Garmin Strength Coach – What is it and what can it do?
On this site I have an article about how I prepare a strength workout in Garmin Connect to follow it later in a gym (read “Strength Training with a Garmin: Before You Go to a Gym” and “Strength Training with a Garmin: In a Gym” for details). These articles were written before Garmin added Strength Coach to some of its watches. My Venu3 is one of them.
Let me show you what a new coach looks like and at the end I will tell you if I switched to it or not ans why.
Garmin Strength Coach
You can find Strength Coach in the Garmin Connect phone app under Coach Plans.
You coach does not have a name š
As you can see in the screenshots above the “Coach Plans” screen still only shows a cyclist and a runner – strength is still a second-class sport for Garmin. Also, unlike the running coach feature, there are no different coaches (like Jeff) here. Instead, Garmin simply offers 3 goals: “Increase max Strength”, “Build Muscle Mass” and “Get Fit”.
After selecting the first or second of these options, the app will asks if you have access to gym equipment or not. It will use this information to select exercises for you.
Now the app starts ask the “real questions: what type of program do you want – a classic PPL (Push, Pull, Legs) or two more intensive options.
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In this step you can provide data for One-Rep-Max – either directly or via a weigh/sets you can do. You can enter barbell or dumbbell values – nice! If you answer that you do not know your one rep max or multiple reps max – the app will suggest you to do benchmarking in the first workout.
Now for each day of the program you can select exercises and days of the week when you are going to go to a gym.
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A few more clicks and your gym strength program is created and saved to your Garmin calendar – congratulations!
So far, so good. But what does this plan look like in detail and how can you use it? The screenshot below shows a workout plan that the coach created for me for the very first day. When you go to a gym you can start this workout and follow it on your watch same way that you can follow manually created workouts – I have described this rather detailed in the article “Strength Training with a Garmin: In a Gym“.
Did I switch from my manually created workouts to the Garmin Coach?
At the beginning of this article I promised to answer to this question. The answer is “no”. I have not switched to Strength Coach for the following two reasons:
- I can only go to the gym twice a week and therefore prefer full body programs over split
- I have personal preferences and limitations. As a result, I avoid some exercises, for example deadlifts, whereas the coach forces me to do them.
But I think for a lot of people this coach brings a good, well-prepared, balanced, and easy to create program. And that is great!
