Some people say I want to change the world, but they get burnt out or tired. Today we are going to talk about caring for your whole self. Labor Day just passed which is a day all about working hard. Let's face the facts people if we aren't at our best we aren’t much help to those around us. I'm the family caretaker so I know how stressful helping others can be and I found myself getting burnt out, skipping workouts, indulging in sweets and unhealthy foods, and the list goes on. I never expected so many aspects of my life to be affected but once it was broken down to where I could understand what it was my body needed, I flourished so I want to share my self-care tips with you today.

 First and foremost, we will be talking about three aspects of your health today. Your physical health is defined as the condition of your body, taking into consideration everything from the absence of disease to fitness level. Physical health is critical for overall well-being and can be affected by Lifestyle: diet, level of physical activity, and behavior. Your Mental Health is the condition of being sound mentally and emotionally that is characterized by the absence of mental illness and by adequate adjustment especially as reflected in feeling comfortable about oneself, positive feelings about others, and the ability to meet the demands of daily life. Your Emotional health is an important part of overall health. Emotionally healthy people are in control of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Your physical health is broken down into three basic aspects, good nutrition, a healthy amount of rest and sleep, and exercise. I like to think about our bodies as our temples or our vehicles. The important thing to remember is that you only get one, it's not like the car in your driveway that you can go trade-in. We need to care about ourselves so that we can give the best care for others. This world has turned into a scary place but if we better care for ourselves than we can better care for and about others. This is something you can do in your everyday life to make your community a better place. It doesn't make sense to only care about your arms and not your legs, or your physical health and not your mental or emotional health. It's dangerous, Let's talk about simple ways to care for your physical health. First, you need to know how active you are in order to have a baseline to make improvements on and to set goals. For this task, I have fallen in love with the Forerunner 245 . It's a great product that allows you to track all the vital information you need to know. You can use our compare chart to see what is best for you

Your mental health is an important part of your overall health. Mentally healthy people are in control of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It means you are aware of your emotions. You can deal with them, whether they are positive or negative. Mental health is integral to living a healthy, balanced life. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five Americans experiences mental health issues which translate to more than 40 million adults a year. Our mental health includes our psychological, emotional and social well-being. This means that it impacts how we feel, think and behave each day. Our mental health also contributes to our decision-making process, how we cope with stress and how we relate to others in our lives. I use four main rules a day to recognize where I am mentally and to train myself to better react in a situation. Rule number one, focus your attention on the present moment, two, practice gratitude, three, exercise patience over hurrying to get things done, and last but not least you need to practice accepting what is already happening. With these four rules added to my daily life, I find myself much more aware of my mental health and how I'm feeling.

I know you're probably tired of reading by now but we are going to wrap it up with your emotional health. Your emotional health is your feelings and how you identify and accept those feelings. once you recognize where you are emotionally you will be able to care for yourself in a much healthier manner. Most of us identify our emotional health by the words we use to describe feelings such as happy, sad, scared, stressed, angry ext. The first step in better emotional health is recognizing the validity of your emotional state. We don't always like how we feel but it is of utmost importance that we recognize that it is real and it is there. The next task is figuring out why, why do I feel this way? You can go back to your mental health for that and think about how your thoughts have been and how you have been feeling and why that might be, only you have this answer and we are all different. Last but not least is to remember that feelings are simply words, they do not define us, its how we respond to those feelings that matter. I hope you enjoyed our blog on how to better yourself all around, I know it was a long read but I hope you learned a lot and that you are on you A game very soon.

Remember we are all part of something bigger whether it is a family, work crew, team, school, church, community, etc so if you want to make this world a better place DON'T forget about yourself!!

 

 

Whether you want to burn fat, boost energy, improve your daily outlook, or just be a bit more toned, we have a few workouts that will fit your need. They’ve all been road tested by case studies and are ready to deliver the results you’re looking for. Pick your goal and discover new, fun ways to achieve it. Michele Stanten, author of Walk Off Weight, designed several of these workouts.

