Polar Pacer Pro User guide

USER MANUAL

CONTENTS

Contents 2 Polar Pacer Pro User Manual 8
Introduction 8 Take full advantage of your Pacer Pro 9
Polar Flow App 9 Polar Flow web service 9
Get started 10
Setting up your watch 10
Button functions and gestures 11
Time view and menu 12 Pre-training mode 12 During training 12
Before pairing a mobile device: 22 To pair a mobile device: 22
Settings 24
General settings 24
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Factory reset via FlowSync 32 Factory reset from the watch 32
Training 33
Wrist-based heart rate measurement 33
Interval Timer 41 Countdown Timer 41
Lock a heart rate zone 42 Lock a speed/pace zone 42
Lock a power zone 42 Mark a lap 42 Switch Sport During a Multisport Session 42 Training with a target 42
Change phase during a phased session 43
View training target information 43
Notifications 43
Pausing/Stopping a training session 43 Training summary 44
Features 48
Smart Coaching 48
Cardio Load 48 Perceived Load 49
Muscle Load 49 Training Load from a single session 49 Strain and Tolerance 50 Cardio Load Status 50
Cardio load status on your watch 50 Long term analysis in the Flow app and web service 51
Training with Fuelwise 53
Smart carbs reminder 53
Manual carbs reminder 53
Drink reminder 54
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Performing the test 55 Test results 56 Detailed analysis in the Flow web service and app 57
Performing the test 59 Test results 60 Detailed analysis in the Flow web service and app 61
Performing the test 62 Test results 63 Detailed analysis in the Flow web service and app 63
Running power and muscle load 64 How running power is shown on your watch 64
Create a Polar Running Program 66 Start a running target 67 Follow your progress 67
Short-term analysis 67 Long-term analysis 68
Continuous heart rate on your watch 71
Activity Goal 72 Activity data on your watch 72
Inactivity alert 73 Activity data in the Flow App and web service 73
ANS charge details in the Flow app 77
Sleep charge details in Polar Flow 77
For exercise 78
For sleep 78
For regulating energy levels 78
Daily Boost from sleep 83 Weekly sleep 86 Scientific background 88
Before the test 91 Performing the test 91 Test results 91
Fitness level classes 91
Men 91
Women 92 VO2max 92
During training 94
Positioning satellites 95
A-GPS expiry date 96
Route Guidance 96
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Add the Hill Splitter view to a sport profile 101
Training with Hill Splitter 101
Hill Splitter summary 102
Detailed analysis in the Flow web service and app 103 Komoot 105
Connect your komoot and Polar Flow accounts 106
Sync komoot routes to your watch 106
Start a session with a komoot route 107 Heart Rate Zones 107 Speed Zones 108
Speed zones settings 108
Training target with speed zones 108
During training 108
After training 108 Speed and distance from the wrist 108 Cadence from the wrist 109 Energy sources 109
Energy sources summary 109
Detailed analysis in the Flow mobile app 109 Swimming Metrics 111
Pool swimming 111
Pool Length setting 111 Open water swimming 111 Measuring heart rate in water 112 Start a swimming session 112 During your Swim 112 After your Swim 112
Barometer 113 Compass 114
Using the compass during a session 114
Weather 115 Sport Profiles 117 Phone notifications 117
Set phone notifications on 117
Do not disturb 118 View notifications 118
Music controls 118
From watch face 118 During training 118
HR sensor mode 119
Turn on HR sensor mode 119 Stop sharing HR 119
Power save settings 119 Changeable wristbands 121
Changing the wristband 121
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Wristband adapter 122
Attach adapters to watch 122 Attach wristband to adapter 122
Compatible sensors 122
Polar H10 Heart Rate Sensor 122 Polar Verity Sense 123 Polar Stride Sensor Bluetooth® Smart 123 Polar Speed sensor Bluetooth® Smart 123 Polar Cadence Sensor Bluetooth® Smart 123 Third-party Power sensors 123 Pairing sensors with your watch 124
Pair a heart rate sensor with your watch 124
Pair a stride sensor with your watch 124
Calibrate stride sensor 124
Pair a cycling sensor with your watch 124
Bike settings 125 Measuring wheel size 125 Calibrate cycling power sensor 126
Delete a pairing 126
Polar Flow 127
Polar Flow App 127
Training data 127 Activity data 127 Sleep data 127 Sport profiles 127 Image sharing 127 Start using the Flow app 127
Polar Flow Web Service 128
Diary 128 Reports 128 Programs 128
Sport profiles in Polar Flow 128
Add a sport profile 129 Edit a sport profile 129
Planning your training 131
Create a training plan with the Season Planner 131 Create a training target in the Polar Flow web service 132
Create a target based on a favorite training target 133 Sync the targets to your watch 134 Create a training target in the Polar Flow app 134
Favorites 136
Add a Training Target to Favorites: 136 Edit a Favorite 137 Remove a favorite 137
Syncing 137
Sync with Flow mobile App 137 Sync With Flow Web Service Via FlowSync 137
Important information 139
Battery 139
Charging the battery 139 Charging during training 140 Battery status and notifications 140
Battery status symbol 140
Battery notifications 140
Caring for your watch 141
Keep your watch clean 141
Take good care of the optical heart rate sensor 141 Storing 141
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Service 141
Precautions 141
Interference During Training 141 Health and training 142 Warning - Keep batteries out of reach of children 143
How to use your Polar product securely 143 Technical specification 143
Pacer Pro 143 Polar FlowSync Software 145 Polar Flow mobile application compatibility 145 Water resistance of Polar products 145
Regulatory information 146 Limited International Polar Guarantee 146 Disclaimer 147
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POLARPACERPROUSERMANUAL

This user manual helps you get started with your new watch. For video tutorials and FAQs, go to
support.polar.com/en/pacer-pro.

INTRODUCTION

Congratulations on your new Polar Pacer Pro!
Polar Pacer Pro is a new-generation running watch for serious performance. It has a new integrated antenna design for improved GPS tracking, powerful training tools, plus personalized recovery and sleep apps that increase your chances of becoming a better runner. With ultra-light design, bright display, and barometer, you can harness your power to make every run a good run.
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Ultra-light design: Stripped back for maximum comfort and optimum performance with a thin, lightweight shell,
aluminum bezel, and super grip buttons.
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Enhanced Processor: For faster, smoother, more powerful performance and screen transitions.
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MIP Color Display: With a thinner glass lens and improved backlight function for enhanced screen contrast, clarity,
and experience any time of day.
With the Running Performance Test you know where your running performance is now, and it allows you to personalize your heart rate, speed and power zones so that you'll always make the most of your runs. You can also find out your maximum heart rate with the test. Monitor your running progress with advanced running features, such as Running Index and Running Programs.
Wrist-based running power monitors the effort required for every segment of your run instantly making it an extremely
useful tool for sprints and short intervals. See your real-time mechanical energy output in Watts – whether you’re running on a flat, or taking on a steep hill. You can use the Walking Test to keep track of how your aerobic fitness is developing. It's simple, safe and easy to repeat. The Cycling Performance Test allows you to personalize your power zones and tells you your personal functional threshold power.
Reach the ideal amount of training to perform at your very best with Training Load Pro. Stay energized throughout your session with the new FuelWise™ fueling assistant. FuelWise™ reminds you to refuel and helps you maintain adequate energy levels during your long sessions. See how your body uses different energy sources during a training session. Your energy usage is divided into carbs, proteins and fats.
Route and elevation profiles help you outline your coming adventure better and see your progress on the route. With route
and elevation profiles you know your current position, how much you’ve ascended or descended, and how much you still have left to go. With the Hill Splitter™ feature, you’ll know how you performed on the uphill and downhill sections of your session. Hill Splitter automatically detects all uphills and downhills by using your speed, distance and altitude data. Make your runs and rides more exciting with Strava Live Segments. Get alerts about nearby segments, see real-time performance data during a segment and check your results right after you finish. With the third-party app Komoot, you can plan your route for all adventures and easily import the route to your watch, and let turn-by turn guidance keep you on the right track.
The Continuous heart rate feature measures your heart rate around the clock. Together with 24/7 Activity tracking it gives you a complete overview of all your daily activity. Nightly Recharge™ is an overnight recovery measurement that shows you how well you recover from the demands of your day. Sleep Plus Stages™ sleep tracking monitors your sleep stages (REM, light and deep sleep) and gives you sleep feedback and a numerical sleep score. The FitSpark™ training guide makes sure you’re prepared for your pursuit to conquer the trails with ready-made daily workouts that match your recovery, readiness and training history. The watch helps you relax and relieve stress with the Serene™ guided breathing exercise.
In HR sensor mode you can easily turn your Polar Pacer Pro into a heart rate sensor and share your heart rate to other Bluetooth devices like training apps, gym equipment or cycling computers. You can also use your Pacer Pro during Polar Club classes to broadcast your heart rate to the Polar Club system. Polar Pacer Pro also comes with the essential smart watch features: music controls, weather and phone notifications. Add your favorite sports to your watch in Polar Flow.
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Polar Pacer Pro supports over 130 different sports. You can customize settings for each sport. With the
wristbands, you can personalize your watch to match every situation and style.
We are continuously developing our products for a better user experience. To keep your watch up to date and get the best performance, always make sure to update the firmware whenever a new version is available. The firmware updates enhance the functionality of your watch through improvements.

TAKEFULLADVANTAGEOFYOURPACERPRO

changeable
Get connected to the Polar ecosystem and get the most out of your watch.

POLAR FLOW APP

Get the Polar Flow app from the App Store®or Google PlayTM. Sync your watch with the Flow app after training, and get an instant overview and feedback on your training results and performance. In the Flow app you can also see how active you’ve been during the day, how your body has recovered from training and stress during the night and how well you have slept. Based on the Nightly Recharge automatic overnight measurement and other parameters we have measured from you, you get personalized tips in the Flow app on exercise, and tips on sleep and regulating your energy levels on those particularly rough days.

POLAR FLOW WEB SERVICE

Sync your training data to the Polar Flow web service with the FlowSync software on your computer or via Flow app. In the web service you can plan your training, track your achievements, get guidance and see detailed analysis of your training results, activity and sleep. Let all your friends know about your achievements, find fellow exercisers and get motivation from your social training communities.
Find all this at flow.polar.com
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GETSTARTED

SETTINGUPYOURWATCH

To wake up and charge your watch, plug it into a powered USB port or a USB charger with the custom cable that came in the box. The cable magnetically snaps into place. Please note that it may take a while for the charging animation to appear on the display. We recommend that you charge the battery before you start using your watch. See Battery for detailed information on charging the battery.
To set up your watch, choose your language and preferred setup method. The watch gives you three options for setup: Browse to the option most convenient for you with UP/DOWN and confirm your selection with OK.
A. On your phone: Mobile setup is convenient if you don't have access to a computer with a USB port, but it
might take longer. This method requires an Internet connection.
B. On your computer:Wired computer setup is quicker and you can charge your watch at the same time, but
you need a computer available. This method requires an internet connection.
The A and B options are recommended. You can fill in all the physical details required for accurate training data at once. You can also choose language and get the latest firmware for your watch.
C. On your watch: If you don't have a compatible mobile device and can't get to a computer with an internet
connection right away, you can start from the watch. Please note that when you do the setup from the
watch, your watch is not yet connected with Polar Flow. Firmware updates for your watch are available
only through Polar Flow. To make sure you get to enjoy your watch and the unique Polar features at their
best, it’s important that you do the setup later in the Polar Flow web service or with the Polar Flow mobile app
by following the steps in option A or B.

OPTION A: SET UP WITH A MOBILE DEVICE AND POLAR FLOW APP

Please note that you have to do the pairing in the Flow app and NOT in your mobile device’s Bluetooth settings.
1. Make sure your mobile device is connected to the internet and turn on Bluetooth.
2. Download the Polar Flow app from the App Store or Google Play on your mobile device.
3. Open the Flow app on your mobile device.
4. The Flow app recognizes your watch nearby and prompts you to start pairing it. Tap the Start button.
5. When the Bluetooth Pairing Request confirmation message appears on your mobile device, check that the code
shown on your mobile device matches the code shown on your watch.
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6. Accept the Bluetooth pairing request on your mobile device.
7. Confirm the pin code on your watch by pressing OK.
Pairing done is displayed once the pairing is completed.
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9. Sign in with your Polar account or create a new one. We’ll walk you through the sign-up and setup within the app.
When you’re done with the settings, tap Save and sync and your settings are synced to your watch.
If you're prompted to update the firmware, please plug your watch into a power source to ensure flawless update operation, and then accept the update.

OPTION B: SET UP WITH YOUR COMPUTER

1. Go to flow.polar.com/start and download and then install the Polar FlowSync data transfer software to your computer.
2. Sign in with your Polar account or create a new one. Plug your watch into your computer's USB port with the custom cable that came in the box. We’ll walk you through the sign-up and setup within the Polar Flow web service.

OPTION C: SET UP FROM THE WATCH

Adjust the values with UP/DOWN and confirm each selection with OK. If you want to return and change a setting at any point, press BACK until you reach the setting you want to change.
When you do the setup from the watch, your watch is not yet connected with the Polar Flow web service. Firmware updates for your watch are available only through Polar Flow. To make sure you get to enjoy your watch and the unique Polar Smart Coaching features at their best, it's important that you do the setup later in the Polar Flow web service or with the Flow mobile app by following the steps in option A or B.

BUTTONFUNCTIONSANDGESTURES

You watch has five buttons that have different functionalities depending on the situation of use. See the tables below to find out what functionalities the buttons have in different modes.
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Time view and menu

LIGHT
Illuminate the display
In time view, press to view the battery status symbol
Press and hold to lock buttons

Pre-training mode

LIGHT
Illuminate the display
Press and hold to lock buttons
BACK
Enter the menu
Return to the previous level
Leave settings unchanged
Cancel selections
Press and hold to return to time view from menu
In time view, press and hold to start pairing and syncing
BACK
Return to time view
OK
Confirm the selection shown on the display
Press and hold to enter pre-training mode
Press to view more details about the information shown on the watch face
OK
Start a training session
UP/DOWN
Change the watch face in time view
Move through selection lists
Adjust a selected value
UP/DOWN
Move through sports list
Press to enter Quick Menu

During training

LIGHT
Illuminate the display
Press and hold to lock buttons
BACK
Pause training by pressing once
To stop the session, press and hold when paused
OK
Mark a lap
Continue training recording when paused
UP/DOWN
Change training view

BACKLIGHT ACTIVATION GESTURE

The backlight is automatically switched on when you turn your wrist to look at the watch.

