I’ve been steadily increasing my lifting the last few months and I’ve been tracking everything exclusively in Garmin Connect. It works, but it feels like it lacks polish.
I’m looking for some way that I can program my strength workouts, have them sync with Garmin Connect (and by proxy, my watch). I want pattern matching for the sync. So if I am doing deadlift and program it that way, then the workout Garmin gets in the sync should match it to their internally classified exercise of Deadlift. This is so I don’t have to manually go in later at recategorize everything.
I don’t mind paying for a service.
I’ve tried fitbod, and while it’s a good app, it doesn’t sync with Garmin in any capacity.
I’ve looked int TrainingPeaks, and from their support documents it looks like they do everything except matching the exercises with Garmin. Haven’t paid for premium yet to test it myself yet.
I am currently using just the Garmin Connect app and creating my own workouts. This works well enough, but here are a few of my issues with it.
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I do % based builds. So day 1 would be something like 65% of max. This is easy to do with Garmin tools. But day 2 is 65% + #10, and then 65% +20#. Garmin can’t account for this so I have to manually calculate it.
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A cycle is often around 15 workouts. There’s no folder structure in Garmin Connect, so if you create programming for 5 different exercises, that becomes 75 custom workouts making it hard to find what your looking for. Also, I have to place each workout individually per day. I can’t set them up on a recurring schedule so all 15 show up on my calendar with 1 interaction.
I'm going to suggest something that I don't see anyone else talking about here. Synology, the company mostly known for the NAS devices, makes some surprisingly good routers as well. I've got 2 of their RT2600ac and 3 of their MR220AC mesh units. Their configuration software is unlike anything I've used by any other brand. It a web based interface that looks like a variant of desktop linux. Configuring it feels like configuring an actual computer.
I had originally purchased these for my business, an esports center, but after the business closed a few years ago I kept the hardware and used them in my home. They are so much better than any other consumer networking hardware I've tried from DLink, Linksys, and Asus.
They have newer models out that support AX wifi. But I haven't felt the need to upgrade yet. A few notes though. Their hardware does not necessarily support every cutting edge feature. No wifi 7 as far as I know for instance. They seem to sit about 2-3 years behind the absolute latest, but the trade off seems to be stability and reliability.
In my home, I have every unit physically hardwired back to my server rack in my basement. So while it does support mesh over wifi, I've opted to run ethernet to every room in my house. My general rule is anything that can be wired, should be wired. We even have a disconnected shed/workshop which I trenched and buried a cable out to so that I'd have a wired access point out there.
I rarely see anyone mention Synology's routers, but I think they are worth consideration.