Here are some suggestions and walking workouts by specific goals. Choose the one that’s right for you and start working toward achieving the body you've been trying for. Anyone can change their lifestyle with consistency and commitment, we believe in you!!!
*Calorie burn is based on a 150-pound person and will vary depending on weight, walking speed, and workout duration.

1.  Double-Duty Toner

Try using a pair of walking poles as you take that stroll. Research shows they can boost calorie burn by up to 46% and get your arms and core involved for allover firming. The poles also help reduce the impact on your joints.

2.  Butt Firmer 16+ minutes

Walking uphill activates 25% more muscle fibers for faster firming than strolling on flat terrain. For best results, find a hill that takes 2  minutes to climb
Warm up at an easy pace for 5 to 10 minutes. Then walk up and down the hill; follow with 2 minutes of brisk walking on a level surface. Repeat the hill and level walk for your desired workout length. Finish with 5 minutes of easy walking to cool down.

3.  Treadmill Booty Blast 25 Minutes

No outdoor hills to give your glutes a workout? Here’s a fun treadmill routine you can try!
Incline
Warm-up 0:00–4:59 2.5 0
Increase speed 0.2 mph and incline 1% each minute.
Gradual ascent
5:00–9:59 3.3 5
Maintain speed but increase incline 1% each minute.
Rolling hills
10:00–10:59 3.4 5
11:00–11:59 3.5 5
12:00–12:29 3.7 7
12:30–12:59 3.7 5
13:00–13:29 3.8 8
13:30–13:59 3.8 5
14:00–14:29 4.0 10
14:30–14:59 3.5 5
Steep climb
15:00–19:59 2.6 10
Maintain incline as you increase speed 0.3 mph each minute.
Cool- down
20:00–25:00 3.4 4
Decrease speed 0.2 mph and incline 1% each minute

4.Brainpower Booster Under 20 Minutes

Changing the direction you walk—forward, backward, or sideways—keeps your mind alert, increases your calorie burn, and activates some often-underused muscles, such as your inner and outer thighs. This routine is best done on a semi-flat surface such as a school track (most are 1 ⁄4 mile around). The Workout
Lap 1: Start at the beginning of the curved part of the track. Walk as you normally would to warm up for a full lap.
Lap 2: Turn sideways so right foot is in front. Sidestep or shuffle around the curved part of the track.
Walk backward on the straight section.
Sidestep through the next curve with left foot in front.
Walk forward on the straight section.
Lap 3 Repeat lap 2, walking sideways, backward, sideways, and forward.
Lap 4 Walk forward, slowing your pace to cool down.
This is a 1-mile walk if you use a 1 ⁄4-mile track. You can do more laps to extend it or work up to doing half or even full laps of each type of walking.

5.  Indoor Leg Toner 5 Minutes

Do this quick workout anywhere there are stairs to double your calorie burn. Walk up and down 1 flight normally.
2. Slowly walk up sideways, crossing bottom foot over top. Keep head up. Walk down normally. Repeat, facing the opposite direction.
3. Step up on first stair, then down, starting with right foot (right up, left up, right down, left down) 10 times.
Repeat, starting with left foot.
4. Climb stairs 2 steps at a time; come down quickly using each step.
5. Run up; walk down normally.
6. Repeat numbers 4 and 5 another 4 times.
7. At bottom, place right foot on first or second step, bend knees, and lower into a lunge. Keep right knee directly over ankle as you do so. Push off with right foot to return to start. Repeat with left leg. Alternate legs for 20 lunges, total.  