WATCHFACES

The watch faces tell you a lot more than just the time. You'll get the most timely and relevant information right on the watch face. Choose which watch faces are shown on the display in time view.
Go to Settings > Choose views and pick from Time only, Daily activity, Cardio load status, Current heart rate/Continuous
HR tracking, Latest training sessions, Nightly Recharge/Last night's sleep, FitSpark training guide, Weather, Weekly summary, Your name and Music controls.
You can scroll through the watch faces with the UP and DOWN buttons and open more details with the OK button.
You can choose between analogue and digital display and customize the watch style and color. Find out more in Watch face settings.
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Time only
Daily activity
Basic watch face with time and date.
The circle around the watch face and the percentage below the time and date show your progress towards your daily activity goal. The circle fills with a light blue color as you are active.
In addition, when opening the details, you can see the following details of your day’s accumulated activity:
Steps you've taken so far. The amount and type of body movements are registered and
turned into an estimation of steps.
Active time tells you the cumulative time of body movements that benefit your health.
Cardio load status
Calories you've burned through training, activity and BMR (Basal metabolic rate: the
minimum metabolic activity required to maintain life).
For more information, see
Cardio Load Status looks at the relation between your short term training load (Strain) and long
term training load (Tolerance) and based on that tells you whether you are in a detraining, maintaining, productive or overreaching training load status.
In addition, when opening the details, you can see the numeric values for your Cardio Load Status, Strain and Tolerance, and also a verbal description of your Cardio load status.
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The numeric value for your Cardio load status is Strain divided by Tolerance.
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Strain shows you how much you have strained yourself with training lately. It shows your
average daily cardio load from the past 7 days.
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Tolerance describes how prepared you are to endure cardio training. It shows your average
daily cardio load from the past 28 days.
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Verbal description of your Cardio load status.
24/7 Activity tracking.
For more information, see Training Load Pro.
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Heart rate
When using the Continuous Heart Rate feature your watch continuously measures your heart rate and displays it on the Heart rate watch face.
You can check your highest and lowest heart rate readings of the day and also view what your lowest heart rate reading of the previous night was. You can turn the Continuous Heart Rate feature on and off on your watch in Settings > General settings > Continuous HR tracking.
For more information, see Continuous Heart Rate feature.
If you're not using the Continuous Heart Rate feature, you can still quickly check your current heart rate without starting a training session. Just tighten your wristband, choose this watch face, press OK and the watch will display your current heart rate in a moment. Return to the Heart rate watch face by pressing BACK.
Latest training sessions
See the time passed since your latest training session and the sport of the session.
In addition, when opening the details, you can view the summaries of your training sessions from the last 14 days. Browse to the training session you want to view with UP/DOWN and press OK to open the summary. For more information, see Training summary.
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Nightly Recharge / Last night's sleep
When you wake up you can see your Nightly Recharge status. Nightly Recharge status tells you how restorative your last night was. Nightly Recharge combines information on how well your autonomic nervous system (ANS) calmed down during the early hours of your sleep (ANS charge) and how well you slept (sleep charge).
The feature is off by default. Keeping the Continuous Heart Rate feature on in your watch will drain the battery quicker. Continuous heart rate tracking needs to be enabled for Nightly Recharge to function. If you want to save battery and still use Nightly Recharge, you can set the continuous heart rate tracking to be on only at night from your watch's settings.
For more information, see Nightly Recharge™ recovery measurement or Sleep Plus Stages™ sleep
tracking.
FitSpark training guide
Your watch suggests the most suitable training targets for you based on your training history, fitness level and current recovery status. Press OK to see all the suggested training targets. Choose one of the suggested training targets to see detailed information about the training target.
For more information, see FitSpark daily training guide.
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Weather
View the current day's hourly forecast straight from your wrist. Press OK to view more detailed weather information including for example wind speed, wind direction, humidity and chance of rain as well as tomorrow's 3-hour and the day after tomorrow's 6-hour forecast.
For more information, see Weather.
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Weekly summary
View an overview of your training week. Your total training time for the week split into different training zones is illustrated on the display. Press OK to open more details. You’ll see distance, training sessions, total calories and time spent in each heart rate zone. In addition, you can view last week’s summary and details as well as any sessions planned for next week.
Scroll down and press OK to view more information about a single session.
Your name
Time, date and your name is displayed.
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Music controls
From the music controls watch face you can control music and media playing on your phone when not training. Press the OK button to see the previous/next and pause/play buttons. Switch to the previous or next song with the UP/DOWN buttons and pause with the OK button. Press the LIGHT button to access the volume control.
During training you can control music from the training display. For more information, see Music
controls.

MENU

Enter the menu by pressing BACK and browse through the menu by pressing UP or DOWN. Confirm selections with the OK button, and return with the BACK button.
Start training
From here, you can start your training sessions. Press OK to enter the pre-training mode and browse to the sport profile you want to use.
You can also enter the pre-training mode by pressing and holding OK in the time view.
See Start a training session for detailed instructions.
Notifications
View notifications from your phone about incoming calls and messages.
See Phone notifications for detailed instructions.
Only visible if your watch is paired with Flow app on your phone.
Serene guided breathing exercise
First, choose Serene and then choose Start to start the breathing exercise.
For more information, see Serene™ guided breathing exercise.
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Strava Live Segments
View information about the Strava segments synced to watch. If you haven’t connected your Flow account with a Strava account or haven’t synced any segments to your watch, you can also find guidance here.
For more information see Strava Live Segments.
Fueling
Stay energized throughout your session with the FuelWise™ fueling assistant. FuelWise™ includes three reminders that remind you to refuel and help you maintain adequate energy levels during your long sessions. These are Smart carbs reminder, Manual carbs reminder and Drink
reminder.
For more information see Fuelwise.
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Timers
In Timers you'll find alarm, stopwatch and countdown timer.
Alarm
Set alarm repetition: Off, Once, Monday to Friday or Every day. If you choose Once, Monday to
Friday or Every day, also set the time for the alarm.
When the alarm is set on, a clock icon is displayed in the time view.
Stopwatch
To start the stopwatch, press OK. To add a lap, press OK. To pause the stopwatch, press BACK.
Countdown Timer
You can set the countdown timer to count down from a preset time. Choose Set Timer, and set the countdown time, and press OK to confirm. When completed, choose Start and press OK to start the countdown timer.
The countdown timer is added to the basic watch face with time and date.
At the end of the countdown, the watch notifies you by vibrating. Press OK to restart the timer, or press BACK to cancel and return to the time view.
During training you can use interval timer and countdown timer. Add the timer views to training views in the sport profile settings in Flow and sync the settings to your watch. For more information on using timers during training, see During training.
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Tests
Walking test
You can use the Walking Test to keep track of how your aerobic fitness is developing. It's simple, safe and easy to repeat.
For more information see Walking Test.
Cycling test
The Cycling Performance Test allows you to personalize your power zones and tells you your personal functional threshold power. Cycling power sensor required.
For more information see Cycling Performance Test.
Running test
The Running Performance Test helps you keep track of your progress and personalize your heart rate, speed and power zones.
For more information see Running Performance Test.
Fitness test
Measure your fitness level easily with wrist-based heart rate while you lie down and relax.
Settings
For more information see Fitness Test with wrist-based heart rate.
You can edit the following settings on your watch:
General settings
Choose views
Watch face
Time & Date
Physical settings
In addition to the settings available on your watch, you can edit Sport Profiles in the Polar Flow web service and app. Customize your watch with your favorite sports and the information you want to follow during your training sessions. See Sport Profiles in
Flow for more information.

PAIRINGAMOBILEDEVICEWITHYOURWATCH

Before you can pair a mobile device with your watch, you need to setup your watch in the Polar Flow web service or with the Polar Flow mobile app as described in chapter Setting up your watch. If you did the setup for your watch with a mobile device, your watch has already been paired. If you did the setup with a computer and would like to use your watch with Polar Flow app, please pair your watch and mobile as follows:
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Before pairing a mobile device:

download Flow app from the App Store or Google Play
make sure your mobile device has Bluetooth turned on, and airplane mode/flight mode is not turned on.
Android users:make sure location is enabled for Polar Flow app in the phone's application settings.

To pair a mobile device:

1. On your mobile device, open Flow app and sign in with your Polar account, which you have created when setting up your watch.
Android users: If you have several Flow app compatible Polar devices in use, make sure you have chosen Pacer Pro as the active device in the Flow app. This way Flow app knows to connect to your watch. In the Flow app, go to Devices and choose Pacer Pro.
2. On your watch, press and hold BACK in time mode OR go to Settings > General settings > Pair and sync > Pair and
sync phone and press OK.
3. Open Flow app and bring your watch close to phone is displayed on your watch.
4. When the Bluetooth Pairing Request confirmation message appears on your mobile device, check that the code shown on your mobile device matches the code shown on your watch.
5. Accept the Bluetooth pairing request on your mobile device.
6. Confirm the pin code on your watch by pressing the OK.
7. Pairing done is displayed once the pairing is completed.

DELETE A PAIRING

To delete a pairing with a mobile device:
1. Go to Settings > General settings > Pair and sync > Paired devices and press OK.
2. Choose the device you want to remove from the list and press OK.
3. Remove pairing? is displayed. Confirm by pressing OK.
4. Pairing removed is displayed when you are done.
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UPDATINGTHEFIRMWARE

To keep your watch up to date and to get the best performance, always make sure to update the firmware whenever a new version is available. Firmware updates are performed to improve the functionality of your watch.
You won't lose any data due to the firmware update. Before the update begins, the data from your watch is synced to the Flow web service.

WITH PHONE OR TABLET

You can update the firmware with your phone if you're using the Polar Flow mobile app to sync your training and activity data. The app will let you know if there's an update available and will guide you through it. We recommend that you plug the watch into a power source before starting the update to ensure a flawless update operation.
The wireless firmware update may take up to 20 minutes, depending on your connection.

WITH COMPUTER

Whenever a new firmware version is available, FlowSync will notify you when you connect the watch to your computer. The firmware updates are downloaded via FlowSync.
To update the firmware:
1. Plug your watch into your computer with the custom cable that came in the box. Make sure that the cable snaps into place.
2. FlowSync starts syncing your data.
3. After syncing, you are asked to update the firmware.
4. Choose Yes. The New firmware is installed (this may take up to 10 minutes), and the watch restarts. Please wait until the firmware update has been finalized before you detach the watch from your computer.
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SETTINGS

GENERALSETTINGS

To view and edit your general settings, go to Settings > General settings.
In General settings you'll find:
Pair and sync
Bike settings (Visible only if you have paired a cycling sensor with your watch)
Continuous HR tracking
Flight mode
Backlight brightness
Do not disturb
Phone notifications
Music controls (Visible only if you have paired your watch with the Flow app)
Units
Language
Inactivity alert
Vibrations
I wear my watch on
Positioning satellites
About your watch

PAIR AND SYNC

Pair and sync phone/Pair sensor or other device: Pair sensors or mobile devices with your watch. Sync data with
Flow app.
Paired devices: View all the devices you have paired with your watch. These can include heart rate sensors, running
sensors, cycling sensors and mobile devices.

BIKE SETTINGS

Bike settings are visible only if you have paired a cycling sensor with your watch.
Wheel size: Set the wheel size in millimeters. You can set the size from 100 mm to 3999 mm. For instructions on
measuring the wheel size, see Pairing sensors with your watch.
Crank length: Set the crank length in millimeters. The setting is visible only if you have paired a power sensor.
Sensors in use: View all the sensors you have linked to the bike.

CONTINUOUS HR TRACKING

Turn the Continuous Heart Rate feature On, Off or Night-time only. If you choose Night-time only, set heart rate tracking to begin at the earliest time you might go to bed.
For more information, see
Continuous Heart Rate.
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FLIGHT MODE

Choose On or Off.
Flight mode cuts off all wireless communication from your watch. You can still use it, but you can't sync your data with the Polar Flow mobile app or use it with any wireless accessories.

BACKLIGHT BRIGHTNESS

Choose High, Medium, Low or Only with light button. This setting only affects brightness of the backlight activation gesture and the automatic backlight that is lit when pressing any button. The backlight brightness of the LIGHT button is not affected, it cannot be changed.

DO NOT DISTURB

Choose Off, On or On ( - ) . Set the period when do not disturb is on. Choose when it Starts at and Ends at. When it is set on, you will not get any notifications or call alerts. The backlight activation gesture is also disabled.

PHONE NOTIFICATIONS

Set phone notifications Off, On, when not training, On, when training or Always on. Notifications are available when not training and during training sessions.

MUSIC CONTROLS

Set music controls on for the training display and/or Watch face.

UNITS

Choose metric (kg, cm) or imperial (lb, ft). Set the units used to measure weight, height, distance and speed.

LANGUAGE

You can choose the language you want to use on your watch. Your watch supports the following languages: Bahasa
Indonesia, Čeština, Dansk, Deutsch, Eesti, English, Español, Français, Italiano, 日 本語 , Magyar, Nederlands, Norsk, Polski, Português, 简体 中文, Русский, Slovenščina, Suomi, Svenska or Türkçe.

INACTIVITY ALERT

Set the inactivity alert On or Off.

VIBRATIONS

Set vibrations for scrolling menu items On or Off.

I WEAR MY WATCH ON

Choose Left hand or Right hand.

POSITIONING SATELLITES

Change the satellite navigation system your watch uses in addition to GPS. The setting is located on your watch in General
settings > Positioning satellites. You can choose GPS + GLONASS, GPS + Galileo or GPS + QZSS. The default setting is GPS + GLONASS. These options give you the possibility to test different satellite navigation systems and find out if they
can give you improved performance in areas covered by them.
GPS + GLONASS
GLONASS is a Russian global satellite navigation system. It is the default setting as its global satellite visibility and reliability is the best of these three, and in general we recommend using it.
GPS + Galileo
Galileo is a global navigation satellite system created by the European Union.
GPS + QZSS
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QZSS is a four-satellite regional time transfer system and a satellite-based augmentation system developed to enhance GPS in the Asia-Oceania regions, with a focus on Japan.

ABOUT YOUR WATCH

Check the device ID of your watch, as well as the firmware version, HW model, A-GPS expiry date and the watch-specific regulatory labels.
Restart your watch, turn it off or reset all data and settings on it.
Restart: If you experience problems with your watch, you can try restarting it. Restarting the watch will not delete any of the
settings or your personal data from the watch.
Turn off: Turn your watch off. To turn it back on press and hold the OK button.
Reset all data and settings: Reset the watch back to factory settings. This will erase all data and settings on your watch.

CHOOSEVIEWS

Choose which watch faces are shown on the display in time view from Settings > Choose views.
Your watch supports up to eleven different watch faces that tell you a lot more than just the time. For more information, see Watch faces. You'll get the most timely and relevant information right on the watch face.
You can choose from:
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Time only
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Daily activity
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Cardio load status
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Current heart rate / Continuous HR tracking
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Latest training sessions
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Nightly Recharge / Last night's sleep
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FitSpark training guide
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Weather
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Weekly summary
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Your name
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Music controls
You need to choose at least one view.
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WATCHFACESETTINGS

In Settings > Watch face you can choose between analogue and digital display and customize the watch style and color.
First choose Digital or Analog. Then choose the style.
Under Digital you'll find Symmetry, Minutes in middle, Small seconds, Seconds in circle and Magnifying glass.
Symmetry
Minutes in middle
Small seconds
Seconds in circle
Magnifying glass
Under Analog you'll find Classic, Art Deco, Lollipop, Pearl and Sword.
Classic
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Art deco
Lollipop
Pearl
Sword
Choose the color theme for your watch face. The available colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and peach.
Note that for the Digital Symmetry option you cannot change the color.

TIME&DATE

To view and edit your time and date settings, go to Settings > Time & Date.

TIME

Set the time format: 24 h or 12 h.Then set the time of day.
When syncing with the Flow app and web service, the time of day is automatically updated from the service.

DATE

Set the date.
When syncing with the Flow app and web service, the date is automatically updated from the service.
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DATE FORMAT

Set the Date format, you can choose mm/dd/yyyy, dd/mm/yyyy, yyyy/mm/dd, dd-mm-yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd, dd.mm.yyyy or
yyyy.mm.dd.

FIRST DAY OF WEEK

Choose the starting day of each week. Choose Monday, Saturday or Sunday.
When syncing with the Flow app and web service, the week's starting day is automatically updated from the service.

