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Can You Trust Your Wrist Heart Rate When Exercising? A Validation Study of the Polar Ignite and the Garmin Vivoactive 4S Cover

Can You Trust Your Wrist Heart Rate When Exercising? A Validation Study of the Polar Ignite and the Garmin Vivoactive 4S

Open Access
|Jul 2026

Figures & Tables

Table 1

The HRmean, MAPE, and ICC during resting, walking, and running at different speeds.

TREADMILL SPEEDPOLAR H10POLAR IGNITEMAPE/ICC (IGNITE)GARMINMAPE/ICC (GARMIN)
Resting74.34 ± 9.8974.28 ± 10.120.74 ± 1.32
ICC: 0.995
74.76 ± 9.841.35 ± 1.68
ICC: 0.991
5 km/h109.24 ± 14.63109.52 ± 13.562.12 ± 3.74
ICC: 0.957
93.52 ± 12.5313.69 ± 13.74
ICC: 0.105
8 km/h142.97 ± 16.37140.93 ± 15.682.25 ± 2.50
ICC: 0.948
122.00 ± 16.4113.60 ± 16.30
ICC: –0.212
10 km/h156.72 ± 16.41153.48 ± 17.882.74 ± 3.98
ICC: 0.913
141.07 ± 14.599.48 ± 11.52
ICC: 0.083
Table 2

The HRmean, MAPE, and ICC during different resistance exercises.

EXERCISEPOLAR H10POLAR IGNITEMAPE/ICC (IGNITE)GARMINMAPE/ICC (GARMIN)
BP103.83 ± 15.73100.07 ± 13.805.81 ± 5.79
ICC: 0.816
103.55 ± 12.945.29 ± 4.03
ICC: 0.878
SP110.03 ± 18.39105.72 ± 16.995.39 ± 4.74
ICC: 0.898
104.28 ± 15.206.49 ± 4.74
ICC: 0.861
BC124.90 ± 14.38108.86 ± 17.2613.21 ± 9.05
ICC: 0.447
108.41 ± 12.6913.03 ± 5.49
ICC: 0.491
LE112.55 ± 16.41106.34 ± 17.376.59 ± 4.99
ICC: 0.852
105.28 ± 14.246.61 ± 3.92
ICC: 0.846
DL133.07 ± 16.25117.76 ± 20.0512.36 ± 8.61
ICC: 0.527
120.79 ± 15.139.29 ± 5.30
ICC: 0.665

[i] BP: Bench Press, SP: Shoulder Press, BC: Standing EZ-Bar Biceps Curl, LE: Leg Extension, DL: Deadlift.

Figure 1

Bland–Altman analysis comparing heart rate measurements from the Polar Ignite and Garmin Vivoactive 4S with the Polar H10 during aerobic activities at different speeds and at rest. Outer dotted lines represent upper and lower limits of agreement (95% CI). A: Resting, B: Walking at 5 km/h speed, C: Running at 8 km/h speed, D: Running at 10 km/h speed.

Figure 2

Bland–Altman analysis comparing heart rate measurements from the Polar Ignite and Garmin Vivoactive 4S with the Polar H10 during various resistance exercises. Outer dotted lines represent upper and lower limits of agreement (95% CI). A: Bench Press, B: Shoulder Press, C: Standing EZ-Bar Biceps Curl, D: Leg Extension, E: Deadlift.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/paah.559 | Journal eISSN: 2515-2270
Language: English
Page range: 107 - 116
Submitted on: Mar 8, 2026
Accepted on: Jul 2, 2026
Published on: Jul 24, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2026 Erbil Murat Aydın, Sema Can, Erkan Demirkan, Ali Fatih Sağlam, Burak Gündoğan, Pilar Martín Escudero, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.