Garmin vívoactive 5 Review
I’ve owned the Garmin vívoactive 5 since January, 2024. My Garmin vívoactive 5 review includes why I bought it, other options I considered and my experience owning and using it.
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Why I Wanted a Health Tracker
I wanted a health tracker as a way to track improvements in my journey. In 2020, I fractured my foot and a year and a half later, I fractured my tibia by my knee. As I sat around for ten weeks with a broken knee, I knew something had to change.
Though I grew up playing soccer, I had only done low or no impact workouts for at least a decade. In addition, I had not been eating enough protein and was losing muscle. None of these things had I noticed at the time, but after two fractures, I knew something had to change and began to examine how I ended up with two fractures in less than two years.
I began eating more protein and rehabbing my knee. All was going well until one day, I began doing too much! My knee kept swelling every time I tried to push it. This led me to physical therapy and my overall activity level had to diminish. Though I had started to build muscle, I was also gaining fat. A perfect storm of not being able to get in more walks due to my knee, but having to eat more protein to build muscle.
As my knee began to improve, my activity levels could as well. However, I wanted to lose fat but keep the muscle I gained. I also wanted to continue increasing my activities and intensity. Nutrition is still something I’m sorting out, as I want enough energy to do the things I want to do, but also eat in a deficit to lose fat.
With the goal of losing fat, but gaining strength and athleticism, I wanted to start tracking my progress so I could pinpoint trends and improve my health. And also celebrate those small wins along the way!
What Options Did I Consider
Health watches and trackers are plentiful, so narrowing down what I wanted from a tracker was vital. Step counts are common and not the main draw for me. I wanted to track my sleep, my HRV, and be able to notice improvements in my overall health over time.
Whoop
I considered whoop rather heavily. It’s a fantastic tracker and a lot of athletes endorse it. Ultimately, I didn’t want to pay a monthly fee to access the data! This is why I did not choose whoop as my first fitness tracker.
Fitbit
I did not consider Fitbit for long because I just didn’t like it. The look wasn’t my favorite for one, and I wanted more sporty features.
Apple Watch
In the end, it really came down to Apple versus Garmin. My sister loves her Apple Watch and all the health features I’d want were also available in the Apple Watch. I also have an iPhone which would integrate seamlessly. However, I did not care about using the watch for calls or texts. In fact, I wanted to avoid that at all costs since I want to be less connected to my phone, not more. However, my sister said her watch has given her more freedom to not be as attached to her phone so this is based on your own habits.
The reasons I chose Garmin over Apple come down to two points. One, I just preferred the round face. Nothing major and not a deal breaker either way. Second and ultimately main reason I chose Garmin, the battery life is exceptionally better on the Garmin.
I asked my sister about her battery life just to confirm, and she agreed that she charges her Apple Watch daily. While this isn’t a concern for her, I knew I wanted to increase my activities and didn’t want to be concerned with my Apple Watch not keeping up for hours of being on a walk or bike ride.
Features I love on my Garmin vívoactive 5
Battery Life
I’m not sure any Garmin vívoactive 5 review will fail to mention the batter life. It is stellar! I lose track of needing to charge it because it takes a week or more before I need to do so. This is even normal weeks where I track three or four one-hour lifting workouts, a bike ride or two, and walking or cardio workouts. The battery is so impressive! And when it does need to charge, it doesn’t take long at all!
Sleep Tracking
Sleep is such an important part of recovery and health. I wanted to begin tracking my recovery and love the features in this watch. There’s a sleep coach and a sleep score to help you track and analyze this important method of recovery and health. When I wake up, my watch will tell me if I didn’t get enough REM or deep sleep.
There are days I wake up feeling great, but my sleep score was poor. However, other days when I can feel the fatigue, it matches up with my watches indicators.
Any watch is just a tool and shouldn’t be the reason you do or don’t do a hard workout. However, the information received over time can be super helpful!
Tracking Workouts
I love tracking my workouts. You can add your workout to the app for even more accurate feedback, however, I have never bothered. I simply track my reps and I’m able to keep rest times appropriately and track my heart rate recovery between sets. The watch also counts my reps! Sometimes the rep count isn’t accurate depending on the exercise move, but it’s easy enough to change it as needed. Once I’ve completed the workout, it gives me a summary of rest time versus work time and total time spent in your workout.
GPS Tracking Workouts
When I first bought this watch, I did not own a bike, but knew I might invest in one eventually. Well, I now have a bike and love having this watch! It tells me my speed, heart rate, and the gps tracks my path. At the end, I get an average speed, total miles, and time allowing me to aim for improvement. Once in the app, I can see changes in my heart rate over the ride and also elevation, which isn’t significant in Florida, but still cool to notice.
I’m still working on getting my knee up for a run, but this watch tracks walks and steps well! I find the steps to be accurate for the most part. Yes, I have counted.
However, the area I’ve noticed it’s not tracking is when I mow the lawn. Yesterday I mowed and decided to gps track it as a walk. Normally, the steps are counted during gps walks and you will get the goal achieved alert if you meet your steps goal. Well, I mowed yesterday and the watch tracked 1.87 miles, but my step count barely changed. The watch doesn’t always require arm swinging to count steps so I’m not sure why there’s such a disconnect there.
Standup Paddle GPS Tracking
There are a ton of sports modes available but as someone who has paddle boarded for about fifteen years, my Garmin vívoactive 5 review would be lacking if I didn’t mention the SUP mode. I’ve used the SUP gps tracking a few times now! With the watch, it gives me stroke pace, distance and, of course, time. I love finishing a paddle and knowing the distance I’ve gone as I’ve never tracked my paddles before. Though I usually paddle for a chill workout, I still find the information interesting to know!
Heart Rate Variability
One measurement the Garmin vívoactive 5 provides that I have come to follow the most is HRV or heart rate variability. I’m still learning about this, but it’s one of the best indicators of improved health or of things that would disrupt your health.
My HRV has steadily improved since I got this watch and I am thrilled about it! Though, I still have so much more improving to do, the whole point of me getting the Garmin vívoactive 5 was to track progress. Since HRV is not something you see, it’s nice to know that I have some health markers moving in the right direction!
Cons of Garmin vívoactive 5
As mentioned, the step count is usually quite accurate, but not having my steps count when I mow annoys me. My phone gives me over 4,000 steps for about 45 minutes of mowing, but my watch barely increases in steps!
It’s worth noting, I don’t use it for text messages. I do get notified if I receive a text message during a workout. This feature has been turned off, so I’m not sure why it keeps happening. This was not a selling point for me, so I shouldn’t really comment either way since I don’t use it.
Conclusion
The conclusion of my Garmin vívoactive 5 review is I love it! It has been the perfect intro fitness watch/tracker for me. If you are looking to advance from tracking your steps, or want a fitness watch with better battery life, this is a fantastic option! It has enough features that it will be a long while before I will need to look for the next level. This is great for me, because I prefer investments like this to last a long time!
