Why your Garmin miscounts reps

Your Garmin counts reps with its motion sensor. It watches your wrist for a repeating movement and counts each cycle. That works for some lifts and not for others.

What the watch can see

• Lifts where the watch hand travels a clear path, such as curls, presses and rows.
• Steady reps at an even speed.

What it cannot see

• Leg work. On a leg press, leg extension or leg curl your wrist barely moves.
• One-arm lifts on the other arm. The watch only sees the wrist it is on.
• Small movements. Calf raises, shrugs and wrist curls look like noise.
• Slow or paused reps. A long pause can read as the end of the set.
• Anything between sets. Re-racking plates or adjusting a pin can add reps.

The watch also cannot know the weight. You enter it after every set.

How to get a better count

1. Wear the watch snug, above the wrist bone.
2. Wear it on the arm that moves most in the lift.
3. Keep an even tempo.
4. End the set on the watch before you re-rack or adjust anything.
5. Correct the count on the edit screen after the set. The watch keeps your number.

The other approach: confirm instead of count

Counting is only needed when the watch does not know your workout. If it already knows the routine, it can show the set ahead of time and you confirm what you did.

That is how BulkForged, our app, works on a Garmin:

• The watch shows the exercise, the target weight and the target reps.
• After the set you confirm the weight and the reps in three presses.
• Reps start at your target, so a set that went to plan needs no changes.
• Leg press and leg curls log as easily as curls, because nothing depends on wrist movement.

It trades one thing away. A BulkForged lifting session is not saved as a Garmin Connect activity and records no heart rate. If heart rate matters most, stay with the built-in activity.

Both routes are covered step by step in How to log a gym workout on a Garmin watch.

Related: The reps screen on your watch, The weight screen on your watch, Using your Garmin watch.