you want? Okay. If you want a smartwatch and you actually do stuff on your, on your watch, you're changing your music, you're going through your, you're scrolling through your stuff, whatever you want to do, reply to things.

Then Apple watch is great. I don't use my watch for that. I never used it that much for, there was like a point where I was like, Hey, cool. I can text or like speak to text. And I used it for a little bit. I was like, Oh, I'll just, I'd rather just use my phone. So that's cool. But, um, I'm not sure how they're, I was wondering how their GPS would compare.

I'd have to watch like, like DC Rainmaker compare comparable video. Cause they do some of those guys who wear multiple on the same run. So, um, I think it is cool. So it just depends on what you want. If you want a certain, a certain smartwatch features, uh, I could see it being, being pretty good. Um,

Jerred: yeah, yeah, I kind of agree with you.

It's like, if you're, if you're more, uh, if you're [00:32:00] less athlete and more. I just want some general life watch, then this is going to be superior. Even if you're, I'm not saying you're not an athlete. I'm just saying, if you're like my watch doesn't need to be predominantly for being an athlete, like I want it to be able to do other things.

You probably can't beat the ease and usability of any Apple product, right? It's just like, it's going to connect to your heart rate monitor and your headphones first try, and there's not going to be any problems and the music's going to be super easy to control. And. You know, everything's going to be super intuitive and awesome.

Like that's what you can expect with all the Apple watch stuff. Um, so I think the Apple watch is great, amazing heart rate based stuff. Uh, they are lacking kind of on the athlete side, even though they have ways to track your workouts and stuff, but that's kind of, that might be the con is I think the Apple watch is trying to do too much.

They're trying to do too many different things. And, um, you know, I think fitness tracking is kind of fitness, athletic, that kind of stuff is a part of it, but it's, I don't know, 30% of, of what they're trying to do and not the [00:33:00] 70% that they they're focusing on all the other tools that it can do, like open up your, unlock your computer, unlock your car doors and all sorts of crazy stuff that, that these things can do.

Um, but overall I would say it's really good. I really liked my Apple watch when I had it. Um, I hate. The integration between my phone and all that other stuff. I don't like that. Um, even with Garmin, Garmin can do those things with like text messages and stuff. I turn all those things off, um, unless I'm traveling.

That's the only time I turn it on or I don't have to be looking at my phone ever. But, um, yeah, I don't like those things. If you like that, you like seeing messages ding on your watch. You rest all day. Apple watches for you. It's a, it's what you want to get.

Joe: I also say that, you know, Apple is, is great in its functionality.

It's, it's pretty user friendly, but I think it lacks, um, customization. Apple's always been very stingy with customization. Like they don't let third party or outside people. Do you like create their own things and then put it on the online, which Garmin does. So if you want to, if you want [00:34:00] to look for watch faces, you can watch it, look for the, through their watch faces for three hours and not see them all.

And they're constantly getting new ones and like. Programmers. And I even got like certain programs on my Garmin that somebody created, they sent it to Garmin and then Garmin made it publicly here. You can download it, add it to your watch. There you go. Apple doesn't really do that. I don't think, uh, they, and like with the screens, you, when you, you, when you go back to how the workout view screens look, um, pretty much the same as they looked before.

I know they have that, that zone to that zone, uh, indicator, but to me that they're Workout screens are still pretty plain and I don't really like, I like the Garmin screens during the workout, how you can put how many, how many did the different views and screens that they even have graphs now, now that we're, I mean, I don't want to get too much into Garmin, but like stuff like that, certain personalizations and views that you can customize versus Apple's almost like makes the decisions for you.

It's like, here's what we think is best. So this is what you're going to have the choices

Jerred: of. [00:35:00] Yeah, not as much customization for sure. Where, where's your rating? That's

Joe: hard. I mean, I guess if you're an Apple, Apple person, then probably a minus. I'll

Jerred: go the same. I go a minus because I can't

Joe: that heart reminders that that really is a big, big, uh,

Jerred: plus it's a, it's a huge plus. The only thing I wouldn't like it for is if you're getting like way more serious as an athlete, and I'm going to talk about some of those things with the Garmin, but if you're getting way more serious, but that now we're getting into like.