6.Super Fat Blast 10 minutes

Crank up the intensity with metabolism-revving bursts of high-impact activities. You’ll burn nearly 70% more calories than if you walked at a steady pace.
TIME ACTIVITY
0:00–2:59 Warm-up, easy to moderate pace
3:00–3:59 Brisk walk
4:00–4:29 Jog
4:30–5:29 Fast walk
5:30–5:59 Jumping jacks in place
6:00–6:59 Fast walk
7:00–7:29 Side jumps, feet together, in place
7:30–8:29 Fast walk
8:30–8:59 Jog
9:00–10:00 Cool-down, easy pace

7. Arm Shaper 20 minutes

Grab an exercise band and do these moves while you walk to firm your upper body.
The workout starts with 4 minutes of easy walking. Then pick up your pace to a moderate intensity and do the first exercise for 25 reps. When you’re finished, drape band around neck and speed up to a brisk pace, like you’re in a hurry, for 2 minutes. Repeat the 25-rep. toning/2-minute brisk-walking intervals until you’ve done all the exercises.
Cool down with 4 minutes of easy walking. You can make moves harder by placing hands closer together so you’re using less band, or easier by separating hands for more slack.
Loop band around back. Hold each side with palms up, elbows bent in at waist, forearms angled out to sides
Keeping shoulders down and back, press hands up and away from body to about shoulder height.
Slowly lower to start position.
Chest Circle With band around back, extend arms in front, crossing wrists
Circle arms out to sides
Bend elbows and bring hands in to chest. Repeat, crossing opposite arm on top.
Back Pulldown Hold band wide overhead.
Lower arms, keeping elbows bent slightly
Pull band down behind head. Slowly return to start position.
Triceps Toner Hold band at shoulder height in front of you, hands wide, elbows bent 90 degrees
Keeping upper arms still, straighten arms and press hands out to sides
Slowly return to start position.

8.Treadmill Slimmer

30 Minutes Treadmills are the perfect excuse buster— no need to worry about weather, traffic, or darkness. Seeing your speed increase as you become more fit is also a huge motivator.

Great Walking Workout, to blast more than
150 calories* in half an hour.
TIME ACTIVITY SPEED
0:00–4:59 Warm-up 3.4 MPH•
5:00–10:59 Phase 1 (repeat intervals below for 6 min)
60 sec speed interval 4.0 MPH
60 sec recovery interval 3.4 MPH
11:00–15:59 Phase 2 (repeat for 5 min)
40 sec speed interval 4.2 MPH
20 sec recovery interval 3.4 MPH
16:00–20:59 Phase 3 (repeat for 5 min)
30 sec speed interval 4.4 MPH
30 sec recovery interval 3.4 MPH
21:00–25:59 Phase 4 (repeat for 5 min)
20 sec speed interval 4.6 MPH
40 sec recovery interval 3.4 MPH
26:00–30:00
Cool-down 3.4 MPH
Start at a comfortable speed. Increase 0.6 mph from there for Phase 1 speed intervals. For each subsequent phase, increase your speed intervals by 0.2 mph.

9.Belly-Busting Walk 10+ Minutes

High-intensity workouts like these can shrink 5 times more belly fat than moderate intensity workouts. To zero in on shaping your abs, use these toning tips during any walk: Focus on drawing your abs in toward your spine. Try to maintain the contraction throughout your walk, but don’t hold your breath. Imagine that your legs extend up above your navel. As one leg swings forward and back, that hip should follow. This slight hip swivel causes your lower torso to rotate, activating more ab muscles to tone your midsection faster.

10. Head for the Trees! 5+ Minutes

A dose of nature can boost your mood and energize you in just 5 minutes. If you exercise in a natural setting and go longer (a lunchtime stroll in a park or an all-day hike in the mountains), you can improve your memory and attention 20% more than you can by walking in an urban environment.
Firm Your Arms, Butt & Thighs By adding some toning moves or techniques to your routine, you can turn walks into total-body workouts and shape your legs and butt even faster. Aim to target each body area 2 or 3 times a week. For example, do the Sculpt All Over once or twice a week, and do a lower-body and an upper-body routine (or two) on alternate days. Don’t work the same muscle groups on back-to-back days. For speedier firming, do walking routines from other sections on in between days to melt flab and tone-up your muscles.

