Heart Rate Monitors USA Description: As a tester of Garmin Forerunner models, I am loving the new Garmin FR 945. Having used the Forerunner 935 fro about a year, I was eager to test the 945. At 1st glance, I thought the 945 was smaller in design, but turns out it is exactly the same size as my 935. Not that the 935 or 945 are large watches, they are not petite. If you have small wrists and this is a big deal, I really recommend the Forerunner 245 (White, Aqua or Berry colors)

If you thinking of upgrading from a previous Garmin Forerunner, I highly recommend this watch. For my type of exercise (4-5 miles running 5x a week) not much of a change in the training features. The 945 has music, if you have Spotify or Weezer, (I do not) you can preload songs so you don't need to run with your phone.

The 945 also has incident detection, which is an amazing safety feature:

When an incident is detected by your Forerunner^® device with GPS enabled, the Garmin Connect™ app can send an automated text message and email with your name and GPS location to your emergency contacts. A message appears indicating your contacts will be informed after 30 seconds have elapsed. You can select Cancel before the countdown is complete to cancel the message. Very Cool! A new feature I am getting used to is the Body Battery Gauge. In order for this to accurately work, you need to sleep with your Garmin 945. Body Battery uses a combination of Heart Rate Variability, Stress, and Activity to estimate the user’s energy reserves (scores 1-100) throughout the day. When I wake up from a good nights sleep, the energy is about 99, throughout the day it starts to drop and recharges when I rest. The lowest I have been so far is about 58. I have heard from other users that their score was really low from an 8 mile morning run, followed by a night of heavy drinking, and lack of sleep. I have not tested this yet.  The only other feature I have added this far is the Garmin Pay, I have not used it, but I have found myself dehydrated on a run with no cash, so I feel a bit more secure with Garmin Pay.  Note, the HR sensor is more pronounced than that of the 935 model. I was told by Garmin at a trade show that the newer design was to increase the accuracy of the wrist based Heart Rate.

Garmin 945 Product Description

Train with the Garmin Forerunner 945 running / Triathlete watch and you will not be disappointed. The newest version of the Forerunner family, the 945 replaces the Forerunner 935, and here are some main highlights. 

The  Garmin Forerunner 945 was announced on April 30th, 2021.  I think the main questions people want to know are, why would I upgrade from my Garmin 935 or why would I buy the Forerunner 945 over the Forerunner 935?

Features upgrades over the 935  (Compare Chart)

- 36-hour battery in GPS mode (compared to 24 on the 935)
- Music (10 hours battery with GPS and Music)
- Maps
- Garmin Pay
- Body Battery
- Pulse Ox
- Incident Detection
- Advanced Physio Metrics with Heat and Altitude Acclimation and Training Load Balance

So what are the benefits of these new features and why would I pay $100 more of them? Below are more detail of why these new features are a nice addition:

I run on average about an hour a day. With my 935, that would cause me to charge it once every 7 days or so. With my 945, I run with music (which is a huge battery hog)for about half my runs and still only needs to be charged around the same 7 days. No one likes charging things frequently.

I used to run with an MP3 player and have to find it each time I go for a run. It is great to have music right on my watch and be able to play it on my run, in my car, or on a Bluetooth speaker at a party. With 2GB of music storage, you can have enough music to last days.

Maps aren’t something you need to use often but when you do it is great to have. If you would like to run a new 5 mile loop, you can use the round trip course creation right on the watch for a given distance and you will get multiple course options. Now you don’t have to run the same loop all the time. This
feature is also great when you are traveling and don’t know where to run. If you are lost, now instead of just pointing in the direction you started or following a breadcrumb backward, you will be provided real directions just like if you were using your car navigation. You can also use the POI (Point Of Interest) option to find the closest pizza shop because who doesn’t like pizza?

I never used anything like Garmin Pay before this watch but I did add a couple of credit cards to see if I would really use it. There was once when I left my wallet at home and it was very nice to still be able to buy some lunch. It was also great when I was out on a very long run and bonked but was able to walk
into a convenience store and buy some fuel or water. That is something I have never even considered doing before Garmin Pay.

Body Battery is probably my favorite feature to look at. Think of it as your gas tank. Basically, when you exercise or have any type of stress, your Body Battery will go down, or you will use up fuel. When you rest or sleep well, it will go up. Sleeping does not guarantee waking up at 100%. If you sleep poorly or
not long enough you can easily wake up well below a full tank. One day I ran in the morning, worked all day, and then had a fun night drinking alcohol. When I went to bed, my Body Battery was down to 12. Because I drank a decent amount, I slept poorly. When I woke up, my Body Battery was still only 12.  I gained
nothing during that awful night of sleep. Lesson learned.\

The Pulse Ox feature basically lets you know what your blood oxygen saturation levels are. This is a cool thing to look at but I am not positive how I can really use this at this time. I hear if your percentage drops below 95 multiple times throughout the night, you may have sleep apnea. I am told this feature
will be more useful in the future with some new features added in a software update.

Incident Detection may be a big deal to some. You need to run with your phone for this feature to work. You must run with your phone for this feature to work.

If you are in an accident, or an incident is detected by your device based on the accelerometer, the Garmin Connect Mobile app can send an automated text message with your name and GPS location to your emergency contacts.

A message appears on your device and paired smartphone indicating your contacts will be informed after 30 seconds have elapsed. If assistance is not needed, you can cancel the automated emergency message

I loved the Forerunner 935. It was my favorite watch I had ever used. If you are going to spend $500 on a 935, it is definitely worth spending an extra $100 to move up to the 945 for the above features alone.

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