Whatever top 5%, top 2% of users really like most people aren't going to care. So I would say for the garage team athlete, the Apple watch is great. You can use it for everything. You can track everything. You can use it with your phone, without your phone. Um, especially if you get the, this one, like you can even still call while you're out on your run and you don't even have, uh, your, your phone with you.

So I think that those kinds of things are huge. Um, pretty awesome. So definitely an a minus that one's Apple watch is really solid. I know

Joe: when I had mine. [00:36:00] They didn't have any recovery metrics. They didn't have sleep or anything like that. So I have no idea how they're, how that is now work, how it compares.

They

Jerred: just added it back. I've been looking at some, uh, reviews of that and it seems, seems okay. You know what I mean? Like it's, I think almost anything can track your sleep at this point. Um, But now let's hop into garment. Uh, it's almost hard to hop into garment because there's so much to hop into. They have so many different, um, types, brands.

Like we could not even, couldn't even come close to covering it all right now. Um, which one are you wearing right now, Joe? You have a

Joe: Phoenix seven. So the first gen regular Phoenix seven, uh, not solar X pro just. The pros just came out this, this month, a couple of weeks ago. So the first gen is just the regular Phoenix seven.

So not the S standard, standard edition right there. That's exactly what I have.

Jerred: This one right here. Okay. Awesome. So you have that one. I have the Phoenix [00:37:00] seven X solar, I think is what it's called. Um, seven S. Okay, so good. I could just flip through here. So yeah, they, this is the one you have. Um, and the one I have is the 51 millimeter.

Sapphire, sapphire, solar. Yeah, seven X. That's the one I have. Um, all right. So those are the ones we're specifically talking about, but I will say. If you go, you can do a lot of good things with Garmin. Like I have friends, all my friends have Garmin's and stuff. The Phoenix is awesome. The epics is awesome.

If you're, I think the forerunner is pretty amazing.

Joe: Um, the forerunner is essentially the Phoenix, but with a. Plastic housing instead of like the phoenix has a metal, steel, whatever, aluminum house, whatever the metal is housing for runner just has like a plastic one. So, like, it's less on durability, but it's also, but the entire computer functionality is exactly the same.

Um, it's just how durable the screens were better watched me. Yeah. And, um. [00:38:00] It's cheaper too than the Phoenix. So just, uh,

Jerred: and I don't know much about the video active, to be honest. I've, I know people with the forerunner and I know people with the epics and the Phoenix, but, uh, the instinct and video active, I don't have a lot of experience.

Joe: Um, I feel like the Vivo act is probably the cheaper version of the epics. It doesn't have, it doesn't have buttons on. It's just a touch screen though.

Jerred: Okay. I don't know if I'd like that. Yeah. Um, so we're, we're primarily talking about Phoenix, but pros and cons. What do you like about, uh,

Joe: Uh, battery life is a total pro for me.

Uh, when I switched to the regular instead of the X, I just a smaller wrist. I think it's actually pretty comfortable, even though it seems kind of big, it's still pretty dang comfortable. The GPS is fantastic. That was like the biggest reason why I switched. To the Phoenix from the Apple in the first place.

I, and I switched to the, at the time it was the five X. So that's fantastic. Um, the, as I alluded to before the workout screens and the customization, how you can do those, you can do whatever screens you want. You can have any fields you [00:39:00] want. They have graphs now on it, and you can just keep adding screens.

I probably have five different screens on my run. Um, on my run thing, depending on what the heck I'm doing just because I can. So all those are fantastic. I also think, um, long, long life durability. Like you can use these forever. People in people in our community still use the five generation and it's still completely fine.

They, they update it for several years. Um, and like, I think the five might be getting out, like they might not, they might stop that in a little while, but it's still works completely fine. And so I know the seven I'll probably still get, unless I decide to upgrade. Um, I can still use it, use it for at least five years.

Cause of the five, the five X, when I got it, it was already like three or four years old and I used it for at least four years or three years.

