Discovery Health - Vitality & Team Vitality plus everything else you need to know

[jcza]

Gathering of weapons-grade simpletons here, follow the advice of carbon29r and use the ignore function. Really simplifies your life.

[Andrew Steer]

People are spending soo much time complaining across the various social media platforms about the apple watch hr, if only they took the same time to research it before going into the deal they would have realized that it's not an all out training tool...

 

You're making assumptions... as per most things in life, it is not always a clear case of black or white. I got the watch deal, I scrutinised it properly, I followed the thread on here regarding it for a couple weeks before taking the plunge.

 

I needed a watch, I needed a heart rate monitor, I already had a Disco credit card - it was a no brainer.

 

And yes I read the T's and C's, I knew the points would go up, I knew they could and would adapt the system as things progressed. It's cost me a whopping R160 odd over the first 5 months for what, heart rate monitor aside, is a pretty great piece of tech that I wear every single day. And even absolute worst case scenario, if I miss every single goal over the two years, I would still be getting the watch, that I wanted, at cost price and interest free.

 

My only issue now, and this is what most people are taking issue with I reckon, is that Strava was pulled as a tool because people were cheating the system, and they at the same time introduced the rule that heart-rate needs to be recorded to garner proper points... I can't comment on the heart rate guidelines as the monitor seems a bit sketchy, but I will cross that bridge when I get there.

 

On the apps, I have used Strava for years, it works, it's a brilliant app, it very seldom drops the ball and you simply cannot compare it to the app on the watch... which has recorded 3 separate 21km runs as 32km /8km (stopped) /6km (also just stopped)

 

Then there is the heart rate reading issue, a massive number of my workouts are just counting as 100points, I have triple checked all sharing between apps, blue tooth connection, software is up to date etc etc, and it catches the ball at random so it's really hard to pick up where it's going wrong. I can only assume it's not reading correctly as my 80bpm squash session on Friday kind of alludes too. 100 points per session is no longer going to get me hitting my goals, I need that heart rate boost... I bought this watch as a heart rate monitor too.

 

If that is sorted, even at 1200 points, my three weekly runs will already cover that no problem - that excludes my weekly squash session and any rides i do, so I'm really not worried, but I do bloody well need this heart rate monitor to start doing it's job 

 

Will visit the iStore later today if I get a gap

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Funny....patronising....sick....or still upset Myles ?

Don't say.....I know......

Still sick. Not upset. Not patronising at all. We just know that there are issues of all sorts

[BarHugger]

My week soo far for those complaining about some of us being below 700.

Screenshot_20160524-083446.png

Vivek...just as a matter of interest.....I would be very keen to see how much warm up and cool down you allow per session......I would also love to have two different athletes in my lab.....a high revver and a low revver......it would be very interesting to see the distances achieved as well as the actual power output over let's say an hour period......this would be even better if we could take an old hand and a newer athlete to the sport and make those comparisons....I think you may have a high revving engine.....not everyone has a big revving engine like that.....read up on a condition called Bradycardia....some people perhaps many have a mild form of this....for them to reach the targets as laid out would be very difficult to achieve.....what Discovery really need to do to make it feasible for all is build a profile around each and every individual and set their targets and goals accordingly.....

[BarHugger]

Still sick. Not upset. Not patronising at all. We just know that there are issues of all sorts

My hand felt cold for a split second......

[BigDL]

I have to say, I have, on three separate occasions now, trained with my Apple Watch running strava and, separately, my garmin connected to my chest strap, purely for the purpose I got accuracy of the watch, and thus far have not noticed any major discrepancies between the two.

 

I will ask one of the clever techies at work today if there is a watch issue and revert.

 

 

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[BarHugger]

I have to say, I have, on three separate occasions now, trained with my Apple Watch running strava and, separately, my garmin connected to my chest strap, purely for the purpose I got accuracy of the watch, and thus far have not noticed any major discrepancies between the two.

 

I will ask one of the clever techies at work today if there is a watch issue and revert.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Try the avocado test.......

[Frosty]

Vivek...just as a matter of interest.....I would be very keen to see how much warm up and cool down you allow per session......I would also love to have two different athletes in my lab.....a high revver and a low revver......it would be very interesting to see the distances achieved as well as the actual power output over let's say an hour period......this would be even better if we could take an old hand and a newer athlete to the sport and make those comparisons....I think you may have a high revving engine.....not everyone has a big revving engine like that.....read up on a condition called Bradycardia....some people perhaps many have a mild form of this....for them to reach the targets as laid out would be very difficult to achieve.....what Discovery really need to do to make it feasible for all is build a profile around each and every individual and set their targets and goals accordingly.....