PHYSICALSETTINGS

To view and edit your physical settings, go to Settings > Physical settings. It is important that you are precise with the physical settings, especially when setting your weight, height, date of birth and sex, as they have an impact on the accuracy of the measuring values, such as the heart rate zone limits and calorie expenditure.
In Physical settings you'll find:
Weight
Height
Date of birth
Sex
Training background
Activity goal
Preferred sleep time
Maximum heart rate
Resting heart rate
VO
2max

WEIGHT

Set your weight in kilograms (kg) or pounds (lbs).

HEIGHT

Set your height in centimeters (metric) or in feet and inches (imperial).

DATE OF BIRTH

Set your birthday. The order in which the date settings are depends on which time and date format you have chosen (24h: day - month - year/12h: month - day - year).
SEX
Select Male or Female.

TRAINING BACKGROUND

Training background is an assessment of your long-term physical activity level. Select the alternative that best describes the overall amount and intensity of your physical activity during the past three months.
Occasional (0-1h/week): You do not participate regularly in programmed recreational sport or heavy physical activity,
e.g. you walk only for pleasure or exercise hard enough to cause heavy breathing or perspiration only occasionally.
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Regular (1-3h/week): You participate regularly in recreational sports, e.g. you run 5-10 km or 3-6 miles per week or
spend 1-3 hours per week in comparable physical activity, or your work requires modest physical activity.
Frequent (3-5h/week): You participate at least 3 times a week in heavy physical exercise, e.g. you run 20-50 km/12-31
miles per week or spend 3-5 hours per week in comparable physical activity.
Heavy (5-8h/week): You participate in heavy physical exercise at least 5 times a week, and you may sometimes take
part in mass sports events.
Semi-pro (8-12h/week): You participate in heavy physical exercise almost daily, and you exercise to improve
performance for competitive purposes.
Pro (>12h/week): You are an endurance athlete. You participate in heavy physical exercise to improve your
performance for competitive purposes.

ACTIVITY GOAL

Daily activity goal is a good way to find out how active you really are in your everyday life. Choose your typical activity level
from three options and see how active you need to be to reach your daily activity goal.
The time you need to complete your daily activity goal depends on the level you have chosen and the intensity of your activities. Age and gender also affect the intensity you need to reach your daily activity goal.
Level 1
If your day includes only a little sports and a lot of sitting, commuting by car or public transport and so on, we recommend you pick this activity level.
Level 2
If you spend most of your day on your feet, perhaps due to the type of work you do or your daily chores, this is the right activity level for you.
Level 3
If your work is physically demanding, you’re into sports or otherwise tend to be on the move and active, this is the activity level for you.

PREFERRED SLEEP TIME

Set Your preferred sleep time to define how long you aim to sleep every night. By default, it is set to the average recommendation for your age group (eight hours for adults from 18 to 64 years). If you feel that eight hours of sleep is too much or too little for you, we recommend you adjust your preferred sleep time to meet your individual needs. By doing this, you’ll get accurate feedback on how much sleep you got in comparison to your preferred sleep time.

MAXIMUM HEART RATE

Set your maximum heart rate, if you know your current maximum heart rate value. Your age-predicted maximum heart rate value (220-age) is displayed as a default setting when you set this value for the first time.
HR physical exertion.The most accurate method for determining your individual HR test in a laboratory. HR hereditary factors.
is used to estimate energy expenditure. HR
max
is also crucial when determining training intensity. It is individual and depends on age and
max
is the highest number of heartbeats per minute during maximum
max
is to perform a maximal exercise stress
max

RESTING HEART RATE

Your resting heart rate is the lowest number of heartbeats per minute (bpm) when fully relaxed and without distractions. Your age, fitness level, genetics, health status and sex affect the resting heart rate. A typical value for an adult is 55–75 bpm, but your resting heart rate can be significantly lower than that, for example, if you’re very fit.
It’s best to measure your resting heart rate in the morning after a good night’s sleep, right after you wake up. It’s OK to go to the bathroom first if it helps you to relax. Don’t do any strenuous training leading up to the measurement and make sure
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you’re fully recovered from any activity. You should do the measurement more than once, preferably on consecutive mornings, and calculate your average resting heart rate.
To measure your resting heart rate:
1. Wear your watch. Lie down on your back and relax.
2. After about 1 minute, start a training session on your wearable. Choose any sport profile, for example Other indoor.
3. Lie still and breathe calmly for 3–5 minutes. Don’t look at your training data during the measuring.
4. Stop the training session on your Polar device. Sync the wearable with the Polar Flow app or web service and check the training summary for the value of your lowest heart rate (HR min)—this is your resting heart rate. Update your resting heart rate to your physical settings in Polar Flow.
VO
2MAX
Set your VO2
VO2 during maximal exercise; it is related directly to the maximal capacity of the heart to deliver blood to the muscles. VO2 can be measured or predicted by fitness tests (e.g. maximal exercise tests and submaximal exercise tests). You can also use your
(maximal oxygen uptake, maximal aerobic power) is the maximal rate at which oxygen can be used by the body
max
Running Index score, which is an estimation of your VO2
max
.
max
.
max

DISPLAYICONS

Flight mode is on. Flight mode cuts off all wireless communication from your watch. You can still use
it, but you can't sync your data with the Polar Flow mobile app or use it with any wireless accessories.
Do not disturb mode is on. When do not disturb is switched on, the watch will not vibrate when you
receive notifications or calls (the red dot will still appear at the bottom left of the display). Also, the backlight activation gesture is disabled.
Alarm is set. You can set the alarm in Timers > Alarm.
Your paired phone is disconnected and you have notifications and/or music controls turned on. Check that your phone is within Bluetooth range from your watch and Bluetooth is enabled on your phone.
Button lock is on. You can unlock the buttons by pressing and holding the LIGHT button.

RESTARTINGANDRESETTING

If you experience problems with your watch, you can try restarting it. Restarting the watch will not delete any of the settings or your personal data from the watch.

TO RESTART THE WATCH

On your watch, go to Settings > General settings > About your watch. Scroll down to find Restart. Press the OK button and then press OK again to confirm the restart.
You can also restart your watch by pressing and holding the OK button for 10 seconds.

TO RESET THE WATCH TO FACTORY SETTINGS

If restarting your watch didn't help, you can reset the watch back to factory settings. Note that resetting the watch back to factory settings empties all personal data and settings from the watch, and you will need to set it up again for your
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personal use. All data that you have synced from your watch to your Flow account is safe. You can do the factory reset via FlowSync or from the watch.
Factory reset via FlowSync
1. Go to flow.polar.com/start and download and then install the Polar FlowSync data transfer software onto your computer.
2. Connect your watch to the computer’s USB port.
3. Open settings in FlowSync.
4. Press the Factory Reset button.
5. If you use Flow app to sync, check the list of paired Bluetooth devices on your phone, and remove your watch from the list if it's there.
Now you need to set up your watch again, either via mobile or computer. Just remember to use the same Polar account in the setup you've used before resetting.
Factory reset from the watch
On your watch, go to Settings > General settings > About your watch. Scroll all the way down to find Reset all data and settings. Press the OK button and then press OK again to confirm the factory reset.
Now you need to set up your watch again, either via mobile or computer. Just remember to use the same Polar account in the setup you've used before resetting.
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TRAINING

WRIST-BASEDHEARTRATEMEASUREMENT

Your watch measures your heart rate from the wrist with the Polar Precision Prime™ sensor fusion technology. This new heart rate innovation combines optical heart rate measurement with skin contact measurement, ruling out any disturbances to the heart rate signal. It tracks your heart rate accurately even in the most demanding conditions and training sessions.
Although there are many subjective clues as to how your body is doing during exercise (perceived exertion, breathing rate, physical sensations), none of them are as reliable as measuring heart rate. It is objective and affected by both internal and external factors—meaning that you will have a dependable measure of your physical state.
WEARING YOUR WATCH WHEN MEASURING HEART RATE FROM YOUR WRIST OR TRACKING YOUR SLEEP
To measure wrist-based heart rate accurately during training, when using the Continuous heart rate and Nightly Recharge features or while tracking your sleep with Sleep Plus Stages make sure that you wear the watch correctly:
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Wear your watch on top of your wrist, at least a finger’s width up from the wrist bone (see the picture below).
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Tighten the wristband firmly around your wrist. The sensor on the back must be in constant touch with your skin and the watch should not be able to move on your arm. A good way to check that the wristband is not too loose is if you push the wristband lightly up from both sides of your arm and make sure the sensor doesn’t lift from your skin. When pushing the wristband up you shouldn't see the LED light shining from the sensor.
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For most accurate heart rate measurement, we advise you to wear your watch for a few minutes prior to starting the heart rate measurement. Also it's a good idea to warm up the skin if your hands and skin get cold easily. Get the blood going before starting your session!
During training you should slide the Polar device further up from the wrist bone and wear the wristband a bit more tightly to try to minimize any extra moving of the device. Give your skin a few minutes to adapt to the Polar device before starting a training session. After the training session, loosen the wristband a bit.
If you have tattoos on the skin of your wrist, avoid placing the sensor right on them as they may prevent accurate readings.
In sports where it's more challenging to keep the sensor stationary on your wrist or where you have pressure or movement in muscles or tendons near the sensor, we recommend using a Polar heart rate sensor with a chest strap if you’re looking for supreme accuracy in your training. Your watch is compatible with Bluetooth® heart rate sensors, like Polar H10. The Polar H10 heart rate sensor is more responsive to rapidly increasing or decreasing heart rate, so it’s the ideal option also for interval type of training with quick sprints.
To maintain the best possible performance of the wrist-based heart rate measurement, keep your watch clean and prevent scratches. After a sweaty training session, we recommend that you wash the watch under running water with a mild soap and water solution. Then wipe it dry with a soft towel. Let it fully dry before charging.
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WEARING YOUR WATCH WHEN NOT MEASURING HEART RATE FROM YOUR WRIST OR TRACKING YOUR SLEEP/NIGHTLY RECHARGE
Loosen the wristband a bit for a more comfortable fit and to let your skin breathe. Wear the watch just as you would wear a normal watch.
Every once in a while it’s a good idea to let your wrist have a breather, especially if you have sensitive skin. Take off your watch and recharge it. This way both your skin and your watch can have a rest, and be ready for your next training event.

STARTATRAININGSESSION

1. Wear your watch and tighten the wristband.
2. To enter the pre-training mode, press and hold OK in time view or press BACK to enter the main menu and choose
Start training.
From the pre-training mode, you can access quick menu with the LIGHTbutton. The options displayed in the quick menu depend on the sport you have chosen and whether you are using GPS.
You can, for example, choose a favorite training target you want to perform and add timers to your training views. For more information, see Quick menu.
After your choice, the watch returns to the pre-training mode.
3. Browse to your preferred sport.
4. Stay in the pre-training mode until the watch has found your heart rate and the GPS satellite signals (if applicable to your sport) to make sure your training data is accurate. To catch GPS satellite signals, go outdoors and away from tall buildings and trees. Keep your watch still with the display upwards and avoid touching the watch during the GPS signal search.
5.
If you have paired an optional Bluetooth sensor with your watch, the watch will automatically start searching for the sensor signal as well.
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~ 38h Estimated training time with current settings. By using power save settings, the estimated training time can be extended.
The circle around the GPS icon will turn orange when the minimum amount of satellites (4) needed for the GPS fix are found. You can start your session but for better accuracy wait until the circle turns green.
The circle around the GPS icon will turn green when the GPS is ready. The watch notifies you with a vibration.
The watch has found your heart rate when your heart rate is shown.
When you're wearing a Polar heart rate sensor that's paired with your watch, the watch automatically uses the connected sensor to measure your heart rate during training sessions. A blue circle around the heart rate symbol indicates that your watch uses the connected sensor to measure your heart rate.
6. When all signals are found, press OK to start training recording.
See
During Training for more information on what you can do with your watch during training.

START A PLANNED TRAINING SESSION

You can plan your training and create detailed training targets in the Polar Flow app or the Polar Flow web service and sync them to your watch.
To start a planned training session scheduled for the current day:
1. Enter the pre-training mode by pressing and holding OK in time view.
2. You'll be prompted to start a training target you've scheduled for the day.
3. Press OK to view the target information.
4. Press OK to return to pre-training mode, and choose the sport profile you want to use.
5. When the watch has found all the signals, press OK. Recording started is displayed and you can start training.
Your watch will guide you towards completing your target during training. See During Training for more information.
Your planned training targets will also be included in the FitSpark training suggestions.

START A MULTISPORT TRAINING SESSION

Multisport allows you to include multiple sports in one training session, and seamlessly switch between sports without interrupting your training recording. During a multisport training session your transition times between sports are automatically monitored, allowing you to see how long it took you to switch from one sport to another.
There are two different ways to perform a multisport training session: fixed multisport and free multisport. In a fixed multisport (multisport profiles in the Polar sports list) like triathlon, the order of the sports is fixed, and they must be
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performed in that specific order. In free multisport, you can choose what sports you perform and in which order you perform them by selecting them from the sport list. You can also switch back and forth between sports.
Before starting a multisport training session, make sure that you have set the sport profile settings for each of the sports that you are going to use for the training session. For more information, see
1. Press BACK to enter the main menu, choose Start training, and then browse to a sport profile. Choose Triathlon,
Free multisport or any other multisport profile (can be added in the Flow web service).
2. Once your watch has found all the signals, press OK. Recording started is displayed and you can start training.
3. To change the sport press BACK to go to transition mode.
4. Choose your next sport, and press OK (your transition time is shown) and continue training.
Sport profiles in Flow.

