External Heart Rate Monitor with Strava Apple Watch app

[IanRimmer]

Hi All,

Hoping you can help me.  I am starting training for a marathon and want to do a lot of zone 2 training, in an effort to improve the speed I can run at whilst remaining within zone 2.

At the moment I am using the Strava app on my Apple Watch and using the inbuilt apple watch heart rate monitor.  However, I have read a lot of articles online that says the HR monitor on the apple watch is not very accurate.  As such, I am looking at purchasing a seperate, dedicated heart rate monitor.

My question is:  If I do buy an external monitor, can I sync that to the Strava app on my apple watch, so that I can actively monitor my HR during a run?  Or will the Strava app on the Apple Watch always use the built in HR monitor?

Any help with the above and advice on which external HR monitor to use, would be much appreciated!  Thank you in advance.

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hello @IanRimmer 

Thanks for posting about this.  It is possible to pair an external BTLE heart rate monitor with the Strava App on Apple Watch and monitor your heart rate during a run.  

As long as the device broadcasts as a heart rate monitor for Bluetooth connections, it should be compatible. However, due to the vast number of Bluetooth heart rate monitor devices, we cannot guarantee the effectiveness of each device. Most popular Bluetooth heart rate monitors from brands like Polar and Wahoo should be compatible.

I would encourage you to check out our Apple Watch FAQ for more information about using your Apple Watch with Strava.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

[DanRongaus]

Thanks for the quick reply, Ian. I will try the combination out today and hope for the best 😄