Vivek stays in KZN, but I'll volunteer as a high revving older type.

 

I have no problem sharing my data if it helps in any way.

 

Edit: while I am in a semi-hibernation period, I don't really worry about what efforts are done at the moment.

 

Tonight I have a workout planned, so tell me what to do (for 60 minutes), and I'll share the data tomorrow

Edited May 24, 2016 by geraldm24

[BigDL]

Try the avocado test.......

Not being an avocado myself, I am not sure what the relevance of that would be.

 

 

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[Andrew Steer]

Myles, what was the official reasoning for pulling Strava? Because people could manually upload workouts?

 

If that's the case, then surely a few phone calls with the guys at Strava could have solved this - a simple marker for manual uploads etc? It can't be much effort...

 

Any other apps we can use for recording workouts that are accepted - obviously Apple Watch compatible? (I realise this might have been answered earlier, apologies if so)

[Thor Buttox]

Not being an avocado myself, I am not sure what the relevance of that would be.

 

 

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I think in the Bikehub healthy salad, you're the avocado... Cos I think he is nuts.

[GLuvsMtb]

One of the major issues I have with the way Vitality interprets and rewards fitness, is the notion that a week of no activity means you lose all your fitness. Why is there no additional reward for hitting your targets consecutively? Surely if you have reached (say) 10 weeks targets, your dedication and consistency should be rewarded? Consistency always beats intensity when it comes to base line fitness. Not everyone belongs to a gym and not everyone bought an Apple Watch, so even if they gave you an additional smoothie as reward, at least there is some acknowledgement of this. Furthermore there is no carry-over or carry-back once you have achieved your goal into the next week. If you are on 700 points and you are resting up for a big event, you may not hit your target in the following week. You smash a big event on the Saturday and get the max points, but the week before is recorded as "target not reached". Or lets say you have the flu and you rest for a week. The fact that you had 10 weeks of hitting your target should count for something as you don't start from scratch when you are clear to train 1 week on.

[Frosty]

One of the major issues I have with the way Vitality interprets and rewards fitness, is the notion that a week of no activity means you lose all your fitness. Why is there no additional reward for hitting your targets consecutively? Surely if you have reached (say) 10 weeks targets, your dedication and consistency should be rewarded? Consistency always beats intensity when it comes to base line fitness. Not everyone belongs to a gym and not everyone bought an Apple Watch, so even if they gave you an additional smoothie as reward, at least there is some acknowledgement of this. Furthermore there is no carry-over or carry-back once you have achieved your goal into the next week. If you are on 700 points and you are resting up for a big event, you may not hit your target in the following week. You smash a big event on the Saturday and get the max points, but the week before is recorded as "target not reached". Or lets say you have the flu and you rest for a week. The fact that you had 10 weeks of hitting your target should count for something as you don't start from scratch when you are clear to train 1 week on.

I have mentioned before, here and to Discovery, that recovery is part of training, and they should allow a period for recovery.

 

How they do it is open to debate.

 

I've found a way to adjust my training where it has the least amount of impact on my training and their system.

[BarHugger]

I have mentioned before, here and to Discovery, that recovery is part of training, and they should allow a period for recovery.

 

How they do it is open to debate.

 

I've found a way to adjust my training where it has the least amount of impact on my training and their system.

Will let you know....I have my old hand already....but let me come up with a few ideas.....

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Myles, what was the official reasoning for pulling Strava? Because people could manually upload workouts?

 

If that's the case, then surely a few phone calls with the guys at Strava could have solved this - a simple marker for manual uploads etc? It can't be much effort...

 

Any other apps we can use for recording workouts that are accepted - obviously Apple Watch compatible? (I realise this might have been answered earlier, apologies if so)

Yep, cos they didn't differentiate between manually uploaded or recorded activities...

[BarHugger]

Not being an avocado myself, I am not sure what the relevance of that would be.

 

 

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 Posted by Furbz on Yesterday, 15:16 in Training, Health & Nutrition

 

anyone put the apple watch on a avo yet?

legit it reads a heart rate. 

- also tried it on a green apple and got a pulse.

 

anyone able to explain this??