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?

[Jan_Mantau]

Wrist heart rate measurement generally is not very reliable when it comes to fast changing heart rates like after starting an activity, especially when combined with bumpy movements like running. Unfortunately Strava can't do anything about it when the watch measures wrong, this is an Apple problem.

[Ghonet]

I have exactly the same issue - did you ever get a fix? 

 

[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