Jerred: Yeah. Now they are more expensive up front, but there are no membership fees, right? Yeah. Uh, the whoop. I mean, the whoop is going to cost you 30 bucks a month for like, how long are you going to wear that, you know, two years and you've got yourself one of these watches, um, and I've been wearing, I've been wearing [00:40:00] Garmin since 2020.

Um, and my biggest gripe with them originally coming off of like, or a ring whoop, that kind of stuff was it's lack of a, like recovery score back in the day. I would say even like a year ago, they didn't really have that kind of feature. It was like, you could kind of piece it together yourself. Cause you could look at like, okay, here was my sleep.

Here was my resting heart rate. Here was my HRV, but they added this. I think it was sometime last year, they added training readiness. And then it gives you a score. And, um, this score is based off of your sleep, your recovery time, your HRV status, your acute load, your sleep history, your stress history. So they're taking in a lot of factors there, which I now think have, they have the best recovery score on the market because of how many different things that they're looking into.

It's not an 80% weighted HRV reading that like whoop does. And then they say your whole day screwed up. Um. Garmin very rarely tells me I'm not ready to train. [00:41:00] Very rarely. I, I honestly don't know if it's ever happened. Um, because it's looking at so many different things. Uh, maybe if like my stress levels are high, my sleep history was crappy and my recovery time is way too high.

Maybe it would tell me that I should like take a break or like not do something that day. Uh, and then they also added the morning report, uh, which kind of summarizes everything I was just talking about. So you wake up in the morning and then it gives you this full morning report about how your sleep was your HRV and all those kinds of things.

And so that used to be my biggest gripe with Garmin is the lack of recovery they have. In my opinion, become the best on the market. Now we're giving you some sort of readiness or recovery score. Um, and it's just a really cool feature

Joe: overall. Yeah, I definitely like it and everything they add and they keep adding stuff and usually get the updates kind of for easy once a year, whenever they do that.

Their sleep is a bit less accurate usually right now. So after last night, it's between this and aura. There's only a three minute difference, which there's a lot of [00:42:00] times where it is pretty close. But there's sometimes where I'll get something wildly inaccurate with on aura or on on Garmin, which is usually not a big deal for because I don't I don't really get that picky about the the.

The sleep, um, I'll look at the other metrics I have started to like the other things like, um, for the longest time training status. And when I had my five, it wasn't very good at all. I'd only get like two different things, but that's gotten better over time. And so has, like I said, training readiness, I think is also pretty, pretty solid.

Jerred: So the training status will tell you if you're maintaining D training, uh, if you're at an optimal level, all those kinds of things. And that's what I want to talk about for that more serious 5%, 2% athlete or whatever, there's kind of two things. And I don't know if this has been added to your watch. I do have, I don't have the newest, but I have the second newest right now.

Um, is. This is one of my new favorite features. Um, let's see here. They have, it says for the forerunner, but it's on multiple [00:43:00] different options, multiple different models. Like I have the Phoenix seven X, they now have something called the load ratio. And so one thing that Garmin does at the end of every workout is it will give you a load score.

So if you did something that was really high heart rate, it doesn't really matter what it was. It could have been running. It could have been, um, a high intensity workout. You're going to get a higher score that goes to your overall load. Right. And then if you, um, do something like a long aerobic run, it's going to give you a moderate, uh, training score or whatever, but what they added was a load ratio.

So Garmin's always tracking your overall load and they kind of have a window that you should be in to, um, to like improve, which is, was kind of helpful, but like. Also, not really, but one, this load ratio is incredibly helpful. So load ratio is what it does is it divides your, um, acute, your short term loads, like over the last seven days with your chronic, your long term load, like over the [00:44:00] last.

Um, and they might say they're more specifically or whatever. But the reason this is so helpful is because if you're starting a new training program and your chronic load over the last month has been relatively low, then, and you all of a sudden start increasing and you go above the threshold, you get into like 1.

