Strength training with the Venu 2 Plus 

My pleasure Neal. Thanks for watching!

Thanks Fernando! I think they should be the same and using the Connect app you can create your own workouts or browse and schedule Garmin's programs onto your watch.

Honestly unless you want the GPS maps and the more bad ass look of the Epix 2, the V2P is more than enough for body building. And even for your cardio the V2P can keep up well. The real time stamina and the pace pro, etc. don't really apply to body building or causal runs. In terms of the recovery time, the V2P doesn't have that feature, but it has the body battery which both watches have. But I know it's really a tough decision and between you and I, I've been thinking about the Epix myself too! TLDR; If you want the complete package and have peace of mind with GPS maps when going to those locations get the Epix 2. But the lifting data is the same between the two. And let me know which one you go for!

@@RyansTechMedia Thank you so much! I havent been able to find much information regarding watches targeted for strength training athletes like bodybuilding or powerlifters. I was unimpressed with Whoop and returned it. I was very intrigued by the forerunner 955 because of the price point, the morning report, and HRV trends. I wish the Venu 2 plus had a tad more recovery features in it to bridge the gap in smart watch plus wellness plus trackable long term data. I'm coming from an Apple watch and desire more 'user friendly', some smartwatch features & vibrant look. I don't think I can get with the forerunner 955 MIP screen. But epix packs a punch and checks off the boxes (ofc more features than I would use) but it gives me more than enough data. Epix is looking more and more compelling.

@@RyansTechMedia This answers a question I had perfectly. Thank you!

That's a good question! Yes, you can lock the screen during your workouts if you want to and then to unlock it you just need to press and hold the upper button for a couple seconds.

I would like the watch to tell me I have reached the end of the reps I have set and it does not seem to be able to do that at all.

Hey Wayne! You're right, when you set reps as your targets it doesn't alert you when you reach your goal.

@@RyansTechMedia Thank You so much for the response Ryan, bless You! Do you know if the Samsung watch can automatically alert You once You reached your rep range, or would it be not worth swapping my Venu, as some exercises, such as leg workouts do not really get counted anyway. Perhaps I am nitpicking, but it would have been awesome to know You completed a workout without having to manually count and instead focus on form. Thanks so much! I subscribed to your channel!

Lastly, I know Garmin has much more exercises and the ability for custom workouts, would Samsung be able to track a workout using a workout similar in movement to one not listed, such as using arm curls to track preacher curls etc.

If you start the activity the way I showed in the video, then you don't need to. You can, but it will automatically end the set and start the rest timer for you and again starts the set once you start it. But as I also mentioned it can sometimes be a hit and miss, but for things like pullups, presses and curls, extensions, squats and deadlifts it does an ok job for the most part. There will be a six months update on this watch soon, so stay tuned and thanks for watching!

By Venu 2 do you mean actually Venu 2 or *Venu 2 Plus*? In terms of auto activity tracking I give the point to Venu 2 Plus. I know it's not always accurate and there are also some exercises that it can't track well. The fact that it can pause and start activities by itself (well, when it works!) is in and of itself a good reason for me to keep wearing this watch. The other benefit is that I can create my own programs and then start and stop exercises myself and for example when a set is complete I can edit the weight and reps on the watch before moving on to the next one. My only concern with the Sense 2 is the battery degradation. This is purely based on what I've heard of people complaining that the original Sense loses so much capacity over time. The other thing is that the Sense 2 is an unfair downgrade compared to the original Sense. Watch this video if you haven't: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bkVkBX1iTo0.html And finally in terms of the vibration motor I think actually it's pretty satisfactory. Did you know that you can change the intensity of the vibrations? I always use the medium intensity, but for example during breath work it feels pretty weak but when setting alarms, that medium intensity feels very strong. My question for you is how's the battery life when you turn off the AOD?