11.Drop-It-Fast Sprint 25 to 30 Minutes

The quicker you walk, the farther you can go and the more pounds you’ll melt off. Here’s a fun routine that burns as many as 175 calories*.
The Workout After warming up for 5 minutes, walk as fast as you can for 10 minutes. Note how far you went. Then turn around and walk back at a brisk pace, slowing your speed to cool down as you get closer to your starting point. Each time you do this work out, aim to walk faster and go farther than your initial turnaround point.
This is where a good, reliable Activity Tracker comes in handy. You’re working on getting fit and losing weight right. So why not track your routines so you can work on achieving better results. Check out the Fitbit Alta HR (shh its currently on clearance great pricing) and work on exceeding your personal goals.

12. The Stress Relieving Walk 10+ Minutes

Revitalize your mind and body with an easy walk of any length that includes these stress busting techniques from Carolyn Scott Kortge, author of Healing Walks for Hard Times.
Step 1 Focus on your feet. Feel the firm ground beneath you as each foot rolls from heel to toe. Try to hold awareness of your steps for 2 to 3 minutes.
Step 2 Turn your attention to breathing. Lift your torso to stand upright and increase lung space. As you inhale, imagine you are drawing in renewed energy. Exhale tiredness and pain. Let fresh life flow into your lungs and your cells.
Step 3 Mentally talk to yourself. Taking Fresh air in, Stale Air out as you breathe can help you maintain your focus which can provide you with more Energy, A Brighter Mood and just generally having a better outlook on the day. Even a 10-minute stroll can instantly recharge your energy by increasing circulation. Go for 30 minutes and you could get a whopping 85% energy boost, research shows. And to really wake up your body and brain, try these stimulating walks that get your mind and senses working too. The good feeling may last up to 12 hours! Anytime you need a quick pick-me-up, try one of these routines. These workouts can also help if your goal is to lose weight or firm up.

Now that you guys have been given a dozen routines to watch that scale count backwards, we encourage you to take it slow to start and set goals for yourself. If you’re serious about changing your lifestyle to a healthier we recommend Forerunner 35 as a nice starter to keep track of your starting point and your progress throughout this journey. Remember change is a good thing so don’t forget to change up your routines, you want to keep an element of surprise to keep you motivated. If I’m having a tough day with motivation, I like to walk somewhere that I have a chance of seeing wildlife or water, what are some of your favorite elements of surprise to add to your routines?

 

Sunshine And Warmer Weather Are Finally Making There Presence Felt.  And Like most of us, this past winter season, for that matter this past year has been one that has given us more in-door, stay at home days then outdoor ones. The weather just hasn’t been cooperative. But hopefully, this year is starting off a bit better with more sunshine filled days that coax us to get outdoors and be active. Whether its getting that yard cleaned up after last years fall and winter seasons made a mess with fallen tree branches, not to mention the leftover fallen leaves that have gone un-raked because of just plain, wet weather!

But now the sun is finally shining and beckoning to us to get outside and get some much-needed exercise, which for many of us means running, power-walking or jogging along our favorite paths, country roads or mountain trails. Just getting outside provides the necessary incentive to move!

Now, because we are going to put that sunshine to good use, we wanted to use an activity tracker that’s made for being active outdoors and the one we chose is the Garmin Fenix 5 GPS Multi-Sport Watch . Just for a few attention getters, the Fenix 5 has a bright, high-resolution, full-color Garmin Chroma Display. And so you can keep track on just how well you’re doing health-wise, it has the functionality of using the new Elevate wrist-based heart rate technology that lets you monitor your heart rate without the need to wear a chest strap!

And it's not just for running, but it’s also a Multiple Sports Activity watch as well. It has "Preloaded" activity profiles for all of your sports and adventures. You can get key stats at your fingertips with the performance widget that shows your training status, training load and more.

