Heart Rate problems Strava / Apple Watch 6

[gmangadsby]

Hi, I have a long standing problem which I've tweeted Strava support about but had nothing back.  I have Apple Watch Series 6, latest watch OS, iOS installed.  When I start an outdoor run on the watch's strava app, the heartrate recorded starts very high (circa 170bpm) before normalising back down to my proper heart rate after approx. 5 minutes.  My resting heart rate is 45bpm and around 60bpm when I'm walking around, so I know that a starting heart rate of 170bpm isn't real! (When the watch has normalised my max. is 140 bpm or thereabouts).  Interestingly this only happens on Outdoor Runs, if I do an Outdoor ride or another activity, the heart rate is fine throughout.  Has anyone else had this problem?

[Jhynes]

Same thing happens to me on every run for past two years (except some indoor treadmill runs). I even tried switching Apple Watches with my son - and same thing happened with his watch. 
here’s yesterdays run, for example - takes a full 1km for the HR reading to normalize:

 

[jonnydavies]

I have the same issue - only with Strava Run, not when I record bike rides, etc

[Andrew70]

I have to a exact same issue can’t seem to fix it!

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hello @gmangadsby 

Thanks for posting about this and sorry to hear about the issue you're having.

Apple has a couple of support articles I would encourage you to check out, where they discuss how to get the most accurate heart rate measurements with Apple Watch. 

Article 1

Article 2

In particular, I would double check that the "Wrist Detection" is set to on.  

Please let us know if that helps.

[Jermrev]

How is this a helpful response when OP says it does eventually pick up the accurate heart rate?   Is there a real solution to this problem?

[Jknostman]

I have this same issue as well and have ensured the wrist detection setting is on for a series 8

[Andrew70]

Still can’t seem to figure it out