Alpha · Garmin

On your
watch

A whole session from the wrist. The phone stays in the locker.

Heavier on a Garmin watch: it knows your routine, last time's weights and your gym's dumbbell rack, so a set as last time takes two presses.

Install it How a set works Help test it
The watch before a set: Seated DB Press, set 3 of 3, target 38 kg for 6, last time 38 for 6, heart rate 127
Before a set: the target in red, last time under it.

How a set works

  1. Start screen: Y1 Shoulders at City Gym, 5 exercises, 14 sets, START
    Pick the day. Your routines come from the desk, the one you trained last on top. Choose a day, or free form, and press START. The Garmin strength activity starts with it.
  2. During a set: set 3, a timer at 0:24, target 38 x 6, heart rate
    LAP before the unrack. The set timer runs, with your heart rate. LAP again when the weight is back in the rack.
  3. Save screen: 36 kg boxed, times 6, rack hold plus two rungs, START reps, LAP save, rest 0:05
    Check the numbers. Last time's weight and reps are already there, in grey until you touch them. UP and DOWN move one step on this gym's own rack (the dumbbells it really has); hold UP for your usual big jump. START switches to the reps.
  4. Rest screen: REST 1:12 of your usual 2:13, heart rate, next lateral raise
    Rest. The ring runs to your own usual rest for this lift, learned from your sets. The watch buzzes at 30 seconds left and at zero. The next LAP saves the set and starts the next one.

A set as last time is two presses: LAP to start, LAP when racked. The next LAP saves it.

Also on the wrist

Up next: lateral raise, last time 12 x 10, 16 x 8, 22 x 6
The next exercise, with last time's sets.
Session: 18:40, 5 of 14 sets, the exercises with a dot per set
The whole session, a dot per set.
Finished: 18:40, 5 sets, 2696 kg lifted, saved to Heavier
Finished, and saved to Heavier.
  • No phone needed. Sets wait on the watch and go to Heavier the next time the phone is near. A set is never lost because the phone was in the locker.
  • Busy rack? Choose another exercise first, add one by body part, skip one. Your usual lifts travel with the session, so adding works offline too.
  • Garmin's heart rate, merged. The session id goes into the Garmin activity, so the desk lays heart rate over the sets you logged.
  • Report from the gym. A QR code on the watch opens the report form on your phone, so a problem gets written down where it happened.

Install it

Once, on a computer, about ten minutes. You need a Heavier account (join with an invite) and the Garmin Connect app on your phone: Heavier on the watch reaches heavier.app through it, like every Garmin app.

  • 1. Download the app for your watch. Venu 3 · fēnix 6X Pro. One file, about 200 KB.
  • 2. Connect the watch with its USB cable. Close Garmin Express if it opens. On Windows the watch shows in File Explorer. A Mac does not show a Garmin watch by itself: install the free OpenMTP and open it.
  • 3. Copy the file into GARMIN, then Apps (Internal Storage first on Windows). Unplug the watch: Heavier is in its list of apps.
  • 4. Pair it with your account. Open Heavier on the watch and choose Pair: it shows 6 digits. On a computer, sign in at heavier.app/desk, Watch app, and type them under Pair a watch within 10 minutes. Your routines are on the wrist from then on.

On the Venu 3 LAP is the bottom right button, as in Garmin's own strength activity, and the top right button is START. A swipe up or down is UP or DOWN, and a finger held on the screen is the big jump.

Alpha: what that means

  • Two watches so far. Built and tested on the Garmin fēnix 6X Pro; the Venu 3 build is new and has not been on a wrist yet. Other Garmin watches come next; Apple Watch after that.
  • Installed by hand. Not in the Connect IQ Store yet: the app is copied onto the watch over USB from a computer, as above.
  • Heavier account needed. Heavier is invite only while in testing. The watch pairs with your account by a six-digit code on the desk.
  • Things will break. The layout is still being tuned, and every session in the alpha is a test of it.

Help test it

Looking for a few people who lift at least twice a week and wear a Garmin watch with buttons. The ask: log your sessions on the watch for a few weeks, phone in the locker, and report what gets in the way, straight from the watch.

Interested? Reply to the person who sent you this page and say which Garmin you wear.