Befitting a watch meant for the outdoors, the Garmin Fenix 5 has a rugged exterior that looks like it could take some abuse. Five screws hold a beveled, black bezel in place, while five circular buttons (three on the left, two on the right) ring the 1.2-inch display. There's an inner bezel around the screen, along with an outer bezel; together, they measure nearly half an inch, though that's mitigated visually by the design. When you get right down to it, it's tough to find an activity that the Fenix 5  can’t track! What’s also an asset is its overall size and weight. Wearing the Fenix 5 it never feels weighty on your wrist, and with its good-looking design, you can wear it as an everyday watch and its right there with you when you lace up your sneaks for a run!

Display
The Fenix 5 has an always-on color display (a plus) with a transflective surface that uses sunlight to make the screen brighter. I never had a problem reading the display, even in direct sunlight.
The Fenix 5  also gives you a VO2 max score (a measure of your overall fitness level), the intensity of your training over the past week and a race predictor, which lists how fast the watch thinks you'll complete a 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon.

For each run that you do, you get a training effect, which gives you a score for both aerobic and anaerobic activity. A Training Status screen shows how productive your exercises have been and gives you a general sense if your fitness level is improving, holding steady or decreasing.

The Fenix 5's optical heart rate monitor proved accurate, but it did not respond to changes as quickly as a chest strap would. But for just a few points off, it dosesn't really make it a game changer. It’s very accurate based on being worn on the wrist.

The home screen (also known as the Snapshot screen), which has a black background, has two large circles toward the top that show how many steps you've taken and how much sleep you've had. Below that are small blocks for Active Calories, Activities, MyFitnessPal, Intensity Minutes and Floors Climbed.  Great data that you need in one place.

Swiping left or right shows you more information about various activities (steps, sleep, running, swimming, etc.). You can customize how many of these pages show up, as well as their order, by pressing an icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

Battery Life
One of the reasons I prefer wearing Garmin's watches over smartwatches is that I rarely have to worry about recharging. If you're not using GPS or the heart rate monitor, the Fenix 5 will last up to two weeks. That means if you forget to bring the charger on a trip lasting more than a day, you won't have a useless hunk of metal on your wrist. If you are using GPS, the battery is rated to last up to 24 hours, which is more than twice what the TomTom Adventurer (11 hours) offers. If you turn on UltraTrac mode (where the watch pings the satellite only once every minute, rather than every second), the Fenix 5 should last for up to 60 hours. I also like that Garmin has continued to shrink the size of its charging cables. Rather than using a bulky wireless charger like so many smartwatches do, the Fenix 5 has a small USB cable that snaps into a port on the back of the watch.

Bottom Line
The Garmin Fenix 5 has everything you need to keep you honest and provide you with enough data to make sure you’re not only reaching your goals but what you need to do in order to surpass them! This GPS watch is made for the outdoor adventurer who needs or wants to capture everything they do. It provides detailed stats on a multitude of activities, has an accurate heart rate monitor, doesn't weigh your wrist down too much and lasts a long time on a charge. All in All its a keeper and once you have it strapped on your wrist, you won't soon be taking it off.

So, go ahead, enjoy that warm sunshine we spoke about earlier and get yourself out there and get moving!

 

Now that Spring is beginning to make itself felt across the country, you can now get outside and begin working on getting more activity, while enjoying the sun and warming weather. People that know they need to become more active because of yearly visits to their physicians who warn them that their current lifestyle is not providing enough physical activity to get their blood pressure under control. If you don’t know what your numbers are, you should not wait to find out after you’ve experienced a medical incident. Make an appointment with your physician and get an overall physical and let them tell you the results of how you fare and what if anything you need to be aware of.

