Swimming can be a calming activity; swimming the pool length using a different stroke type every time. However, the best fitness buffs among you will know that like running, swimming can also be a very good activity to increase fitness. If you enjoy swimming but want to optimize your exercise with swimming watches or a fitbit that’s waterproof, you’ve come to the right place.
Make sure you’re reading carefully, because we’ve got the best waterproof fitness trackers for swimming in a pool and open water. These trackers come with an array of handy features such as heart rate monitoring, built in GPS, and even stroke detection and stroke count – so your sports watch can tell you exactly how much you’re burning calories through stroke recognition and calculating stroke rate.
Benefits of Fitness Trackers for Swimming
If you’re doing your casual readings on social media, you’ll notice there’s a larger movement advocating for the benefit of exercise as a method for maintaining both your shape and your mental health. Runners and swimmers alike will agree that the majority of exercises can provide a balance in life.
This is one of the best benefits; exercises such as swimming can combat epidemic issues such as childhood obesity by allowing fitness tracking for your kids, giving an easy way to track calorie burn in the swimming pool. This makes a difference where the problem of waterproofing is concerned; in comparison to any workout app you can get on your iPhone, waterproof fitness trackers have a smartwatch functionality and are perfect for sports activities in the water.
If you’re not looking for swim wearables for open water swimmers or those in the pool, and you instead just want a generic fitness tracker that you can use in exercise activities with fitness coach apps like Moov Now, you can find our best cheap fitness trackers on Bestbudget.com.
Which Fitness Tracker is best for swimming?
Before we tell you exactly which fitness tracker provides the best feature of results for any swimmer, here’s some things that you could consider when picking a waterproof fitness watch for swimmers. If you’re questioning whether fitness trackers are worth it, they definitely are – provided you pay attention to all of these swimming features.
- Easy use: touch screen, screen brightness, and activity tracker features. This will help you, unlike any apple watch, to work out the different sports modes with ease – ultimately maximizing your swim workout by allowing you to keep an eye on your swimming stats.
- Built in GPS: with GPS tracking, swimming has never been easier. The greatest swim tracking will allow swimmers of open waters to undertake activity tracking in open water swims. When you combine this with the real time GPS feature, you’re able to note where exactly you undertook your best swims, whether the lake was 50 meters long, you went at a slow distance pace, or you needed to use the heart rate monitor.
- Battery life: in order to ensure maximum versatility and satisfaction with a purchase from any manufacturers, you’ll need a fitness tracker that has no shortage of battery, so there won’t be any problems when you’re out and about, using your triathlon watch in the ocean.
Our favorite swimmers watch, amongst all of the best waterproof fitness trackers, includes the Garmin Swim 2. It’s our favorite because of Garmin’s legacy, with other watches like the Garmin Forerunner 735XT or the Garmin Forerunner 935. This swim watch gives an easy touchscreen display, a heart rate sensor for those of you that are a fan of heart rate monitors, and various bits of swim data such as swim distance and a lap counting swim tracker.
We also recommend:
- Huawei Band 3 Pro
- Samsung Gear Fit2
Which Fitbit is best for swimming?
Every swim session, like other training sessions, isn’t complete until you’ve considered the best swim trackers for you. These swim tracker devices need to come with a range of features. We’ve already mentioned the GPS mode and heart rate tracking, but some also come with a sleep tracking operating system so you can see your heart rate measurement as you sleep, track how much sleep you’re getting, and tailor this use of your smart watch to meet your fitness goals.
Fitbit models are brilliant for an array of swim mode-specific fitness features, such as the heart rate tracker used between swim intervals, training data available in the training mode, and tracking data of your swimming style, such as lap counts. Whether you’re doing the front crawl or other swimming strokes, your training status is well-recorded.
Fitbit models are therefore really good for high performance swimming with all laps possible – their swim metrics are seriously worth the price tag.
Before you opt for an Apple Watch Series, definitely consider a Fit Bit, as these models comprise some of the best waterproof fitness tracker models around. This range of water resistant (waterproof) fitness trackers are perfect for the pool and open water.
We particularly recommend:
- Fitbit Versa 2 – which gives a swimming distance of up to 50 meters
- Fitbit Charge 4- which gives a range of swimming smarts no matter the pool size or pool lengths
- Fitbit Ionic
- Fitbit Flex 2
What is the best watch for open water swimming?
Like any decent swimming watch, the model you’ll want for open water swimming needs to incorporate heart rate data and activity data for all of your swim activity, amongst other fitness activities; have a long battery life; and a decent heart rate monitor with heart rate sensors.
After much review and analysis, we think that the best budget or value pick with the most pros, out of something from any market brands, are the:
- Garmin Swim 2 – which offers highly accurate tracking
- Polar Vantage V Smartwatch
- Garmin Fenix 5 Watch – the choice of many triathletes
The Polar Vantage is particularly good because of its long battery life, motion sensors, ability for use with pool swims also, and you can easily track your progress using the Training Load Pro, for example.
A good runner up for many users, however, is the Garmin Swim2.