QUICKMENU

You can access the quick menu with the LIGHTbutton from pre-training mode, during a session when paused and during transition mode in multisport sessions.
The options displayed in the quick menu depend on the sport you have chosen and whether you are using GPS.
Power save settings:
The power save settings allow you to extend your training time by changing the GPSrecording rate, setting Wrist-based heart rate off and using the Screen saver. These settings let you optimize battery usage and get more training time for extra long sessions or when the battery is running low.
For more information, see Power save settings.
Backlight:
Set the Backlight always on feature On or Off. With always on chosen the watch display will be illuminated throughout your training session. The backlight setting will default back to Off after you finish your training session. Please note that the always on setting will drain your battery much faster than the default setting.
Share HR with other devices:
In heart rate sensor mode you can turn your watch into a heart rate sensor and share your heart rate with other Bluetooth devices like training apps, gym equipment or cycling computers. For more information, see HR sensor mode.
Training suggestions:
In Training suggestions you'll find the daily FitSpark training suggestions.
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Pool length:
When using the Swimming/Pool swimming profile, it’s important that you choose the correct pool length, as it affects pace, distance and stroke calculation, as well as your SWOLF score. Press OK to access the Pool length setting and change the previously set pool length if necessary. The default lengths are 25 meters, 50 meters and 25 yards, but you can also set it manually to a custom length. The minimum length that can be chosen is 20 meters/yards.
Pool length setting is only available in the pre-training mode from the quick menu.
Calibrate power sensor:
Choose one of the cycling sport profiles and wake up the transmitters by rotating the cranks. Then choose Calibrate power sensor from the quick menu and follow the on-screen instructions to calibrate your sensor. For calibration instructions specific to your power sensor, see the manufacturer's instructions.
This option is shown only if you have paired a power sensor with your watch.
Calibrate stride sensor:
There are two ways to manually calibrate your stride sensor via the quick menu. Choose one of the running sport profiles and then choose Calibrate stride sensor > Calibrate by running or Calibration
factor from the quick menu.
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Calibrate by running: Start the training session and run a distance you know. The distance has
to be more than 400 meters. When you have run the distance, press OK to take a lap. Set the actual distance you have run and press OK. The calibration factor is updated.
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Please note that interval timer cannot used during the calibration. If you have set the interval timer on, the watch will ask you to turn it off to enable manual stride sensor calibration. You can turn the timer on from the pause mode quick menu after calibration.
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Calibration factor: Set the calibration factor manually if you know the factor which gives you
accurate distance.
For detailed instructions on manual and automatic calibration of a stride sensor, see Calibrating a
Polar stride sensor with Grit X/Pacer/Vantage.
This option is shown only if you have paired a stride sensor with your watch.
Favorites:
In Favorites you'll find training targets that you have saved as favorites in the Flow web service, and synced to your watch. Choose a favorite training target you want to perform. After your choice, the watch returns to the pre-training mode where you can start the training session.
For more information, see Favorites.
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Race pace:
The Race Pace feature helps you keep a steady pace and achieve your target time for a set distance. Define a target time for the distance - 45 minutes for a 10k run for example and follow how far behind or ahead you are compared to your pre-set target. You can also check what the steady pace/speed to meet your target is.
Race Pace can be set on your watch. Just choose the distance and target duration and you’re ready to go. You can also set a Race Pace target in the Flow web service or app, and sync it to your watch.
For more information, see Race Pace.
Interval timer:
You can set time and/or distance based interval timers to precisely time work and recovery phases in your interval training sessions.
To add interval timer to your training views for the session, choose Timer for this session > On. You can use a previously set timer or create a new timer by returning to the quick menu and choosing
Interval timer > Set interval timer:
1. Choose Time-based or Distance-based: Time-based: Define minutes and seconds for the timer and press OK. Distance-based: Set the distance for the timer and press OK. Set another
timer? is shown. To set another timer, press OK.
2. When completed, the watch returns to pre-training mode where you can start the training session. The timer starts when you start the training session.
For more information, see During Training.
Countdown timer:
To add countdown timer to your training views for the session, choose Timer for this session > On. You can use a previously set timer or create a new timer by returning to the quick menu and choosing
Countdown timer > Set timer. Set the countdown time, and press OK to confirm. When completed,
the watch returns to pre-training mode where you can start the training session. The timer starts when you start the training session.
For more information, see During Training.
Routes:
In Routes, you'll find the routes that you have saved as favorites in the Flow web service Explore view or in the analysis view of your training session, and synced to your watch. Komoot routes are also found here.
Choose the route from the list, and then choose where you want to start the route: Start point
(original direction), Mid-route (original direction), End point to reverse direction or Mid-route to reverse direction.
For more information, see Route Guidance.
Back to start:
The back to start feature guides you back to the starting point of your session. To add the Back to
start view to your training views of the current training session, choose Back to start on, and press
OK.
For more information, see Back to start.
The back to start feature is only available if GPS is set on for the sport profile.
When you choose a training target for your session, the Favorites and Routes options are crossed out in the quick menu. This is because you can only choose one target for the session. And if you choose a route for your session, the Back to
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start feature will be crossed out in the quick menu because Routes and Back to start features cannot be chosen at the
same time. To change the target, choose the crossed out option and you will be asked if you want to change your target or route. Confirm with OK to choose another target.

DURINGTRAINING

BROWSE THE TRAINING VIEWS

During training you can browse through the training views with UP/DOWN. Note that the available training views and the information you see on the training views depend on the sport you've chosen and on your edit of the chosen sport profile.
You can add sport profiles on your watch and define the settings for each sport profile in the Polar Flow app and web service. You can create tailored training views for each sport you do and choose what data you want to follow during your sessions. For more information, see Sport profiles in Flow.
For example, your training views can have the following information:
Start time and date
Duration of the session
Your heart rate and the heart rate ZonePointer
Distance
Duration
Pace/Speed
Your heart rate and the heart rate ZonePointer
Duration
Calories
Ascent
Your current altitude
Descent
Hill splitter
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Compass
Maximum heart rate
Heart rate graph and your current heart rate
Average heart rate
Power
Time of day
Duration

SET TIMERS

Before you can use timers during training, you need to add the timers to your training views. You can do this either by setting the timer view on for your current training session from the Quick menu or by adding the timers to the training views of the sport profile in the Flow web service sport profile settings and syncing the settings to your watch.
See Sport Profiles in Flow for more information.
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Interval Timer
If you set the timer view on for your training session from the Quick menu, the timer starts when you start the training session. You can stop the timer and start a new timer as instructed below.
If you have added the timer in the training views of the sport profile you are using, you can start the timer as follows:
1. Browse to the Interval timer view and press and hold OK. Choose Start to use a previously set timer or create a new timer in Set interval timer:
2. Choose Time-based or Distance-based: Time-based: Define minutes and seconds for the timer and press OK.
Distance-based: Set the distance for the timer and press OK.
3. Set another timer? is shown. To set another timer, press OK.
4. When completed, choose Start to start the interval timer. At the end of each interval, the watch notifies you by vibrating.
To stop the timer, press and hold OK and choose Stop timer.
Countdown Timer
If you set the timer view on for your training session from the Quick menu, the timer starts when you start the training session. You can stop the timer and start a new timer as instructed below.
If you have added the timer to the training views of the sport profile you are using, start the timer as follows:
1. Browse to the Countdown timer view and press and hold OK.
2. Choose Start to use a previously set timer or choose Set countdown timer to set a new countdown time. When completed, choose Start to start the countdown timer.
3. At the end of the countdown, the watch notifies you by vibrating. If you want to restart the countdown timer, press and hold OK and choose Start.
To stop the timer, press and hold OK and choose Stop timer.

LOCK A HEART RATE, SPEED OR POWER ZONE

With the ZoneLock feature you can lock the zone you’re currently in based on heart rate or speed/pace. If you're using a separate running or cycling power sensor with your watch, you can also use the feature to lock your power zone. The ZoneLock feature helps you make sure you stay on the chosen zone during training without having to check your watch. If you go outside the locked zone during training, your watch notifies you with a vibration.
The ZoneLock feature for heart rate, speed/pace and power zones must be set on for each sport profile individually. You can set it on in the Flow web service sport profile settings under the Heart rate, Speed/Pace or Power settings.
In order to use ZoneLock to lock your speed/pace or power zone, you will also need to add the fullscreen Speed/pace
graph
or Power graph view to the training views of the sport profile.
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Lock a heart rate zone
To lock the heart rate zone you are currently in, press and hold OK in the fullscreen HR graph view or in any of the views that are editable in the Flow.
To unlock the zone, press and hold the OK button again.
Lock a speed/pace zone
To lock the speed/pace zone you are currently in, press and hold OK in the fullscreen Speed/pace graph view .
To unlock the zone, press and hold the OK button again.
Lock a power zone
To lock the power zone you are currently in, press and hold OK in the fullscreen Power graph view.
To unlock the zone, press and hold the OK button again.

MARK A LAP

Press OK to mark a lap. Laps can also be taken automatically. In the sport profile settings in the Polar Flow app or web service, set Automatic lap to Lap distance, Lap duration, Location-based. If you choose Lap distance, set the distance after which each lap is taken. If you choose Lap duration, set the duration after each lap is taken. If you choose Location-
based, a lap is taken every time you arrive at the point where you started the session.

SWITCH SPORT DURING A MULTISPORT SESSION

Press BACK, and choose the sport you want to switch to. Confirm your selection with OK.

TRAINING WITH A TARGET

If you have created a quick training target based on duration, distance or calories in the Polar Flow app and synced it to your watch, you have the following training target view as the default first training view:
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If you've created a target based on duration or distance, you can see how much of your target you still have remaining before you reach it.
OR
If you've created a target based on calories, you can see how many calories of your target you have left to burn.
If you have created a phased training target in the Flow app or web service and synced the target to your watch, you have the following training target view as the default first training view:
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Depending on the chosen intensity, you can see either your heart rate or speed/pace and the lower and upper heart rate or speed/pace limit of the current phase.
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Phase name and phase number/total number of phases
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Duration/distance covered so far
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Target duration/distance of the current phase
See Planning your training for instructions on creating training targets.
Change phase during a phased session
If you chose manual phase change when you created the phased target, press OK to continue to the next phase after finishing a phase.
If your chose automatic phase change, the phase will change automatically when you have finished a phase. The watch notifies you by vibrating when the phase changes.
Note that when setting very short phases (under 10 seconds) you will not get a vibration alarm when the phase is over.
View training target information
To view the training target information during training, press and hold OK in the training target view.
Notifications
If you are training outside the planned heart rate zones or speed/pace zones, your watch notifies you with a vibration.

PAUSING/STOPPINGATRAININGSESSION

1. Press BACK to pause your training session.
2. To continue training, press OK. To stop the session, press and hold BACK. You’ll get a summary of your training session on your watch right after you’ve stopped training.
If you stop your session after pausing, the time elapsed after pausing is not included in the total training time.
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TRAININGSUMMARY

AFTER TRAINING

You'll get a summary of your training session on your watch right after you've stopped training. Get a more detailed and illustrated analysis in the Polar Flow app or in the Polar Flow web service.
The information shown in your summary depends on the sport profile and data collected. For example, your training summary can include the following information:
Start time and date
Duration of the session
Distance covered in the session
Heart rate
Your average and maximum heart rate during the session.
Your Cardio Load from the session
Heart rate zones
Training time spent in different heart rate zones
Energy used
Energy used during the session
Carbs
Protein
Fat
For more information, see Energy Sources.
Pace/Speed
Average and maximum pace/speed of the session
Running Index:Your running performance class and numerical value. Find out more from chapter
Running Index.
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Speed zones
Training time spent in different speed zones
Cadence
Your average and maximum cadence for the session
Running cadence is measured with a built-in accelerometer from your wrist movements. Cycling cadence is shown if you have a Polar Cadence Sensor Bluetooth® Smart in use.
Altitude
Maximum altitude during the session
Ascended meters/feet during the session
Descended meters/feet during the session
Power
Average power
Maximum power
Muscle load
Power zones
Training time spent in different power zones
Running power is measured from the wrist when using a running type sport profile and GPS is available. Cycling power is shown when using a cycling type sport profile and you have an external cycling power sensor in use.
Hill splitter
Total number of uphills and downhills
Total uphill and downhill distance
Press OK to view ascent/descent details per hill
For more information, see Hill Splitter
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Multisport Summary
Laps/Automatic laps
You can scroll through the following details by pressing OK:
1. Duration of each lap (the best lap is highlighted in yellow)
2. Distance of each lap
3. Average and maximum heart rate of each lap in the color of the heart rate zone
4. Average speed/pace of each lap
Multisport summary includes an overall summary of the session as well as sport specific summaries, which include duration and distance covered in the sport.
To view your training summaries later on your watch:
In time view, use the UP and DOWN buttons to navigate to the Latest training sessions watch face, and then press OK.
You can view the summaries of your training sessions from the last 14 days. Browse to the training session you want to view with UP/DOWN and press OK to open the summary. Your watch can contain a maximum of 20 training summaries.

TRAINING DATA IN POLAR FLOW APP

Your watch syncs with the Polar Flow app automatically after you finish a training session if your phone is within the Bluetooth range. You can also sync your training data manually from the watch to the Flow app by pressing and holding the BACK button of your watch when you're signed in to the Flow app and your phone is within the Bluetooth range. In the app you can analyze your data at a glance after each session. The app allows you to see a quick overview of your training data.
For more information, see Polar Flow App.

TRAINING DATA IN POLAR FLOW WEB SERVICE

Analyze every detail of your training and learn more about your performance. Follow your progress and also share your best sessions with others.
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For more information, see
Polar Flow Web Service.
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FEATURES

SMARTCOACHING

Whether it’s assessing your day-to-day fitness levels, creating individual training plans, working out at the right intensity or receiving instant feedback, Smart Coaching offers a choice of unique, easy-to-use features, personalized to your needs and designed for maximum enjoyment and motivation when training.
Your watch includes the following Polar Smart Coaching features:
Training Load Pro
FuelWise™
Running Performance Test
Cycling Performance Test
Walking Test
Running power from the wrist
Running Program
Running Index
Training benefit
Smart calories
Continuous heart rate
Activity Guide
Activity Benefit
Nightly Recharge™ recovery measurement
Sleep Plus Stages™ sleep tracking
Serene™ guided breathing exercise
Fitness Test with wrist-based heart rate
FitSpark™ daily training guide

TRAINING LOAD PRO

The Training Load Pro™ feature measures how your training sessions strain your body and helps to understand how it impacts your performance. Training Load Pro gives you a training load level for your cardiovascular system called Cardio Load, and with Perceived Load you can rate how strained you feel. Training Load Pro also gives you a training load level for your musculoskeletal system (Muscle Load). When you know how strained each body system is, you can optimize your training by working the right system at the right time.
Cardio Load
Cardio Load is based on training impulse calculation (TRIMP), a commonly accepted and scientifically proven method to quantify training load. Your Cardio Load value tells you how much strain your training session put on your cardiovascular system. The higher the Cardio Load, the more strenuous the training session was for the cardiovascular system. Cardio Load is calculated after every workout from your heart rate data and session duration.
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Perceived Load
Your subjective feeling is one useful method of estimating training load for all sports. into account your own subjective experience of how demanding your training session was and the duration of your session. It's quantified with Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), a scientifically accepted method to quantify subjective training load. Using the RPE scale is especially useful for sports where measuring training load based on heart rate alone has its limitations, for example strength training.
Rate your session in the Flow mobile app to get your Perceived Load for the session. You can choose from a scale from 1-10, in which 1 is very, very easy and 10 is maximum effort.
Muscle Load
Muscle Load tells you how much your muscles were strained during your training session. Muscle Load helps you quantify your training load in high-intensity training sessions, such as short intervals, sprints and hill sessions, when your heart rate doesn’t have enough time to react to the changes in the intensity.
Muscle load shows the amount of mechanical energy (kJ) that you produced during a running or cycling session. This reflects your energy output, not the energy input it took you to produce that effort. In general, the fitter you are, the better the efficiency between your energy input and output. Muscle load is calculated based on power and duration. In case of running, also your weight counts.
Muscle Load is calculated from your power data, so you only get a Muscle Load value for your running workouts, and cycling sessions if you’re using a separate cycling power sensor.
Perceived Load is a value that takes
Training Load from a single session
Your Training Load from a single session is shown in the summary of your training session on your watch, in the Flow app and in the Flow web service.
You'll get an absolute training load number for each measured load. The higher the load, the more strain it caused to your body. In addition, you can see a visual bullet scale interpretation and a verbal description of how hard your training load from the session was compared to your 90 days training load average.
The scale of bullets and verbal descriptions adapts according to your progress: the smarter you train, the higher loads you tolerate. As your fitness and tolerance for training improves, a training load that was ranked worth 3 bullets (Medium) a couple of months ago, could rank for only 2 bullets (Low) later on. This adaptive scale reflects the fact that the same kind of training session can have a different impact on your body depending on your current condition.
Very high
High
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Medium
Low
Very low
Strain and Tolerance
In addition to the Cardio load from individual training sessions, the new Training Load Pro feature measures your short term Cardio load (Strain) and long term Cardio load (Tolerance).
Strain shows you how much you have strained yourself with training lately. It shows your average daily load from the past
7 days.
Tolerance describes how prepared you are to endure cardio training. It shows your average daily load from the past 28
days. To improve your tolerance for cardio training, you need to slowly increase your training over a longer period of time.
Cardio Load Status
Cardio load status looks at the relation between your Strain and Tolerance and based on that shows you whether you are in a detraining, maintaining, productive or overreaching Cardio load status. You will also get personalized feedback based on your status.
Cardio load status guides you in evaluating the impact your training has on your body and how it affects your progress. Knowing how your past training affects your performance today allows you to keep your total training volume in control and optimize the timing of training at different intensities. Seeing how your training status changes after a session helps you understand how much load was caused by the session.
Cardio load status on your watch
In time view, use the UP and DOWN buttons to navigate to the Cardio Load Status watch face.
1. Cardio load status graph
2. Cardio load status
Overreaching (Load much higher than usual):
Productive (Load slowly increasing)
Maintaining (Load slightly lower than usual)
Detraining (Load way lower than usual)
3. The numeric value for your Cardio load status (=Strain divided by Tolerance.)
4. Strain
5. Tolerance
6. Verbal description of your Cardio load status
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Long term analysis in the Flow app and web service
In the Flow app and web service you can follow how your Cardio Load builds up over time and see how your Cardio loads have varied over the past week or months. To view your Cardio Load Buildup in the Flow app, tap the vertical three dots icon in the week summary (Cardio Load Status module) or in the training summary (Training Load Pro module).
To view your Cardio load status and Cardio load buildup in the Flow web service, go to Progress > Cardio Load report.
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The red bars illustrate the cardio load from your training sessions. The higher the bar, the harder the session was on your cardio system.
The background colors show how hard a session was compared to your session average from the past 90 days, just like the scale of five bullets and verbal descriptions (Very low, Low, Medium, High, Very high).
Strain shows how much you have strained yourself with training lately. It shows your average daily
cardio load from the past 7 days.
Tolerance describes how prepared you are to endure cardio training. It shows your average daily
cardio load from the past 28 days. To improve your tolerance for cardio training, slowly increase your training over a longer period of time.
Learn more about the Polar Training Load Pro feature in this in-depth guide.

