Add integration with Orange Theory Fitness

[Shant]

It will be great to sync Strava x OTF data because athletes go to different workout classes and want to track and share their workouts in one place with their friends. 

I think this is important because:

• Many athletes go to workout classes outside of Strava's ecosystem like Peloton and Zwift
• Strava is the central hub for all workout data
• Athletes are adding the data manually from their workouts here
• Good partnership opportunity for both Strava x OTF

[Shant]

@Preston add kudos on original post up top

[babydoc17]

So it's been over a year. Any progress or denial on this? Would love to put my OTF workouts on Strava.

[hTmlR00lzz]

Hey @Soren any updates for the community? Thanks 🙂 

[unclefishbits]

Just chiming in to get email updates. I assume no workaround exists?

[Rick9155]

It's not perfect, but here's my workaround. I use OTF, Apple Health, Strava, and MyFitnessPal, and I have an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and an OT Beat Burn.

Configuration:

• In the iPhone OTF app, in settings | permissions, turn on the option to share OT performance and heart rate data with Apple Health
• In iPhone Settings | Health | Data Access & Devices | Orangetheory, allow Orangetheory to write everything except height and weight (because I like to enter those manually in Apple Health), and allow Orangetheory to read everything. FYI, the fields OTF uses for its heart rate to calories calculation are Date of Birth, Height, Weight, and **bleep**. OTF has an alternative formula based on VO2max, but Apple Health doesn't have an option to share VO2max.
• In iPhone Settings | Health | Data Access & Devices | Orangetheory, turn on all options for read and for write of Health fields.
• In iPhone Settings | Health | Data Access & Devices | MyFitnessPal, turn on write for all nutrition fields, but not weight because I prefer to enter that directly in Apple Health. Turn on read permission for the fields that aren't nutrition fields. MFP reads at least steps, weight, sleep, and workouts; I don't know if it reads or might someday read blood pressure and blood glucose - I don't see it using those currently.
• In the MyFitnessPal app on the iPhone, in Settings | Steps, choose Apple Watch.
• In the Strava app on the iPhone, in Settings | Data Permissions | Health Related Data, select Allow.

To do an OTF workout:

• Before the workout, turn on the OT Beat Burn
• When the workout begins, on the Apple Watch Activity app, start a High Intensity Interval Training workout.
• When the workout ends, end the Apple Watch workout.
• Keep the Watch and OT Beat Burn on for at least three minutes after the workout so they can both track the heart rate recovery.
• OTF: If the OTF app doesn't show the workout immediately, shut down the app and restart it - this will make it go ahead and sync.
• Apple Fitness: You should see two versions of the workout: one from OTF and one from Apple Watch. That's ok, Apple Health is smart enough not to double count the calories in the daily total.
• Strava: You will see only the "High Intensity Interval Training" workout from the Apple Watch. Unfortunately, Strava does not associate steps with that workout type, and does not let you specify the shoes.
• MyFitnessPal: In the daily log under Exercise, both of the workouts will appear as "High Intensity Circuit Training". MyFitnessPal sums the calories, so you need to delete one of them by sweeping it left. I routinely delete the one with the lower calories; it's the one from the Apple Watch. I figure OTF knows more about how heart rate relates to calories for their average workout than Apple Fitness does. However, it can't be very precise; OTF just calculates calories each minute from heart rate, date of birth, **bleep**, height, and weight, and uses the same formula for all OTF class types. 

Shoe Mileage?

• Since Strava can't associate shoes or steps or miles with HIIT workouts, you'd have to do some offline calculations. I haven't done it, but I think I'll do it by exporting steps from Apple Health for the period of time I've had my current shoes, multiplying steps by my stride length to get miles. If you swap out different shoes for different workouts, it gets more complicated - Good Luck!

[Rick9155]

FYI the "bleep" that was inserted in my post above by the web site is for a three letter word starting with an s and ending with an x and indicates whether the athlete is male or female. Let's see if this gets bleeped as well. I didn't write OTF's formula - I'm just listing what terms go into it 😉

[BRINKOFSKY]

Make this happen please!

[Shant]

Hi @Soren!

We have reached 100 Kudos for OTF integration 🎉🎉🎉 Can we connect it to Strava? 

[Drperry123]

Wearing two devices at OTF sort of takes the “just show up and work out” essence of OTF.  Curious if Planet Fitness or whatever is merging with OTF might have a say in the matter?

[Shant]

OTF + Anytime Fitness. The management for combined entity might make a decision here. Two devices are too much

 https://www.franchisetimes.com/franchise_mergers_and_acquisitions/orangetheory-anytime-fitness-paren...

[sawhitney]

Wow, it seems like so many people are interested in this feature (including me!). What does the Strava team need from its consumers in order to proceed with this project?

[Kathylynne]

If you continue integrations with OT you move one step closer to the hub for all of an individual’s fitness tracking, seems like a no-brainer.

Kathy