According to an anonymous source who has leaked the information to The5krunner’s website, Garmin appears to be releasing a whole host of new features and tools for exercise and health tracking.
Our friends at Advnture have found leaks that The5krunner has proven to be reliable in the past, so let’s jump in with a look at what could be coming soon to Garmin’s best cycling smartwatches:
Adjustment of training intensity
A long-awaited feature for Garmin smartwatches is the ability to adjust the intensity of your training on the go via the watch’s touch screen – and without having to restart the session.
Sure, it’s not as unique or as flashy as the new Garmin Edge 1040 Solar’s ability to generate an optimal pace plan for any route you want, but it’s the simple things that can really make a big difference.
Being able to quickly scale the intensity of a workout — harder if you’re feeling good, easier if you’re carrying some fatigue — is already a feature of many of the best indoor cycling apps, like Zwift or Wahoo X. If this leak proves accurate, it could soon also be a feature of Garmin smartwatches, after the expected software update.
EKG app
Also among the new tools that may be released are electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings that will detect signs of atrial fibrillation (an irregular heart rhythm). According to The5krunner, some high-end Garmin smartwatches already have the hardware – the software just needs to be released for us to use it.
To back up a bit, atrial fibrillation is a symptom that is common in people with a variety of heart conditions, and early detection/treatment is naturally much better than waiting for the conditions to manifest in other ways.
Garmin conducted a clinical trial of its EKG software back in 2021 and found that the software’s results aligned well with a doctor’s interpretation of the results of a medically standard electrocardiogram—which bodes well.
However, ECG readings from smartwatches do not count as a proper medical diagnosis – the readings should be taken more as an invitation to be checked by a doctor for a full examination. That said, having that request in the first place is a step in the right direction for potentially catching heart problems early — and it’s a feature already offered by some of Garmin’s competitors, the Apple Watch most prominent among them.
SpO2 alerts
Finally, it looks like SpO2 alerts are on the way too. This refers to a watch’s ability to detect your oxygen saturation levels (ie SpO2), and its ability to alert you if you drop below a certain level while you sleep.
This can be useful in detecting medical conditions such as sleep apnea, which is when your breathing stops and starts while you sleep. Understandably, this is not a good thing and can lead to more serious problems.
Theoretically, SpO2 readings could also be useful for athletes training at altitude. However, blood oxygen readings from smartwatches tend not to be very accurate – so their use here is generally limited.
Again, this is a software feature that may come to smartwatches that are already equipped with the necessary hardware.
Wondering if you should invest in a smartwatch? We looked at the pros and cons of smartwatches versus cycling computers for cyclistsand which ones Wearables are worth tracking for cyclists.