FUELWISE™

Stay energized throughout your session with the FuelWise™ fueling assistant. FuelWise™ includes three features that remind you to refuel and help you maintain adequate energy levels during your long sessions. These features are Smart
carbs reminder, Manual carbs reminder and Drink reminder.
It’s crucial for any serious endurance athlete to maintain adequate energy levels and stay hydrated throughout a long performance. To perform at your best, you need to fuel your system with carbohydrates and drink regularly in the course of a long race or a training session. With two useful tools, carbs reminder and drink reminder, FuelWise helps you find the optimal way to fuel and stay hydrated.
Carbohydrates are ideal for fueling because they can be absorbed and converted into glucose quickly, unlike fat or protein. Glucose is the primary source of energy used during training. The higher your training intensity, the more glucose you use in proportion to fat. If your session is shorter than 90 minutes, you don't usually need to fuel with carbs. However, extra carbs may help you stay more alert and focused even during a shorter session.
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Training with Fuelwise
FuelWise™ is located in the main menu under Fueling, and consists of three types of reminders during training sessions. These are Smart carbs reminder, Manual carbs reminder and Drink reminder. The Smart carbs reminder calculates your refueling need from your estimated session intensity and duration taking your training background and physical details into account. The Manual carbs reminder and Drink reminder are time-based, which means you'll get a reminder at preset intervals, every 15 or 30 minutes for example.
When using any of the fueling features the training session is started from the Fueling menu. After setting your reminder and choosing Next , you'll be taken straight to the pre-training mode. Then choose your sport profile and start your session.
Smart carbs reminder
When using the smart carbs reminder, set the estimated session duration and intensity, and we'll estimate the amount of carbs you'll need for refueling during your session. When estimating your carbohydrate need for refueling we take your training background and physical settings including age, gender, height, weight, maximum heart rate, resting heart rate, VO2max, aerobic heart rate threshold and anaerobic heart rate threshold into account.
Your capability to absorb carbohydrates is estimated from your training background. This limits the maximum amount of carbohydrates (grams per hour) that the smart carbs reminder can give you. This data is used to pre-calculate the relationship between your heart rate and carbohydrate consumption rate based on your physical settings. The recommended carbohydrate intake rate is then adjusted up or down (within min/max limits) based on your heart rate data and the pre-calculated heart rate vs. carbohydrate consumption rate relationship.
During training, your watch will track your actual energy expenditure and adjust the frequency of the reminders accordingly but the portion size (carbs in grams) is always the same during a session.
Set smart carbs reminder
1. In the main menu choose Fueling > Smart carbs reminder.
2. Set the estimated duration of your session. The minimum is 30 minutes.
3. Set the estimated intensity of your session. The intensity is set with heart rate zones. See heart rate zones to learn more about different training intensities.
4. Set the carbs per serving (5 -100 grams) of your preferred sports fuel.
5. Choose Next
After setting the reminder you'll see an overview of your selection. At this point you can still remove the reminder you just set or add a drink reminder. When you're ready to start your session choose Use now to go to pre-training mode.
When adding a drink reminder to a smart carbs reminder, you'll also get an estimation of your hydration need per reminder. This is based on the average sweat rate in moderate conditions
Take ( ) g carbs! is shown on the display including vibration when it's time to take some carbs.
Manual carbs reminder
A time-based reminder that helps you stay fueled by reminding you to take some carbs at preset intervals. Can be set to remind you in 5 to 60-minute intervals.
Set manual carbs reminder
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1. In the main menu choose
2. Set the interval (5-60 minutes) of the reminder.
After setting the reminder you'll see an overview of your selection. At this point you can still remove the reminder you just set or add a drink reminder. When you're ready to start your session choose Use now to go to pre-training mode.
Take carbs! is shown on the display including vibration when it's time to take some carbs.
Drink reminder
A time-based reminder that helps you stay hydrated by reminding you to drink. Can be set to remind you in 5 to 60-minute intervals.
Set drink reminder
1. In the main menu choose Fueling > Drink reminder.
Fueling > Manual carbs reminder.
2. Set the interval (5-60 minutes) of the reminder.
After setting the reminder you'll see an overview of your selection. At this point you can still remove the reminder you just set or add a carbs reminder. When you're ready to start your session choose Use now to go to pre-training mode.
Drink! is shown on the display including vibration when it's time to drink.
Learn more about FuelWise™
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RUNNING PERFORMANCE TEST

The Running Performance Test is a tool especially designed for runners allowing them to track their progress and find out their unique training zones (heart rate, speed and power zones) for running sports. Regular and frequent testing helps you plan your training wisely and follow changes in your running performance
You can take the test as maximal or submaximal (at least 85 % of your maximum heart rate). The maximal test requires all­out effort, but it gives you more accurate results. Taking the maximal test is a good way to find out your current individual maximum heart rate, and get your settings up to date. The load of the maximal running test is considerably heavier compared to the submaximal test. Therefore, it's recommended that you include only light training sessions in your plan for the next 1-3 days after the maximal test.
The submaximal test, which requires that at least 85% of HR
is exceeded, is a reproducible, safe and non-exhaustive
max
alternative to the maximal test. You can repeat the submaximal test as often as you wish, and you can also perform it as a warmup before a training session. It's important that your maximum heart rate is set correctly in your physical settings in order to get accurate results from the submaximal test as the submaximal test uses your HR results. If you don’t know your HR
, you could benefit from doing maximal test first to find out your maximum heart rate.
max
when calculating your
max
The idea of the test is to run at a steadily increasing speed, following the given target speed as precisely as possible. To complete the test successfully you have to run for at least six minutes and reach at least 85 % or your maximum heart rate. If you have trouble reaching this, your current HR
value might be too high. You can change it manually in your physical
max
settings.
Performing the test
Before taking the test, read the Health and Training section in this user manual or in the Important information sheet that came in the product package. Do not take the test during illness, injury or if you have any doubts over your health. Take the test only when you feel recovered. Avoid exercise that causes fatigue on the day preceding the test. Wear running shoes and clothes that allow freedom of movement.
Take the test in flat terrain, track or road, and repeat it regularly under similar conditions. Run at a steadily increasing speed, following the given target speed as precisely as possible. Also, the conditions before testing should be fairly similar each time. For instance, an intense training session the day before or a heavy meal right before testing can influence your test result. You need to run for at least six minutes and reach at least 85 % or your maximum heart rate to complete the test.
By default the test uses GPS to track your speed but you can also perform the test with a Polar Stride Sensor Bluetooth® Smart or a STRYDrunning power meter. In this case your speed is measured with the sensor.
Check heart rate sensor is shown if your heart rate cannot be detected during the test.
Speed unavailable, GPS signal lost is shown if the satellite signals cannot be detected during the test.
Have a look at the instructions on your watch in Tests > Running test > How to once more before starting to see a detailed breakdown of the test, and instructions on performing it.
1. First, define your initial speed for the test in Tests > Running test > Initial speed. The initial speed can be set between 4-10 min/km. Note that if you set the initial speed too high, you may have you to quit the test too soon.
2. Then go to Tests > Running test > Start and scroll down to see an overview of the test. When you’re ready to start the test, choose Next.
3. Check the questions concerning your health and accept to go to the pre-training mode.
4. The sport profile is shown in a purple color in the test view. Choose an appropriate indoor or outdoor running sport profile. Stay in the pre-training mode until the watch has found your heart rate and the GPS satellite signals (GPS icon turns green).
5. Press the OK button to begin. The watch guides you through the test.
6. The test begins with a warmup phase (~ 10 min). Follow the guidance on the display to complete the warmup.
7. After a proper warmup, choose Start test. Then you need to reach the initial speed for the actual test to start.
During the test: The blue value shows the steadily increasing target speed that you should follow as precisely as possible. The white value below it shows your current speed.
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The blue curve with the speed values at each end illustrates the allowed range.
At the bottom, you can see your current heart rate, the minimum heart rate required for the submaximal test and your current maximum heart rate value.
Your watch will ask Was this your maximum effort? if didn't reach or exceed your maximum heart rate value. Your test is considered submaximal, if your effort wasn't maximal but you reached at least 85 % of your maximum heart rate. Your test is automatically considered maximal, if you reach or exceed your current maximum heart rate value.
Test results
The Running Performance Test gives you your maximum aerobic power (MAP), maximum aerobic speed (MAS) and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) as results. In addition, if you performed the maximal test you get your maximum heart rate (HR
) value. You can view your latest result in Tests > Running test > Latest result.
max
l
Your maximum aerobic power (MAP) is the lowest exercise intensity where your body reaches its maximum ability to consume oxygen (VO2
l
Your maximum aerobic speed (MAS) is the lowest exercise intensity where your body reaches its maximum ability to consume oxygen (VO2
l
Your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2
). Maximum aerobic power can usually be sustained for a few minutes only.
max
). Maximum aerobic speed can usually be sustained for a few minutes only.
max
) is your body's maximum capacity to consume oxygen during maximum
max
effort.
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If you choose to update your sport profile settings with your new MAP, MAS and VO2
results, your speed, pace and
max
power zones, as well as calorie calculation are updated to match your current condition. If you performed the maximal test you can also update your heart rate zones based on your new HR
max
value.
Note that to update your training zones and HR
value you need to sync the results to the Flow app. When opening the
max
Flow app after syncing you'll be asked if you want to update your values. The sport profile settings for all running type sports will be updated with the new values.
Whether you should follow power zones, speed/pace zones or heart rate zones in your training, depends on your goals and training routines. Power zones work in all types of terrains – flat or hilly. Speed zones are reliable only when you run in flat terrain. Speed or power zones are also a good choice for interval training.
If you want to use the Running Performance Test to track your progress and help you choose the right training intensities, we recommend that you repeat the maximal test every three months to ensure that your training zones are always up to date. If you want to follow your progress more closely, you can repeat the submaximal test as often as you wish in between the maximal tests.
Note that you will not get a Running Index result from your Running Performance Test.
Your weight is used as one input in the Running Performance Test. Note that if you change your weight setting, it also affects the comparability of your test results.
Detailed analysis in the Flow web service and app
Remember to sync your test result to Polar Flow. To help long-term follow up, we’ve gathered all the test data in one place in the Polar Flow web service. In the Tests page you can see all the tests you’ve performed and compare their results. You can see your long-term progress and easily view changes in your performance.
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CYCLING PERFORMANCE TEST

The Cycling Performance Test measures the maximum average power you can maintain for 60 minutes. It's also known as the functional threshold power, FTP-test. The test can be used to determine your individual cycling power zones. When you have your individual power zones figured out, it's easier to optimize your training. The test is also good for tracking your cycling performance development over time.
In addition to the 60-minute FTP-test, you can also take a shorter test that lasts for 20, 30 or 40 minutes, in which case we'll estimate the 60-minute result. Note that with the shorter tests the result may not be as precise as with the 60-minute test. A shorter test is better for inexperienced cyclists or if you're recovering from an injury. Always take the same type of test to make the results comparable over time.
We recommend using an indoor bike with a power sensor to get the most reliable results, but you can take the test outdoors as well. If you take the test outdoors, it's wiser to take a shorter one in order to minimize stopping and power changes. Choose a route on flat terrain, and avoid traffic lights or any other reasons to stop.
To take the Cycling Performance Test you need a compatible cycling power sensor. For a complete list a compatible cycling power sensors see WHICH THIRD-PARTY POWER SENSORS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH Grit X/Pacer/Vantage? The power sensor also needs to be paired with your watch. For detailed pairing instructions see Pairing sensors with your
watch.
Performing the test
Before taking the test, read the Health and Training section in this user manual or in the Important information sheet that came in the product package. The test is very demanding so do not take the test if you do not feel recovered from training. Wear cycling shoes and clothes that allow freedom of movement.
Also, check that your weight is set correctly in your physical settings. This is important so that you can compare your results over time. In your first test, we'll guide you with a power target that's based on your background information. This helps you maintain a steady power throughout the test. When you repeat the test, the target is based on your earlier results.
The cycling test includes warmup, test and cool down phases. The warmup phase is power-based, and the cool down phase is based on heart rate. Note that the warmup and cooldown phases are optional. You can skip them if you wish.
1. On your watch go to Tests > Cycling test > Duration, and choose 20, 30, 40 or 60 minutes.
2. Then go to Tests > Cycling test > Start and scroll down to see an overview of the test. When you’re ready to start the test, choose Next.
3. Check the questions concerning your health and accept to go to the pre-training mode.
4. The sport profile is shown in a purple color in the test view. Choose an appropriate indoor or outdoor cycling sport profile. Stay in the pre-training mode until the watch has found your cycling power sensor.
5. Press the OK button to begin.
6. The test begins with a warmup phase. The warmup should be about 20 minutes of easy riding in the beginning. Include 2-3 full-on sprints in the middle of the warmup, about 1-minute each with recovery. Now you should be well warmed up and ready to take the full-on test. If you choose to do a shorter warmup, make sure to include the fast sprints and recovery moments nonetheless. The warmup also allows you to check that everything works as it should and that your bike is adjusted optimally for you.
7. After a proper warmup, choose Start test.
8. Speed up and find the maximum power you believe you can keep up for the whole test. The test view shows your power in watts. The red value tells your current power and the white value your estimated target power. Try to keep your pace close to the target, and make sure you stay on the same power level throughout the test. Slowing down will make the results less reliable.
9. The test phase ends after the pre-defined time is over.
We recommend performing the cooldown phase after the test.
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Test results
The test summary shows your FTP value which shows power in watts, your maximum heart rate and your maximal oxygen uptake known as VO2max. You can view your latest result in Tests > Cycling test > Latest result.
Dividing FTP with a cyclist's weight produces a comparable value, called power-to-weight ratio- which can be compared with other cyclists of the same sex. The more power you can produce in your current weight, the better your power-to­weight ratio is. This reflects your aerobic fitness. We use a simplified, 8-tiered result table ranging from untrained to world­class when giving you feedback based on your power-to-weight ratio.
In your first test, the result is compared with other cyclists of the same sex as you. When you repeat the test, the result is compared to your previous test results and test feedback is also based on them.
If you want to use the Cycling Performance Test to track your progress and help you choose the right training intensities, we recommend that you repeat the maximal test every three months to ensure that your training zones are always up to date.
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Note that to update your training zones and HR max value you need to sync the results to the Flow app. When opening the Flow app after syncing you'll be asked if you want to update your values. The sport profile settings for all cycling type sports will be updated with the new values.
Detailed analysis in the Flow web service and app
Remember to sync your test result to Polar Flow. To help long-term follow up, we’ve gathered all the test data in one place in the Polar Flow web service. In the Tests page you can see all the tests you’ve performed and compare their results. You can see your long-term progress and easily view changes in your performance.
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WALKING TEST