High blood pressure or hypertension (blood pressure greater than 140/90 over a period of time) affects nearly 78 million Americans. Although it’s the leading cause of death worldwide (13 percent), about 30 percent of adults don’t even know they have high blood pressure. Many of those who are aware aren’t taking control of their disease. If left untreated, hypertension can increase your risk for heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral arterial disease (decreased blood flow usually to the legs and feet).

If after visiting your physician and you are told that you indeed are part of those 78 million you need to not only work at getting your blood pressure under control but you also need to monitor it so you can react if your blood pressure rises or falls so that you can take necessary action.

Using a home blood pressure monitor is a good idea so that you can track your blood pressure on a regular basis. Your doctor can advise you how often you should check your pressure and what to do if it rises or falls. One such monitor that can easily be used is the LifeSource UB351 Automatic Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor  It is a wrist based monitor that will alert you of the presence of an irregular heartbeat and provides blowrist-based and pulse rate measurements even if an irregular heartbeat occurs. It can also calculate the average of the total readings stored in its memory; a convenient way to get a snapshot of your measurements over time and provide you with an average of just what your blood pressure is over a specific timeframe.

How to use a home blood pressure monitor
Be still. Don't smoke, drink caffeinated beverages or exercise within 30 minutes before measuring your blood pressure. Empty your bladder and ensure at least 5 minutes of quiet rest before measurements.

Sit correctly. Sit with your back straight and supported (on a dining chair, rather than a sofa). Your feet should be flat on the floor and your legs should not be crossed. Your arm should be supported on a flat surface (such as a table) with the upper arm at heart level

Measure at the same time every day. It’s important to take the readings at the same time each day, such as morning and evening. It is best to take the readings daily however ideally beginning 2 weeks after a change in treatment and during the week before your next appointment.

Take multiple readings and record the results. Each time you measure, take two or three readings one minute apart and record the results. If your monitor has built-in memory to store your readings, take it with you to your appointments. Some monitors may also allow you to upload your readings to a secure website after you register your profile.

So just what are the numbers to be aware of? We have them listed Below:

NORMAL LESS THAN 120 and LESS THAN 80
ELEVATED 120 – 129 and LESS THAN 80

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
(HYPERTENSION) STAGE 1 130 – 139 or 80 – 89

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
(HYPERTENSION) STAGE 2 140 OR HIGHER or 90 OR HIGHER

If you get a high blood pressure reading:
A single high reading is not an immediate cause for alarm. If you get a reading that is slightly or moderately higher than normal, take your blood pressure a few more times and consult your healthcare professional to verify if there’ s a health concern or whether there may be any issues with your monitor.

If your blood pressure readings suddenly exceed 180/120 mm Hg, wait five minutes and test again. If your readings are still unusually high, contact your doctor immediately. You could be experiencing a hypertensive crisis.
If your blood pressure is higher than 180/120 mm Hg and you are experiencing signs of possible organ damage such as chest pain, shortness of breath, back pain, numbness/weakness, change in vision, difficulty speaking, do not wait to see if your pressure comes down on its own. Call 9-1-1!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the American College of Sports Medicine all recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of both for adults.

Intensity – Exercise at a moderate level. Use the “talk test” to help you monitor. For example, even though you may notice a slight rise in your heart rate and breathing, you should be able to carry on a conversation while walking at a moderate pace. As you walk faster, you will begin to breathe faster and have difficulty talking. At that point, you’ve achieved moderate intensity or “somewhat hard.” Vigorous exercise causes a large rise in heart rate and breathing. At this intensity, it would become difficult to talk. Most people would rate this as “hard to very hard.”

Time – Exercise 30-60 minutes per day. You can do it all at once or break it up into a few sessions of at least minutes each.

Type – Do rhythmic exercises using the large muscle groups. Try brisk walking, cycling, and swimming. Choose activities you enjoy and will do regularly in your new, more active
lifestyle. Add variety depending on the day or the season to keep your program more enjoyable.