​@@RyansTechMedia Thanks for the reply. Spent a ton of time replying and somehow the message went to utub heaven. In any event, I've never used anything other than aod and so I'm not sure how long it would go on a charge with aod off. Both the venu and venu 2 are giving me about 21/2 days so no 'real' complaints there. BTW, the vibration motor on the venu is definitely a lot stronger compared to the venu 2....you would think it would be the same or better on the venu 2 but it isnt. I have a sense 2 coming at the end of the week. The good thing is that amazon upped returns to Jan(?) so I have time to decide. Off topic I would luv the pixel watch even if it only lasted 24 hours BUT 80 minutes to charge killed that idea in a half a heartbeat. Thanks again for the great content you put out....hopefully soon you'll be in mkbhd subscriber territory.....you certainly deserve it

Much appreciate it. 🙏

In which part of the manual did you find that? Perhaps it's referring to renaming the activity (the entire session) not the individual exercises. For example when you record a strength training session at the gym, later on in the app you can rename that to something else (the default would be "Strength"). There are also different event types available for you to choose for that activity. For example, fitness, recreation, training, race, etc.

@@RyansTechMedia Of course, now that I try to find where I thought I read this I can't find it anywhere. Thanks in any case for the reply. I find it really lame from Garmin that you can't custom name exercises that aren't on their list. It would seem like a simple software update.

The challenge is that there are a lot non-standard exercises in these programs which makes it hard to track them correctly, but in terms of tracking how much calories you burned and other metrics, it's fine. Plus you can edit the workout in the app later and find the closest exercises to what Les Milles body pump routine has. The only way this would work perfectly is if Garmin adds Les Milles Body Pump to their workouts. But there are still quite a lot of pre-defined workouts to choose from.

Hey Kathryn, I may have found the perfect watch for your use case. Stay tuned for the next video!

Rachel, since you work out daily, I'd say 100%! You can go with the lazy approach of letting the watch track your workout, like what I mostly do and edit and correct later, or create your own custom programs. Garmin has the longest list of exercises available compared to any other brands I've seen. There is also this newer watch, Venu Sq 2 which is a trimmed down version of Venu 2 Plus that you might want to consider if you want to get the best bang for your buck (But I haven't tried it yet.). Thank you for watching btw!

@@RyansTechMedia thanks so much for yiur reply. I really appreciate that. I am currently doing mostly Peloton workouts. Spinning, treadmill, strength classes. I like to just plan my workouts for the week on their site and all I have to do is show up! I would appreciate the extra analytics and metrics Garmin provide. Also the reliable hr tracking too. Thanks so much for your reply 😊

My pleasure! I haven't tried spinning yet, but treadmill and stair stepper yes. I also wanted to clarify that if you plan the strength training then the auto pause and start won't work. It means after you reach your target for each set (could be reps, calories burned or time) then you should yourself press a button to jump to the next exercise (or rest if that's what you included in your program).

@@RyansTechMedia thanks so much

Purely for strength training, there isn't much difference between Venu 2 Plus and higher end models. In fact the workouts and workout tracking is exactly the same.

It's not like that, but you certainly don't need to do anything special here if you don't want to. Just start the strength training app and let it track your workout and just forget about the accuracy of the exercise and rep count detection. What you probably care the most is the calories burned, hr, and some other metrics which really aren't based on the number of reps or type of exercise detected. So you'll be fine.

@@RyansTechMedia what band you recommend to get . Stock one is not as comfortable as Apple Watch in my opinion.

Both Venu 2 Plus and Forerunner 265 have the same heart rate sensors and they are very good.

@@RyansTechMedia the reason I’m asking is because I saw that the RU-vidr “quantified scientist “ says the venu 2 plus heart rate is not as accurate as Apple Watch when weight lifting ? So if I want to upgrade from venu sq should I go with the 265 or the venu 2 plus or Apple Watch 7 , I do most of my workout in the gym but I also do road running sometimes as cardio, but I don’t run a lot maybe only twice a week…

Just go with what your heart says. But I know if I had Venu Sq and I wanted to upgrade, I'd go with the Forerunner 265 as a budget friendly option or Epix 2 for a more premium one. That's all I can say. About that youtuber, I respect him, but the tests he does are not exhaustive and his sampling period seems to be quite short and unreliable and when he tests two watches for a couple days, he probably doesn't do the exact same workout with each watch! A real scientific approach requires a lot of considerations.

@@RyansTechMedia the 265 cost the same as the venu 2 plus in my country..so should I get the 265 then ?

If it was me, I'd probably buy the 265.

Do you mean the form where you submit new ideas or somewhere in the connect web app?

@@RyansTechMedia yes the form/idea area.