The walking test is a simple, safe and repeatable way to measure your VO fitness is developing. Understanding your aerobic fitness level is the cornerstone of efficient training. This makes the walking test a valuable tool for anyone from occasional to regular trainers. We recommended taking the test when starting a training program, and repeating the test every three months. However, there's no reason why you shouldn't take it more often if you wish.
The idea is to walk as far as you can in fifteen minutes - at a steady pace. This means faster than your usual, comfortable walking speed. Aim at raising your heart rate above 65% of your maximum during the warmup, and keep it there throughout the test by walking at a fast, brisk pace. Your VO test, and personal characteristics (age, sex, height and weight). In principle, the higher your walking speed and the lower your heart rate, the better your aerobic fitness.
result is based on the distance you walk, your heart rate during the
2max
, and to keep track of how your aerobic
2max
Performing the test
Before taking the test, read the Health and Training section in this user manual or in the Important information sheet that came in the product package. Do not take the test during illness, injury or if you have any doubts over your health. Also make sure your physical settings – including height, weight, age as well as which hand you wear your watch on – are up to date. We use them in calculating the result. GPS(GNSS) is used to track your speed, therefore the test needs to be taken outdoors.
Take the test in flat terrain, track or road in a location that has an unobstructed view of the sky for optimal GPS(GNSS) performance. Avoid routes with traffic lights or other possible hindrances that might force you to stop or slow down. Tall buildings, tunnels, partially covered stadiums and trees can also affect GPS(GNSS) accuracy.
The conditions before testing should be fairly similar each time. For instance, you can mess up the results if you have an intense training session the day before or a heavy meal right before testing. During the test, you should walk as fast as you can, at a steady pace. Running is not allowed. Try to keep your heart rate above 65% of your maximum heart rate. There’s no upper limit. The longer your walking distance, the better your result. If your heart rate is too low, the watch will alert you. It means you need to walk faster to raise your heart rate.
The walking test including warmup and cool down phases takes about 25 minutes to perform. It's comprised of warmup (5 minutes) , test (15 minutes) and cool down (5 minutes) phases. Have a look at the instructions on your watch in Tests >
Walking test > How to once more before starting to see a detailed breakdown of the test, and instructions on performing it.
1. Go to Tests > Walking test > Start, and scroll down to see an overview of the test. When you’re ready to start the test, choose Next.
2. Check the questions concerning your health and accept to go to the pre-training mode.
3. The walking sport profile is used for the test. It’s shown in a purple color in the test view. Stay in the pre-training mode until the watch has found your heart rate and the GPS satellite signals (GPS icon turns green).
4. Get started with a proper warmup. Aim at raising your heart rate above 65% of your maximum heart rate by walking at a fast, brisk pace. Follow the guidance on the display to complete the warmup.
5. When you've reached at least 65% of your maximum heart rate or warmed up for at least three minutes the test can be started. Choose Start test to start the actual test.
6. Keep your heart rate above 65% of your maximum heart rate during the test.
7. The test phase ends after 15 minutes. Press the OK button to confirm and continue to the cool down phase.
8. Cool down by walking slowly to promote your recovery.
9. After finishing the cool down you'll see the distance you walked on the display.
10. Press the BACK button once to pause your session, once paused press and hold the BACK button to end the session.
During the test: Your current heart rate and the heart rate value above which you need to stay are shown at the top of the display. At the bottom of the display you'll see the time elapsed.
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Test results
l
The test summary shows your VO
. The result is also classified based on gender and
2max
age group ranging from very low to elite.
l
Test distance (the distance you walked during the test)
l
Test heart rate (your average heart rate from the last 5 minutes of the test)
l
Test speed/pace (your average speed/pace during the test)
l
Tips for next time (these tips are meant to enhance the repeatability of the test and they're only shown on your watch)
You can view your latest result in Tests > Walking test > Latest result.
Note that to update your VO
value based on your test result you need to sync the results to the Flow app. When
2max
opening the Flow app after syncing you'll be asked if you want to update it.
Detailed analysis in the Flow web service and app
Remember to sync your test result to Polar Flow. To help long-term follow up, we’ve gathered all the test data in one place in the Polar Flow web service. In the Tests page you can see all the tests you’ve performed and compare their results. You can see your long-term progress and easily view changes in your performance.
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RUNNING POWER FROM THE WRIST

Running power is a great complement to heart rate monitoring – it helps you monitor the external load of your running. Power responds to changes in intensity faster than your heart rate, which is why Running Power is a great guiding metric in interval and hill sessions. You can also use it to maintain a steady effort level during your run, for example in a race.
The calculation is done with Polar’s proprietary algorithm, and it is based on your GPS and barometer data. Your weight also affects the calculation, so make sure its up-to-date.
Running power and muscle load
Polar uses running power to calculate Muscle load, one parameter of Training Load Pro. Running causes musculoskeletal stress, and Muscle load tells you how much your muscles and joints were strained during your training session. It shows the amount of mechanical work (kJ) that you produced during your running sessions (and cycling sessions if you’re using a cycling power meter). Muscle load helps you quantify your training load in high-intensity running training sessions, such as short intervals, sprints and hill sessions, when your heart rate doesn’t have enough time to react to the changes in the intensity.
How running power is shown on your watch
Running power is automatically calculated for your running sessions done with running type sport profiles with GPS available.
Choose the power data you want to view during your sessions by customizing your training views in the Flow web service sport profile settings.
During your run you can view the following data:
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Maximum power
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Average power
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Lap power
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Maximum lap power
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Automatic lap power average
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Automatic lap power maximum
Choose how power is shown during sessions and in the Flow web service and app:
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Watts W
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Watts per kilogram W/kg
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Percentage of MAP (% of MAP)
After your session in the training summary on your watch you’ll see:
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Your average power as Watts
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Your maximum power as Watts
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Muscle Load
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Time spent in power zones
How running power is shown in the Polar web service and app
Detailed graphs for analysis are available in the Flow web service and app. See your power values from your session, and how they were distributed compared to heart rate, and how incline, decline and different speeds affected them.
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POLAR RUNNING PROGRAM

Polar Running program is a personalized program based on your fitness level, designed to make sure that you train right and avoid overreaching. It’s intelligent, and adapts based on your development, and lets you know when it might be a good idea to cut back a little and when to step it up a notch. Each program is tailored for your event, taking your personal attributes, training background and preparation time into account. The program is free, and available in the Polar Flow web service at www.polar.com/flow.
Programs are available for 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon events. Each program has three phases: Base building, Build-up and Tapering. These phases are designed to gradually develop your performance, and make sure you’re ready on race day. Running training sessions are divided into five types: easy jog, medium run, long run, tempo run and interval. All sessions include warm-up, work, and cool-down phases for optimal results. In addition, you can choose to do strength, core, and mobility exercises to support your development. Each training week consists of two to five running sessions, and the total running training session duration per week varies from one to seven hours depending on your fitness level. The minimum duration for a program is 9 weeks, and the maximum is 20 months.
Learn more about the Polar Running Program in this in-depth guide. Or read more about how to get started with the
Running Program.
To see a video, click on one of the following links:
Get Started
How to use
Create a Polar Running Program
1. Log into the Flow web service at www.polar.com/flow.
2. Choose Programs from the Tab.
3. Choose your event, name it, set the event date, and when you wish to start the program.
4. Fill in the physical activity level questions.*
5. Choose if you want to include supporting exercises in the program.
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6. Read and fill in the physical activity readiness questionnaire.
7. Review your program, and adjust any settings if necessary.
8. When you’re done, choose
Start program.
*If four weeks of training history is available, these will be pre-filled.
Start a running target
Before starting a session, make sure you’ve synced your training session target to your device. The sessions are synced to your device as training targets.
To start a training target scheduled for the current day:
1. Enter the pre-training mode by pressing and holding OK in time view.
2. You'll be prompted to start a training target you've scheduled for the day.
3. Press OK to view the target information.
4. Press OK to return to pre-training mode, and choose the sport profile you want to use.
5. When the watch has found all the signals, press OK. Recording started is displayed and you can start training.
Follow your progress
Sync your training results from your device to the Flow web service via the USB cable or Flow app. Follow your progress from the Programs tab. You’ll see an overview of your current program, and how you’ve progressed.

RUNNING INDEX

Running Index offers an easy way to monitor running performance changes. The Running index score is an estimate of your maximal aerobic running performance (VO2max). By recording your Running Index over time, you see how efficient your running is and how you improve your running performance. Improvement means that running at a given pace requires less of an effort, or that your pace is faster at a given level of exertion.
To receive the most accurate information on your performance, make sure you have set your HR
Running Index is calculated during every training session when heart rate and the GPS function is on/Stride Sensor is in use, and when the following requirements apply:
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Sport profile used is a running type sport (Running, Road Running, Trail running etc.)
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Pace should be 6 km/h / 3.7 mph or faster and duration 12 minutes minimum.
Calculation begins when you start recording the session. During a session, you may stop twice, for example, at traffic lights without interrupting the calculation. After your session, your watch displays a Running Index value and stores the result in the training summary.
When using a Polar Stride Sensor Bluetooth Smart in a running session and GPS is set off, the sensor needs to be calibrated in order to get a Running Index result.
max
value.
You can view your Running Index in the summary of your training session on your watch. Follow your progress and see race time estimations in the Polar Flow web service.
Compare your result to the table below.
Short-term analysis
Men
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Age/Years Very low Low Fair Moderate Good Very good Elite
20-24 < 32 32-37 38-43 44-50 51-56 57-62 > 62
25-29 < 31 31-35 36-42 43-48 49-53 54-59 > 59
30-34 < 29 29-34 35-40 41-45 46-51 52-56 > 56
35-39 < 28 28-32 33-38 39-43 44-48 49-54 > 54
40-44 < 26 26-31 32-35 36-41 42-46 47-51 > 51
45-49 < 25 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-43 44-48 > 48
50-54 < 24 24-27 28-32 33-36 37-41 42-46 > 46
55-59 < 22 22-26 27-30 31-34 35-39 40-43 > 43
60-65 < 21 21-24 25-28 29-32 33-36 37-40 > 40
Women
Age/Years Very low Low Fair Moderate Good Very good Elite
20-24 < 27 27-31 32-36 37-41 42-46 47-51 > 51
25-29 < 26 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-44 45-49 > 49
30-34 < 25 25-29 30-33 34-37 38-42 43-46 > 46
35-39 < 24 24-27 28-31 32-35 36-40 41-44 > 44
40-44 < 22 22-25 26-29 30-33 34-37 38-41 > 41
45-49 < 21 21-23 24-27 28-31 32-35 36-38 > 38
50-54 < 19 19-22 23-25 26-29 30-32 33-36 > 36
55-59 < 18 18-20 21-23 24-27 28-30 31-33 > 33
60-65 < 16 16-18 19-21 22-24 25-27 28-30 > 30
The classification is based on a literature review of 62 studies where VO subjects in the USA, Canada and 7 European countries. Reference: Shvartz E, Reibold RC. Aerobic fitness norms for males and females aged 6 to 75 years: a review. Aviat Space Environ Med; 61:3-11, 1990.
There may be some daily variation in the Running Indexes. Many factors influence Running Index. The value you receive on a given day is affected by changes in running circumstances, for example different surface, wind or temperature, in addition to other factors.
was measured directly in healthy adult
2max
Long-term analysis
The single Running Index values form a trend that predicts your success in running certain distances. You can find your Running Index report in the Polar Flow web service under the PROGRESS tab. The report shows you how your running performance has improved over a longer time period. If you're using the Polar Running program to train for a running event, you can follow your Running Index progress to see how your running is improving towards the goal.
The following chart estimates the duration that a runner can achieve in certain distances when performing maximally. Use your long-term Running Index average in the interpretation of the chart. The prediction is best for those Running Index values that have been received at speed and running circumstances similar to the target performance.
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Running Index Cooper test (m) 5 km (h:mm:ss) 10 km (h:mm:ss) 21.098 km (h:m-
m:ss)
36 1800 0:36:20 1:15:10 2:48:00 5:43:00
38 1900 0:34:20 1:10:50 2:38:00 5:24:00
40 2000 0:32:20 1:07:00 2:29:30 5:06:00
42 2100 0:30:40 1:03:30 2:21:30 4:51:00
44 2200 0:29:10 1:00:20 2:14:30 4:37:00
46 2300 0:27:50 0:57:30 2:08:00 4:24:00
48 2400 0:26:30 0:55:00 2:02:00 4:12:00
50 2500 0:25:20 0:52:40 1:57:00 4:02:00
52 2600 0:24:20 0:50:30 1:52:00 3:52:00
54 2700 0:23:20 0:48:30 1:47:30 3:43:00
56 2800 0:22:30 0:46:40 1:43:30 3:35:00
58 2900 0:21:40 0:45:00 1:39:30 3:27:00
42.195 km (h:m­m:ss)
60 3000 0:20:50 0:43:20 1:36:00 3:20:00
62 3100 0:20:10 0:41:50 1:32:30 3:13:00
64 3200 0:19:30 0:40:30 1:29:30 3:07:00
66 3300 0:18:50 0:39:10 1:26:30 3:01:00
68 3350 0:18:20 0:38:00 1:24:00 2:55:00
70 3450 0:17:50 0:36:50 1:21:30 2:50:00
72 3550 0:17:10 0:35:50 1:19:00 2:45:00
74 3650 0:16:40 0:34:50 1:17:00 2:40:00
76 3750 0:16:20 0:33:50 1:14:30 2:36:00
78 3850 0:15:50 0:33:00 1:12:30 2:32:00

TRAINING BENEFIT

Training Benefit gives you textual feedback on the effect of each training session helping you to better understand the effectiveness of your training. You can see the feedback in Flow app and Flow web service. To get the feedback, you need to have trained at least a total of 10 minutes in the heart rate zones.
Training Benefit feedback is based on heart rate zones. It reads into how much time you spend and how many calories you burn in each zone.
The descriptions of different training benefit options are listed in the table below
Feedback Benefit
Maximum training+ What a session! You improved your sprint speed and the nervous system of your muscles,
which make you more efficient. This session also increased your resistance to fatigue.
Maximum training What a session! You improved your sprint speed and the nervous system of your muscles,
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Feedback Benefit
which make you more efficient.
Maximum & Tempo training What a session! You improved your speed and efficiency. This session also significantly
developed your aerobic fitness and your ability to sustain high intensity effort for longer.
Tempo & Maximum training What a session! You significantly improved your aerobic fitness and your ability to sustain
high intensity effort for longer. This session also developed your speed and efficiency.
Tempo training+ Great pace in a long session! You improved your aerobic fitness, speed, and ability to sus-
tain high intensity effort for longer. This session also increased your resistance to fatigue.
Tempo training Great pace! You improved your aerobic fitness, speed, and ability to sustain high intensity
effort for longer.
Tempo & Steady state train­ing
Steady state & Tempo train­ing
Good pace! You improved your ability to sustain high intensity effort for longer. This ses­sion also developed your aerobic fitness and the endurance of your muscles.
Good pace! You improved your aerobic fitness and the endurance of your muscles. This session also developed your ability to sustain high intensity effort for longer.
Steady state training + Excellent! This long session improved the endurance of your muscles and your aerobic fit-
ness. It also increased your resistance to fatigue.
Steady state training Excellent! You improved the endurance of your muscles and your aerobic fitness.
Steady state & Basic train­ing, long
Excellent! This long session improved the endurance of your muscles and your aerobic fit­ness. It also developed your basic endurance and your body's ability to burn fat during exercise.
Steady state & Basic train­ing
Excellent! You improved the endurance of your muscles and your aerobic fitness. This ses­sion also developed your basic endurance and your body's ability to burn fat during exer­cise.
Basic & Steady state train­ing, long
Basic & Steady state train­ing
Great! This long session improved your basic endurance and your body's ability to burn fat during exercise. It also developed the endurance of your muscles and your aerobic fitness.
Great! You improved your basic endurance and your body's ability to burn fat during exer­cise. This session also developed the endurance of your muscles and your aerobic fitness.
Basic training, long Great! This long, low intensity session improved your basic endurance and your body's abil-
ity to burn fat during exercise.
Basic training Well done! This low intensity session improved your basic endurance and your body's abil-
ity to burn fat during exercise.
Recovery training Very nice session for your recovery. Light exercise like this allows your body to adapt to
your training.