Start by exercising on your own. Begin walking or another form of activity that you can integrate into your daily routine.

Do rhythmic exercises using large muscle groups:
Try brisk walking, cycling, and swimming. Choose activities you enjoy and will do regularly in your new, more active lifestyle. Add variety depending on the day or the season to
keep your program more enjoyable. All you really need, though, is a good pair of shoes
to get started walking. Use a Pedometer or other activity tracker to monitor your progress. Slowly work toward a goal, like maybe 10,000 steps per day.

If you have been inactive for a long time, start with short sessions (ten to 15 minutes). Add five minutes to each session, increasing every two to four weeks. Gradually build up to being active 30 minutes a day for most days of the week. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids before, during, and after exercise, especially if you plan to exercise on a hot day or for a
long time. Always cool down slowly.

If possible, measure your blood pressure before you exercise. Do not exercise if your resting systolic blood pressure (the top number) is greater than 200 or your diastolic blood pressure
(the bottom number) is greater than 115. Contact your doctor!

So, getting back to where we started, now that you have some beneficial information about how and why you check your blood pressure. It's important that "Knowing" your numbers and keeping them in line will allow you to help yourself by being more active and getting your body in better shape.

And what better time to get started then in the Spring of the new year? By walking at a brisk pace,  eating healthy, lowering your stress all these things combined can help keep you living a more healthy and active life for years to come!
 

 

 

 

If you're excited about upping your running game for 2019 then you need to know your pushing yourself to your maximum. In order to do this right, you need a good fitness tracker. The Garmin Forerunner 935  is one tracker that will go the distance for you, and then some! The Garmin 935 is the ultimate tool for dedicated runners everywhere. Whether you are a triathlete or trail runner, you cannot pass up on the Forerunner 935xt. Super concise data is a runner's best friend and with the Forerunner 935, you'll have all of the data you need. Multi-Sport dynamics (running, swimming, and cycling), VO2 Max, wrist-based heart rate, recovery time, race predictor, and more. The 935 also offers you more ways than ever to store and track your data. Use automatic uploads to Garmin Connect, or use “Strava” live segments to turn every run into a virtual race. The 935 is truly the most powerful Forerunner ever.

Thanks to its impressive array of sensors, the watch offers sophisticated insights into your training status, telling you whether it’s a good idea to train or not. When used with a compatible Running Dynamics Pod (or an HRM-Run or HRM-Tri heart-rate monitor), it also delivers advanced metrics such as ground contact time, balance, stride length and vertical ratio that can help you to better understand your running technique.
The Forerunner 935 also does a great job of tracking your everyday activity.

Design and features:
The Forerunner 935 is a sports tracker first and foremost, so its looks are unlikely to wow you. However, its black casing is subtle and inoffensive enough to wear when you’re not training, and it’s compatible with Garmin’s QuickFit 22 bands, so you can swap the plain silicone band for something fancier if you prefer.

The Forerunner 935’s traditional five-button running-watch design works well for navigating its many menus and allows easy control of the watch during activities. Touchscreens and scrolling knobs are fun, but when you’re sweaty nothing beats a physical button for precise control.

One advantage the Forerunner 935 has over rugged watches such as the Fenix 5 Plus is that its plastic design helps it to be lightweight. At 49g, it’s some 37g lighter than its stablemate. And despite this, it packs plenty into its design. There’s GPS, GLONASS, Garmin’s Elevate optical heart-rate monitor, a barometric altimeter, accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, and thermometer.

It’s waterproof (5ATM), and while its 30.5mm display doesn’t dazzle compared to those on smartwatches like the Apple Watch or Fitbit Ionic, it’s always easy to read and only becomes more so in bright sunlight.

