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Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4: Gym Tracking and Profile Availability

ByOlsen Ia

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 has been one of the top-selling smart watches on the market since it was released 12 months ago. And with good reason – it offers a wide range of features and functionality, including over 90 workout modes. But one question that has been raised is how many gym profiles are available to you? And does tracking your activity have any downsides? In this article, we’ll take a look at what gym profiles are available to you on the Galaxy Watch 4, and whether or not tracking your activity is a good idea.

There are 34 different gym profiles that the Galaxy Watch 4 can offer you. I have split them up into different categories which is Gym machines, barbell and free weights, fitness class’s and body weight exercises. If you are looking to upgrade to or buying a Galaxy Watch 5, then this article is also applicable to you also. The Gym profiles in the Galaxy Watch 4 will be the same as the Galaxy Watch 5 and the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.

How Does The Galaxy Watch 4 Track Your Activities

First thing first, I thought I would discuss this topic first as this is important to know. The Galaxy Watch 4 tracks your activities through the built in accelerometer and gyroscope sensors. Both sensors detect movement. The health metrics that are on offer when you are tracking your work out is duration of work out, calories burned, average heart rate and in some cases ( depending on the gym profile) distance. The accelerometer counts the distance part of the metrics. The gyroscope is used to detect the intensity of your movement and how many calories you are burning.

Now that I have got that out the way I have broken each area into categories. Everyone has there own method of training when they go to the gym so each category will reflect on that including benefits, my experience using that particular profile and any disadvantages.

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10 Gym Machine Profiles

Here is a list of the 10 gym machine profiles that you can use

  • Elliptical trainer
  • Weight machines
  • Treadmill (Auto detection)
  • exercise bike
  • Lat pulldowns
  • Leg curls
  • Leg extensions
  • Leg press
  • Rowing machine
  • Step machine

Out of all of the 10 gym equipment profiles I would use only a few which is Elliptical trainer, weight machines, exercise bike, treadmill and rowing machine. The heart rate tracking is fairly accurate except for some of the profiles which is rowing machine, Lat pulldowns, weight machines and elliptical trainer.

Heart rate tracking is difficult for these profiles because of the static movement of the wrist. Is it way out? no not at all , but it is something that can be improved. You should also take into account that the calorie burn for each profile will be different. The average person burns between 200-300 calories in 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer, weight machines, and exercise bike. Treadmill and rowing machine are a bit higher with 350-450 calories in 30 minutes.

In my experience switching between gym machine profiles can be a hassle. It’s time consuming in between sets and in my opinion I think it drains more battery. If I am doing resistance training with machines I would just use one profile which is weight machines. That way I can mentally focus in between sets and not worrying about switching profiles.

8 Barbell and Dumbbell Gym Profiles

Here is a list of the 8 barbell and dumbbell profiles that you can use.

  • Squats
  • Arm curls
  • Arm extensions
  • Bench press
  • Deadlift
  • Front raises
  • Lateral raises
  • Shoulder press
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Once again heart rate accuracy will be a issue again as your wrist will be in constant movement with each set. Once again from my experience switching profiles can be a hassle. When I am doing any barbell or dumbbell movements I tend to use the weight machines profile.

7 Different Gym Profiles if You Were Taking Classes

If you are a person that goes to the gym and do a class every now and again rest assured the Galaxy Watch 4 covers most activities that gyms offer. The gym profiles for classes are as follows.

  • Circuit training
  • Aerobics
  • Pilates
  • Yoga
  • Boxing
  • Martial Arts
  • Exercise bike

In my experience when using these profiles I have only used 5 that are on offer. I use circuit training when I am doing CrossFit, bootcamp (which is a military style workout session), HIIT sessions and body pump. Yoga, martial arts which includes self defence classes or heavy bag workouts. Boxing for boxing lessons or box fit classes and finally exercise bike for spin classes.

Heart rate tracking for Yoga and exercise bikes are fairly accurate because there isn’t much arm movement. Where as the other’s can be difficult for the Galaxy Watch 4 to track accurately because your arm is in constant movement. My experience has not been great when using the martial arts gym profile. Especially when we glove up and the watch get’s in the way. I have tried have tried placing the watch higher on my arm but it slides down my arm when the session is getting intense.

One more thing also is that if you are taking a class that is different to my examples, you will need to take your best guess as to which profile is closely suited.

9 Bodyweight Gym Profiles

The bodyweights gym profiles I find very interesting. Before I explain let me show you the list of body weight gym profiles that are available to you.

  • Push ups
  • Squats
  • Back extensions
  • Burpee test
  • Crunches
  • Lunges
  • Mountain climbers
  • Pull ups
  • Sit ups
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In my experience with these types of profiles is that it’s annoying. So in stead of interchanging of gym profiles, I use the circuit training profile instead and do a HIIT workout. I found this to be much more productive with less interruptions when I am doing bodyweight exercises consecutively. In my opinion I think you should do the same unless you like to take a rest in between sets.

Final Conclusion

So there you have it. 34 gym profiles that are available to you. As you would have read that I mentioned on many occasions that the switching of gym profiles is a hassle. I understand that a specific gym profile will have a unique algorithm that can track your heart rate and calories based on the activity type. But from a user experience perspective I didn’t think it hit the mark in my opinion.

Before I do my workouts I would select my gym profiles that I was planning on doing as favourites. I did this so I can cycle through the many gym profiles and start a new one. I would have to do this every time I wanted to change my workout. The process of doing this was very tedious and a hindrance to my enjoyment.

My hope for you reading this article is that you find my experience with the gym profiles of value. You see the label at the front that it has over 90 workout modes, but I think consolidating it down to a smaller number would be nice.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you found this article useful.