SMART CALORIES

The most accurate calorie counter on the market calculates the number of calories burned based on your individual data:
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Body weight, height, age, gender
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Individual maximum heart rate (HR
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The intensity of your training or activity
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Individual maximal oxygen uptake (VO2
max
)
max
)
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The calorie calculation is based on an intelligent combination of acceleration and heart rate data. The calorie calculation measures your training calories accurately.
You can see your cumulative energy expenditure (in kilocalories, kcal) during training sessions, and your total kilocalories of the session afterwards. You can also follow your total daily calories.

CONTINUOUS HEART RATE

The Continuous heart rate feature measures your heart rate around the clock. It enables a more accurate measurement of daily calorie consumption and your overall activity because also physical activities with very little wrist movement, such as cycling, can now be tracked.
Continuous heart rate on your watch
You can turn the Continuous heart rate feature on, off or to night-time only mode on your watch in Settings > General
settings > Continuous HR tracking. If you choose Night-time only mode, set heart rate tracking to begin at the earliest time
you might go to bed.
The feature is off by default. Keeping the Continuous Heart Rate feature on in your watch will drain the battery quicker. Continuous heart rate tracking needs to be enabled for Nightly Recharge to function. If you want to save battery and still use Nightly Recharge, set the continuous heart rate tracking to be on only at night.
In time view, use the UP and DOWN buttons to navigate to the heart rate watch face. Press OK to open a detailed view.
When the feature is on, the watch continuously measures your heart rate and displays it on the Heart rate watch face. When opening the details, you can check your highest and lowest heart rate readings of the day and also view what your lowest heart rate reading of the previous night was.
The watch tracks your heart rate in 5-minute intervals and records the data for later analysis in the Flow app or web service. If the watch detects that your heart rate is elevated, it starts to record your heart rate continuously. Continuous recording can also start based on your wrist movements, for example, when you’re walking with a fast enough pace for at least one minute. The continuous recording of your heart rate stops automatically when your activity level drops low enough. When your watch detects that your arm is not moving or when your heart rate is not elevated it tracks your heart rate in 5-minute cycles to find your lowest reading of the day.
In some cases, it is possible that you’ve seen a higher or lower heart rate on your watch during the day than is shown in the continuous heart rate summary as the highest or lowest reading of your day. This can happen if the reading you’ve seen falls outside the tracking interval.
The LEDs on the back of your watch are always on when the continuous heart rate feature is on and the sensor on the back is in touch with your skin. For instructions on how to wear your watch for accurate heart rate readings from the wrist, see Wrist-
based heart rate measurement.
You can follow the Continuous Heart Rate data in more detail and in longer periods in Polar Flow, either in web or in the mobile app. Learn more about the Continuous Heart Rate feature in this in-depth guide.
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24/7 ACTIVITY TRACKING

Your watch tracks your activity with an internal 3D accelerometer that records your wrist movements. It analyzes the frequency, intensity and regularity of your movements together with your physical information, allowing you to see how active you really are in your everyday life, on top of your regular training. You should wear your watch on your non-dominant hand to ensure you get the most accurate activity tracking.
Activity Goal
You'll get your personal activity goal when you set up your watch. The activity goal is based on your personal data and activity level setting, which you can find on your watch (Settings > Physical settings > Activity level), in the Polar Flow app or in the Polar Flow web service.
If you want to change your goal, open your Flow app, tap your name/profile photo in the menu view, and swipe down to see
Activity goal. Or go to flow.polar.com and sign in to your Polar account. Then click your name > Settings > Activity goal.
Choose one of the three activity levels that best describes your typical day and activity. Below the selection area, you can see how active you need to be to reach your daily activity goal on the chosen level.
The time you need to be active during the day to reach your activity goal depends on the level you have chosen and the intensity of your activities. Meet your goal faster with more intense activities or stay active at a slightly more moderate pace throughout the day. Age and gender also affect the intensity you need to reach your activity goal. The younger you are, the more intense your activity needs to be.
Activity data on your watch
In time view, use the UP and DOWN buttons to navigate to the Activity watch face.
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The circle around the watch face and the percentage below time and date show your progress towards your daily activity goal. The circle fills with light blue color as you are active.
In addition, you can see the following details of your day’s accumulated activity:
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Steps you've taken so far. The amount and type of body movements are registered and turned into an estimation of steps.
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Active time tells you the cumulative time of body movements that benefit your health.
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Calories you've burned through training, activity and BMR (Basal metabolic rate: the minimum metabolic activity required to maintain life).
Inactivity alert
It's widely known that physical activity is a major factor in maintaining health. In addition to being physically active, it's important to avoid prolonged sitting. Sitting for long periods of time is bad for your health, even on those days when you train and gain enough daily activity. Your watch spots if you’re being inactive for too long during your day and this way helps you to break up your sitting to avoid the negative effects it has on your health.
If you’ve been still for 55 minutes, you'll get an inactivity alert: It's time to move is shown along with a small vibration. Stand up and find your own way to be active. Take a short walk, stretch, or do some other light activity. The message goes away when you start moving or press the button. If you don't get active in five minutes, you'll get an inactivity stamp, which you can see on the Flow app and Flow web service after syncing. The Flow app and Flow web service show you the whole history of how many inactivity stamps you have received. This way you can check back on your daily routine and make changes towards a more active life.
Activity data in the Flow App and web service
With the Flow app you can follow and analyze your activity data on the go and sync it wirelessly from your watch to the Flow web service. The Flow web service gives you the most detailed insight into your activity information. With the help of the activity reports (under the REPORTS tab), you can follow the long-term trend of your daily activity. You can choose to view either daily, weekly or monthly reports.
Learn more about the 24/7 Activity tracking feature in this in-depth guide.

ACTIVITY GUIDE

The Activity Guide feature shows how active you've been during the day, and tells you how much you need to still do to reach the recommendations for physical activity per day. You can check how you’re doing in reaching your activity goal for the day either from your watch, from the Polar Flow app or web service.
For more information, see 24/7 Activity Tracking.
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ACTIVITY BENEFIT

Activity benefit gives you feedback on the health benefits that being active has given you, and also on what kind of unwanted effects sitting for too long has caused to your health. The feedback is based on international guidelines and research on the health effects of physical activity and sitting behavior. The core idea is: the more active you are, the more benefits you get!
Both the Flow app and Flow web service show the activity benefit of your daily activity. You can view the activity benefit on daily, weekly and monthly basis. In the Flow web service, you can also view the detailed information on health benefits.
For more information, see 24/7 Activity Tracking.
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NIGHTLY RECHARGE™ RECOVERY MEASUREMENT

Nightly Recharge™ is an overnight recovery measurement that shows you how well you recover from the demands of your day. Your Nightly Recharge status is based on two components: how you slept (sleep charge) and how well your autonomic nervous system (ANS) calmed down during the early hours of your sleep (ANS charge). Both components are formed by comparing your last night to your usual levels from the past 28 days. Your watch automatically measures both sleep charge and ANS charge during the night.
You can see your Nightly Recharge status on your watch and in the Polar Flow app. Based on what we've measured from you, you get personalized daily tips in Polar Flow app on exercise, and tips on sleep and regulating your energy levels on those particularly rough days. Nightly Recharge helps you make optimal choices in your everyday life to maintain overall well-being and reach your training goals.
How tostart using Nightly Recharge?
1. Continuous heart rate tracking needs to be enabled for Nightly Recharge to function. To
enable Continuous HR tracking go to Settings > General Settings > Continuous HR tracking and choose On or Night-time only.
2. Tighten the wristband firmly around your wrist and wear the watch when you sleep. The sensor on the back of the watch must be in constant touch with your skin. For more detailed wearing instructions, see Wrist-based heart rate measurement.
3. You need to wear your watch for three nights before you start to see the Nightly Recharge status on your watch. This is how long it takes to establish your usual level. Before you get your Nightly Recharge you can view your sleep and ANS measurement details (heart rate, heart rate variability and breathing rate). After three successful nightly measurements you can see your Nightly Recharge status on your watch.
Nightly Recharge on your watch
Already awake? is shown on the Nightly Recharge watch face when your watch has detected a minimum of four hours of sleep. Press OK to tell the watch that you're awake. Confirm with OK and the watch summarizes your Nightly Recharge instantly. The Nightly Recharge status tells you how restorative last night was. Scores for both ANS charge and sleep charge are taken into account when calculating your Nightly Recharge status. Nightly Recharge status has the following scale: very poor – poor – compromised – OK – good – very good.
In time view, use the UP and DOWN buttons to navigate to the Nightly Recharge watch face. Press OK to open detailed Nightly recharge view.
Scroll down to ANS charge details/Sleep charge details and press OK to see further information about your ANS charge and your sleep charge.
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1. Nightly Recharge status graph
2. Nightly Recharge status Scale: very poor – poor – compromised – OK – good – very good.
3. ANS charge graph
4. ANS charge The scale is from -10 to +10. Around zero is your usual level.
5. ANS charge status Scale: much below usual – below usual – usual – above usual – much above usual.
6. Heart rate bpm (4 h average)
7. Beat-to-beat interval ms (4 h average)
8. Heart rate variability ms (4 h average)
9. Breathing rate br./min (4 h average)
10. Sleep score graph
11. Sleep score (1 - 100) A score that summarizes your sleep time and sleep quality into a single number.
12. Sleep charge status = Sleep score compared to your usual level. Scale: much below usual – below usual – usual –
above usual – much above usual.
13. Sleep data details. See "Sleep data on your watch" on page79 for more detailed information.
Nightly Recharge in the Flow app
You can compare and analyze your Nightly Recharge details from different nights in the Polar Flow app. Choose Nightly Recharge from the Flow app menu to see the details of your last night's Nightly Recharge. Swipe the display right to see the Nightly Recharge details for previous days. Tap the ANS charge or sleep charge box to open detailed view of ANS charge or sleep charge.
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ANS charge details in the Flow app
ANS charge gives you information on how well your autonomic nervous system
(ANS) calmed down during the night. The scale is from -10 to +10. Around zero is your usual level. The ANS charge is formed by measuring your heart rate, heart rate variability and breathing rate during roughly the first four hours of sleep.
A normal heart rate value for adults can range between 40 and 100 bpm. It is common for your heart rate values to vary between nights. Mental or physical stress, exercising late at night, illness, or alcohol can keep your heart rate up during the early hours of your sleep. It's best to compare your last night's value to your usual level.
Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the variation between successive heart beats. In general, high heart rate variability is linked to general good health, high cardiovascular fitness and resilience to stress. It can vary greatly from person to person, ranging from 20 to 150. It's best to compare your last night's value to your usual level.
Breathing rate shows your average breathing rate during roughly the first four hours of sleep. It is calculated from your beat-to-beat interval data. Your beat-to-beat intervals shorten when you breathe in and lengthen when you breathe out. During sleep, breathing rate slows down and varies mainly along with sleep stages. Typical values for a healthy adult at rest range from 12 to 20 breaths per minute. Higher values than usual may indicate a fever or impending illness.
Sleep charge details in Polar Flow
For sleep charge information in the Polar Flow app, see "Sleep data in the Flow app and web service" on page80.
Personalized tips in the Flow app
Based on what we've measured from you, you get personalized daily tips in the Polar Flow app on exercise, and tips on sleep and regulating your energy levels on those particularly rough days. Tips for the day are displayed on the opening view of Nightly Recharge in the Flow app.
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For exercise
You get an exercise tip every day. It tells you if you should take it easy or go for it. The tips are based on:
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Nightly Recharge status
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ANS charge
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Sleep charge
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Cardio load status
For sleep
If you didn't sleep as well as usual, you get a sleep tip. It tells you how to improve the aspects of your sleep that weren't as good as usual. Besides parameters we measure from your sleep, we take into account:
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sleep rhythm over a longer period of time
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Cardio load status
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exercise on the previous day
For regulating energy levels
If your ANS charge status or sleep charge is particularly low, you get a tip that helps you get through the days with a lower recharge. They are practical tips on how to calm down when you're in overdrive, and how to energize when you need a boost.
Learn more about the Nightly Recharge in this in-depth guide.
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SLEEP PLUS STAGES™ SLEEP TRACKING