5 or two or 1. 9 or whatever, you're probably going to get injured. Like you're, you're, you're flirting with injury. You're adding too much volume too fast. You're adding too much intensity, too much training time, all the stuff too fast. So I feel like the load ratio from helping you plan out your training and slowly progress your training is phenomenal.

And I say, this is someone who's just started adding more significant running back into my program. And I went super slow. I was only doing, I did, I started like five miles a week and then I did seven and then I did 10 and then 12 and then 15. And then right now I'm just at 20 and I'm holding at 20 miles per week for a while, [00:45:00] but I did that because I was just watching my overall load.

Cause I'm still doing other things. Right. And so I think that their load ratio is an amazing, um. Amazing thing. And then like, they have this, uh, acute load versus chronic load, like article you could read about if you wanted to like, see how it looks. Uh, but overall they're just like kind of comparing, like they have this window of like where they think your overall training load should be.

So it has all the great things that an Apple watch has, like. Great GPS. It has good sleep tracking. I can go out and run and I can see I'm running an eight minute mile pace, right? I can just see that right there. Very easy to do zone training. All I need is my watch. Um, The biggest con with a Garmin is the wrist based heart rate kind of sucks.

That's its biggest con, but everything else is good. And then when we're getting into more serious, like, Hey, I want to look at my load. I want to make sure that I'm training appropriately. I have enough stimulus. I'm not adding too much stimulus too fast. That's where a Garmin is [00:46:00] just knocks it out of the park.

And I put them. I put them in a category of their own, even though they are more expensive, expensive, depending on which model you get. Like I said, the forerunner is pretty awesome. Vivio active looks cool. And then the more expensive epics and a Phoenix are, are the best in the business.

Joe: I, so I can find it on my, my phone.

I can't find the, how to, how to add it to my, uh, My watch screen, the acute low. Cause I know I've seen it before. And when I go in to like, um, actual training stuff, like training status or, and then you can, from there I can go to my load and it tells me aerobic, high aerobic and low aerobic and those zones and training and such and the graph, but I can't get it on my thing.

I'll have to figure that out. But yeah, that is cool. I I've only just recently discovered that because it wasn't on my watch. And, um, that it keeps telling me that I have a high aerobic shortage. So I know something to really try and improve, but it is, is pretty

Jerred: cool. Yeah, so that's actually even different.

So that, I didn't even mention that. So the load focus will tell [00:47:00] you basically if you've had enough time in different heart rate zones. So like, um, whether you're high aerobic or basically zone two or anaerobic, like you need more short burst stuff. Uh, this newer features is just chronic load. It's like, and it's a category all in its on its own of just like, and it's a number between one and two basically like, and it goes in decimals.

Um, So where would you rate the Garmin? Definitely an A. A I don't like that their risk based heart rate kind of sucks. Especially for like garage gym workouts. But that doesn't make me equate it out to like An Apple watch because of all of its other features. So I give it an A plus. Um, I don't think there's anything better on the market for the garage gym athlete.

Any version really of any kind of Garmin get that or an Apple watch. It kind of gives me the pros and cons of all the other ones as well. Like things you should be thinking about. And again, these are just our opinions. If you own one of these things and you like it and it works for you, um, keep, keep at it.

You know, this is just our opinion from having used all of them for the most [00:48:00] part. Um, and. You know, just kind of our thoughts, but I think, uh, Garmin crushes it for the garage gym athlete, especially if you ever want to get out of the garage and, and run a lap and actually look at a screen you're far superior to, to whoop and everything else.

Joe: Yeah. And, um, I feel like we need to, I don't know. So a coach or one of us, I don't know, somebody needs to actually compare polar because I feel like polar is the right, the closest equivalent to the next, the biggest competitor, but none, we've, none of us have had it. And some of our athletes do have it and use it some, but it's just not as big of a brand.

Um, and there's another, I think it's Sunoto, Sunoto. Yeah. There's also a brand, but that's more of, that's a, um. That they cater more to our endurance, uh, athletes. I would say Garmin

Jerred: does as well, but yeah, I haven't tried those. So again, we're not saying that they're not in the running. I just, if I've literally never worn it before, I don't feel comfortable, you know, giving you my opinion on it.