Battery life is listed as 24 hours for GPS use, which can be extended to 60 hours with Garmin’s UltraTrac mode. This mode isn’t as accurate because it takes readings less frequently, but it’s a handy feature for ultramarathon fans seeking the ultimate in longevity. In general, I achieved around two weeks of use from the Forerunner 935, even when logging outdoor activities most days, which is terrific. The Forerunner tracks a huge variety of sports, but its running mode is the most feature-rich. I’ve used it through two marathon training cycles and, well, it’s just phenomenal. Hit the Run button and it quickly locks on to GPS plus any sensors you have nearby (including running pods such as Stryd. In my 18 months of using it, the longest I’ve waited for a GPS fix is 60 seconds, and usually, it locks on in less than ten seconds.

Distance and heart-rate tracking are both accurate and I’d say the latter in particular stands out on the Forerunner 935. Wrist-based optical sensors are never totally dependable, but the Forerunner 935’s is reliable enough that you don’t need to use a chest strap, even if you’re following a workout based entirely on heart rate.

You can create such a workout or, indeed, one based on time, distance or pace in Garmin Connect and beam it over to the watch wirelessly. There’s also a simple Intervals mode you can set up on the watch itself. Trainers agree that Garmin is leading the way when it comes to making it easy to create and follow workouts on the wrist, which is a key feature for keen amateurs and pros alike. A host of features kick in after you finish running, starting with an estimate of how many hours of recovery you need. You’ll also be advised on the effect of your session in terms of aerobic and anaerobic benefit, the former marking improvements in your general cardiovascular fitness and the latter your ability to run at speed for longer.

You can also monitor your overall training load and whether a workout is effective in improving your fitness in terms of your VO2 max, which is also measured by the watch. Push too hard too often and you’ll be told you’re “Overreaching” in a counterproductive fashion, risking injury without actually benefiting your fitness.

Ideally, you’re aiming for “Productive” or, if you’re about to race, “Peaking”, which suggests you’ve reduced your training load in a smart way to smash your PB. The Forerunner 935 estimates your times for a 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon based on your VO2 max.

Activity and other sports tracking
Most of the other sports modes on the Forerunner 935 work in a similar fashion to the running mode, measuring distance, pace/speed, and duration of your workout while adding in a few sport-specific stats such as stroke rate in the case of swimming. They all feed into your overall training load too. This is a triathlon watch, so unlike many GPS wearables, there is an open-water mode, plus a few different multisport options including swim/run and duathlon.
The performance of the Forerunner is impressive across all of these sports, with accurate heart-rate and distance tracking, although it won’t attempt to track heart rate when swimming. Many other trackers try this with mixed results, but if you need these insights you’ll need to link to a swim-specific heart-rate monitor like Garmin’s HRM-Swim.

The Forerunner 935 tracks your everyday activity, recording steps, floors climbed, resting and active calories, active minutes (over the course of a week) and even your stress level, which is based on heart-rate variability. The steps target adjusts automatically based on past activity based on its on-going assessment of the data it accumulates.

Heart rate is tracked 24/7 and you’ll get an estimate of your resting heart rate each day, so you can monitor this over time to see if you’re getting fitter – the number going down is a good sign. Sleep is recorded and the Forerunner 935 has Garmin’s advanced sleep-monitoring features, using heart-rate variability among other info to provide a more detailed picture of your night’s rest. Along with total duration, it will tell you the time spent in light, deep and REM sleep, and also depict your movements through the night.

All this information is engagingly presented in the Garmin Connect app. Small tiles on the home page show key data, and tapping these tiles gives you more in-depth data into trends over recent weeks and months. On the watch itself, you can scroll through widgets that show your everyday stats and also set up alerts to move if you’ve been sedentary for too long. Everyday tracking is not what the Forerunner 935 is primarily designed for, but it does it well.

So the results are in and the verdict is that the Garmin Forerunner 935  is a five-star multisport watch that blows everything else in its price range out of the water. As well as offering in-depth insights into running, swimming and cycling, it’s an everyday activity tracker that’s lightweight and comfortable enough to wear, ALL the time!