Um, [00:49:00] even with the Apple watch ultra, like I've worn worn. A more recent Apple watch, but not the ultra specifically. But after I had checked out my father in law's, I was like, Oh, this is like, not that much different. It's just a little bit nicer, bigger screen, all that stuff. I was more comfortable, like giving my opinion.

So we're really just giving you an opinion on things that we've used and, and everything else, but we know there are other brands out there. I do think polar is pretty legit. Um, I, I know that we do have a few athletes who, um, vouch for that, but.

Joe: Yeah, yeah. They're, um, they're just looking at polar right now.

They. It looks like a smaller profile. Also, you know, same with like, uh, endurance type things. They, they still have a lot of similar features though. And like titanium solar, sapphire glasses and such like that, but I don't know much else on, um, you know, heart rate accuracy, anything, uh, recovery metrics. So you can, there's, there's plenty of YouTubers that have channels dedicated just for comparisons.

Jerred: Yeah, and by all means if you want to check any of these out like they're like 30 minute videos on a single [00:50:00] watch It's just crazy that you can like go and dive into these things But this is not opinion from like a garage gym athlete perspective like what you should wear What's a polar coming in at?

Do you have to have pulled up? What's the price? Yeah. So I

Joe: think the garment, the, the, the Phoenix probably comparable one is their grit X pro and, um, they have like a Titan, uh, edition, like their most expensive edition is six 50, but right now their grid X pro is. On sale for 400. So like crazy.

Jerred: Yeah. And that's more in line with like the forerunner, um, on, on Garmin.

So yeah, I think Garmin has some pretty good, uh, they're appropriately priced. Uh, the new epics pro. Oh, that's one thing I'll say. You don't have it on yours, but I have it on mine. It was the main reason I bought it, the flashlight. So the, it has a flashlight on, on my Phoenix. They now added that to all of the Phoenix pros and all of the epics pros, which just goes to show how amazing the damn flashlight is.

I use the flashlight. [00:51:00] Seven times a day, probably. Early in the morning, late at night. I use it when I go early morning runs. It turns on like a strobe, keeps me safe. Um. It is the coolest feature that could possibly be added to a watch. I don't know if I can own a watch again that doesn't have a legitimate, dedicated flashlight.

So I hope that Garmin is always, uh, throwing flashlights on their watches.

Joe: I mean, even my version has a, a quote flashlight, but it's just the screen that goes... Screen brightens up. Yeah. And

Jerred: like, but I... It's totally different. You'll, you'll see when you get the new one. You'll see. It's like a... Yeah, but... Even if

Joe: I still use the time.

Yeah, it's still it's still great for for little stuff. Pretty close. It's still like I've turned my wrist and it's not super bright. If I had that real flashlight home, I got.

Jerred: Yeah, yeah. He's all the damn time.

Joe: Plus, they're in their news version. We just watched the video yesterday because we were like, Oh, man, we want to get their their newest upgraded sevens, the seven pros.

But that in the heart rate monitor is is the main things that I'm like. Yeah, I would totally

Jerred: upgrade. Yeah. The new pros, uh, they got new heart rate monitors that are supposed to be [00:52:00] more accurate. Um, and I'm, maybe I'll just have to buy it so I can update the community on it. Uh, I'm just gonna have to take one for the team.

Joe: I'll get, I'll get a polar and then we'll just, we'll, we'll go from there.

Jerred: We'll just, Hey Joe, you want to buy a seven X. Phoenix solar. Um, no, uh,

uh, all right. So that's it. We'd love to know your thoughts on these things coming from like the garage gym, athlete perspective. There any other brands we should be checking out? Um, definitely mentioned them in the community or whatever. I'm probably not buying any other brand. This is not sponsored by Garmin, but I'm a huge Garmin fan, especially having, having used everything else.

Uh, there's not much lacking, um, on the Garmin side anymore. Uh, but that's it for this one. Thanks for watching. Thanks for being a part of the community for all of our garage plates. Remember if you don't kill comfort, comfort will kill you.[00:53:00]