Sleep Plus Stages automatically tracks the amount and quality of your sleep and shows you how long you spent in each sleep stage. It gathers your sleep time and sleep quality components into one easily glanceable value, sleep score. Sleep
score tells you how well you slept compared to the indicators of a good night’s sleep based on the current sleep science.
Comparing the components of the sleep score to your own usual level help you recognize which aspects of your daily routine may affect your sleep and may need adjusting. Nightly breakdowns of your sleep are available on your watch and in the Polar Flow app. Long-term sleep data in the Polar Flow web service helps you analyze your sleep patterns in detail.
How to start tracking your sleep with Polar Sleep Plus Stages™
1. The first thing you need to do is set your preferred sleep time in the Polar Flow or on your watch. In the Flow app, tap your profile, and choose Your preferred sleep time. Choose your preferred time and tap Done. Or sign into your Flow account or create a new one at flow.polar.com, and choose Settings > Physical settings > Your
preferred sleep time. Set your preferred time and choose Save. Set your preferred sleep time on your watch from Settings > Physical settings > Your preferred sleep time.
Sleep time preference is the amount of sleep you want to get each night. By default, it is set to the average
recommendation for your age group (eight hours for adults from 18 to 64 years). If you feel that eight hours of sleep is too much or too little for you, we recommend you adjust your preferred sleep time to meet your individual needs. By doing this, you’ll get accurate feedback on how much sleep you got in comparison to your preferred sleep time.
2. Continuous heart rate tracking needs to be enabled for Sleep Plus Stages to function. To enable Continuous HR tracking go to Settings > General Settings > Continuous HR tracking and select On or Night-time only. Tighten the wristband firmly around your wrist. The sensor on the back of the watch must be in constant touch with your skin. For more detailed wearing instructions, see Wrist-based heart rate measurement.
3. Your watch detects when you fall asleep, when you wake up and how long you spent sleeping. The Sleep Plus Stages measurement is based on recording the movements of your non-dominant hand with a built-in 3D acceleration sensor and recording your heart’s beat-to-beat interval data from your wrist with an optical heart rate sensor.
4. In the morning you can see your sleep score (1-100) from your watch. You get sleep stages information (light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep) and a sleep score after one night, including feedback on sleep themes (amount, solidity and regeneration). After the third night, you get a comparison to your usual level.
5. You can record your own perception of your sleep quality in the morning by rating it on your watch or in the Flow app. Your own rating is not taken into account in the sleep charge calculation, but you can record your own perception and compare it to the sleep charge assessment you get.
Sleep data on your watch
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When you wake up you can access your sleep details via the Nightly Recharge watch face. Press OK to open the Nightly recharge status details and then scroll down to Sleep charge details with the DOWN button. Press OK to open the details.
You can also stop the sleep tracking manually. Already awake? is shown on the Nightly recharge watch face when your watch has detected a minimum of four hours of sleep. Press OK to tell the watch that you're awake. Confirm with OK and the watch summarizes your sleep instantly.
The sleep charge details view displays the following information:
1. Sleep score status graph
2. Sleep score (1-100) A score that summarizes your sleep time and sleep quality into a
single number.
3. Sleep charge = Sleep score compared to your usual level. Scale: much below usual –
below usual – usual – above usual – much above usual.
4. Sleep time tells you the total duration between when you fell asleep and when you woke
up.
5. Actual sleep (%) tells the time spent asleep between the time you fell asleep and when
you woke up. More specifically, it is your sleep time minus the interruptions. Only the time you actually spend asleep is included in actual sleep.
6. Continuity (1-5): Sleep continuity is a rating of how continuous your sleep time was. Sleep
continuity is evaluated on a scale from one to five: fragmented – fairly fragmented – fairly continuous – continuous – very continuous.
7. Long interruptions (min) tells the time you spent awake during the interruptions longer
than one minute. During a normal night's sleep there are numerous short and long interruptions when you actually awaken from your sleep. Whether you remember these interruptions or not depends on their duration. The shorter ones we don’t usually remember. The longer ones, for instance when one might get up for a sip of water, we can remember. Interruptions are illustrated as yellow bars on your sleep timeline.
8. Sleep cycles: A normal sleeper typically goes through 4-5 sleep cycles over the course of
a night. This equals to a sleep time of approximately 8 hours.
9. REM sleep %: REM stands for rapid eye movement. REM sleep is also called paradoxical
sleep as your brain is active but your muscles are inactive to avoid acting out dreams. Just as deep sleep restores your body, REM sleep restores your mind, and enhances memory and learning.
10. Deep sleep %: Deep sleep is the stage of sleep in which it is hard to be awakened since
your body is less responsive to environmental stimuli. Most deep sleep occurs during the first half of the night. This sleep stage restores your body and supports your immune system. It also affects certain aspects of memory and learning. The stage of deep sleep is also called slow wave sleep.
11. Light sleep %: Light sleep serves as a transition stage between wakefulness and the
deeper stages of sleep. You can be easily awoken from light sleep since your responsiveness to the environmental stimuli remains quite high. Light sleep also promotes mental and physical recovery, although REM and deep sleep are the most important sleep stages in that regard.
Sleep data in the Flow app and web service
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How you sleep is always individual — instead of comparing your sleep stats to others, follow your own long-term sleeping patterns to get a full understanding of how you sleep. Sync your watch with the Flow app after waking up to see your last night’s sleep data in Polar Flow. Follow your sleep on a daily and weekly basis in the Flow app, and see how your sleeping habits and activity during the day affect your sleep.
Choose Sleep from the Flow app menu to see your sleep data. In the Sleep structure view you see how your sleep has progressed through different sleep stages (light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep) and any interruptions to your sleep. Usually sleep cycles proceed from light sleep into deep sleep and then to REM sleep. Typically, a night's sleep consists of 4 to 5 sleep cycles. This equals to approximately 8 hours of sleep. During a normal night's sleep there are numerous short and long interruptions. The long interruptions are displayed with the tall orange bars in the sleep structure graph.
The six components of the sleep score are grouped under three themes: amount (sleep time), solidity (long interruptions, continuity and actual sleep) and regeneration (REM sleep and deep sleep). Each bar in the graph represents the score for each component. Sleep score is the average of these scores. By choosing the weekly view you can see how your sleep score and sleep quality (solidity and regeneration themes) vary during the week.
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The Sleep rhythm section provides a weekly view of your sleep time and sleep stages.
To view your long-term sleep data with sleep stages in the Flow web service go to Progress, and choose the Sleep report tab.
Sleep report gives you a long-term view to your sleep patterns. You can choose to view your sleep details for a 1-month, 3-month or 6-month period. You’re able to see averages for the following sleep data: fell asleep, woke up, sleep time, REM sleep, deep sleep and interruptions to your sleep. You can view a nightly breakdown of your sleep data by hovering your mouse over the sleep graph.
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Learn more about the Polar Sleep Plus Stages in this
in-depth guide.

SLEEPWISE™

Polar SleepWiseTM helps you grasp how sleep contributes to your daytime alertness level and readiness to perform. In addition to the amount and quality of your recent sleep, we also take the effect of sleep rhythm into account. SleepWise shows how your recent sleep boosts your daytime alertness and readiness to perform. This is what we call Boost from sleep. It helps you reach and maintain a healthy sleep rhythm and it describes how your recent sleep affects your daytime alertness. Better alertness adds up to better readiness to perform by improving reaction time, accuracy, judgement and decision-making.
To ensure personalized feedback, please make sure that your Preferred sleep time setting matches your real sleep need.
SleepWise is completely automatic and all you need to do is to track your sleep with Sleep Plus Stages compatible Polar watch. It is available in the Polar Flow app.
Daily Boost from sleep
Note that you need to have at least five sleep results within the last seven days in order to see your Boost from sleep forecasts. In case you haven't worn your watch or if the sleep tracking was not successful, you can also add sleep times manually in the app to increase your sleep result count.
To see your Boost from sleep forecasts in the Polar Flow app, choose Boost from sleep from the menu or get a glance of the daily Boost from sleep forecast from the card in the Diary. Tapping the card opens the daily Boost from sleep view.
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Boost from sleep view opens:
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In the morning, you can see a forecast for how your sleep boost is expected to vary throughout the day, and plan alertness boosting activities accordingly (such as naps, coffee, or a walk outside). This provides simple visual and numeric feedback on any changes in your sleep rhythm. This way, you can easily recognize if the changes are for better or for worse. This helps helps you understand how the effects of sleep accumulate in the long run. It makes the impact of sleep debt and irregular sleep-wake rhythm visible.
Boost score summarizes the daily forecast into one number in order to make it easy to compare between days. Your boost score may be excellent, good, fair, or modest. Excellent boost score means that you get all the benefits of good sleep to support your day. Your boost score may be modest if you, for example, have a lot of sleep debt. You might see repeating patterns in the trend, for instance, because of weekends.
The daily Forecast graph shows how your recent sleep is expected to boost you throughout the day.
The lighter the shade and higher the bar, the higher the boost level. It means you're likely to feel sharp and ready to perform. The darker the shade and lower the boost. It means you may feel less alert – even drowsy.
Boost levels
Please notice that our forecast is based on sleep only. It doesn't react to anything else you might or might not do during the day. In other words, the graph won't react to the cups of coffee you might consume or the cold showers or brisk walks you
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might take. Inner motivation also plays a role in how sharp you feel. No matter how high your sleep-based boost level, you're likely to start feeling drowsy during the course of a very boring lecture. On the other hand, you might feel quite sharp even after a bad night's sleep, if you have a truly interesting task at hand. By following the daily forecast, you'll learn that your boost level tends to dip in the afternoon for some time and then go up again. There's no reason to worry about this afternoon slump though. It's regulated by your internal rhythm and is natural to all human beings. By studying the course of your past forecasts, you can learn how today's boost levels are not only affected by last night's sleep but also your recent sleep history. Staying up late on weekends, for example, can affect several days.
Sleep gate anticipates the time when your body is ready to fall asleep. However, your body's internal rhythm might not always align with your everyday commitments. That's why your sleep gate is not always your ideal bedtime in real life. This could be the case, for example, when you go back to work after a break – be it a longer vacation or just a weekend break.
Weekly sleep
In the Weekly sleep view you can compare and analyze your Sleep details from different nights. Tap the calendar icon to access it.
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Boost from sleep graph shows how your sleep has affected your days lately. Based on this, you can consider making changes to your sleep schedule.
Sleep & Internal rhythm graph shows how much your actual sleep rhythm deviates from your body's internal circadian rhythm. Syncing these two rhythms – actual and internal – has many health benefits. Sticking to regular bedtimes and wake-up times can help you sync them. You can see how your behavior affects your internal rhythm. For example, staying up late on weekends or traveling over time zones may upset the sync of your rhythms.
Sleep gate anticipates the time when your body is ready to fall asleep. This may be clearly recognizable from your data or not. Irregular sleep rhythm or unusual sleeping hours can mess your internal rhythm and make sleep gate less prominent.
Sleep gate recognizability
You can expect your sleep gate to be clearly recognizable (3/3), if your sleep rhythm is regular. In case your sleep rhythm changes drastically, your sleep gate is difficult to recognize.
Internal rhythm
Your body's internal rhythm means there are times when your body naturally wants to be asleep or awake. The purple lines in the graph show your sleep window – the time span when your body would've naturally wanted to be asleep. The blue bars show your actual sleep rhythm. Syncing these two rhythms – actual and internal – has many health benefits. Sticking to regular bedtimes and wake-up times can help you sync them.
Many people working office hours tend to stay up late and sleep in on weekends. This is how they end up shifting their sleep gate towards staying up late on Sunday night as well. In this very typical case of social jet lag, trouble falling asleep on Sunday night may result in starting a new working week sleep-deprived. Going by the book, the trick to avoid Sunday insomnia and sleep-deprived Mondays is to go to bed and get up at the same time every day. However, if you've ended up staying up late, you should rather compensate that with a nice early afternoon nap instead of sleeping in.
Scientific background
Polar SleepWise feature utilizes sleep tracking and biomathematical modeling for predicting daytime alertness based on how one has slept recently. To predict how sleep boosts one’s alertness, Polar model evaluates sleep amount, quality, and timing against personal sleep need and one’s body’s internal circadian rhythm. The model predicts one's boost levels hour­by-hour, daily boost score, sleep gate, and sleep window. A sleep gate marks the start of one's sleep window - the time when one's body would naturally want to be asleep. It takes from 1 to 2 weeks for SleepWise to collect enough data to reach full reliability.
Biomathematical modeling is a generally accepted means to predict how different sleep schedules impact on alertness during waking hours. Several biomathematical models have been introduced in the scientific literature. While the details and terminology between the models differ, the models typically consider time awake, sleep-wake history, and the circadian rhythm. The outputs of the models have typically been validated against a psychomotor vigilance task after modest or severe sleep restrictions. The psychomotor vigilance task is a simple task where one presses a button as soon as the light appears on a screen. Results from such a task correlate with maintaining attention, problem solving, and decision making.
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SERENE™ GUIDED BREATHING EXERCISE

Serene™ is a guided deep breathing exercise that helps you relax your body and mind and manage stress. Serene guides you to breathe at a slow, regular rhythm – six breaths per minute, which is the optimal breathing rate for stress-relieving effects. When you breathe slowly, your heart beat starts to synchronize with the rhythm of your breathing and your heart’s beat-to-beat intervals start to vary more.
During the breathing exercise your watch helps you maintain a regular slow breathing rhythm with an animation on the watch display and by vibrating. Serene measures your body’s response to the exercise and gives you real-time biofeedback on how you're doing. After the exercise, you get a summary of the time you spent on the three serenity zones. The higher the zone, the better the synchronization with the optimal rhythm was. The more time you spend in the higher zones, the more benefits you can expect to feel in the long-term. When you use the Serene breathing exercise regularly, it can help you manage stress, improve the quality of your sleep and give you a sense of improved overall well-being.
Serene breathing exercise on your watch
The Serene breathing exercise guides you to breathe deeply and slowly to calm down the body and mind. When you breathe slowly, your heart beat starts to synchronize with the rhythm of your breathing. Your heart's beat-to-beat intervals vary more when your breathing is deeper and slower. Deep breathing produces measurable responses in the heart’s beat­to-beat intervals. When you breath in, intervals between consecutive heart beats shorten (heart rate speeds up) and when you breath out, intervals between consecutive heart beats lengthen (heart rate slows down). The variance of your heart's beat-to-beat intervals is greatest when you are closest to the 6 breathing cycles per minute rhythm (inhale + exhale = 10 seconds). This is the optimal rate for stress-relieving effects. This is why your success is measured not only from the synchronization, but also from how close you were to the optimal breathing rate.
The default duration of Serene breathing exercise is 3 minutes. You can adjust the duration of the breathing exercise in range between 2-20 minutes. You can also adjust inhale and exhale durations if needed. Fastest breathing frequency can be 3 seconds for inhale and 3 seconds for exhale resulting 10 breaths per minute. Slowest breathing frequency is 5 seconds for inhale and 7 seconds for exhale resulting 5 breaths per minute.
Check that your position allows you to keep your arms relaxed and your hands still throughout the entire breathing exercise. This allows you to relax properly and ensures that your Polar watch can accurately measure the effects of the session.
1. Wear your watch snugly just behind the wrist bone.
2. Sit or lie down comfortably.
3. On your watch, choose Serene and then choose Start to start breathing exercise. Exercise starts with a 15 seconds preparatory phase.
4. Follow the breathing guidance on the display or through the vibration.
5. You can end the exercise by pressing the BACK button at any time.
6. The main guiding element in the animation changes color according to which serenity zone you're currently in.
7. After the exercise, you'll see your results displayed on your watch as time spent in the different serenity zones.
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The serenity zones are Amethyst, Sapphire and Diamond. The serenity zones tell you how well your heartbeat and breathing are in sync and how close you are to the optimal breathing rate of six breaths per minute. The higher the zone, the better the synchronization with the optimal rhythm. For the highest serenity zone, Diamond, you need to sustain a slow target rhythm of around six breaths per minute, or slower. The more time you spend in the higher zones, the more benefits you can expect to feel in the long-term.
Breathing exercise result
After the exercise, you get a summary of the time you spent on the three serenity zones.
Learn more about the Serene™ guided breathing exercise in this in-depth guide.

FITNESS TEST WITH WRIST-BASED HEART RATE

The Polar Fitness Test with wrist-based heart rate is an easy, safe and quick way to estimate your aerobic (cardiovascular) fitness at rest. It's a simple 5-minute fitness level assessment that gives you an estimate of your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). The Fitness Test calculation is based on your resting heart rate, heart rate variability and your personal information: gender, age, height, weight, and self-assessment of your physical activity level called the training background. The Polar Fitness Test is developed for use by healthy adults.
Aerobic fitness relates to how well your cardiovascular system works to transport oxygen to your body. The better your aerobic fitness, the stronger and more efficient your heart is. Good aerobic fitness has many health benefits. For example, it helps in decreasing the risk of high blood pressure and your risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. If you want to improve your aerobic fitness it takes, on average, six weeks of regular training to see a noticeable change in your fitness test result. Less fit individuals see progress even more rapidly. The better your aerobic fitness, the smaller the improvements in your result.
Aerobic fitness is best improved by training types that use large muscle groups. Such activities include running, cycling, walking, rowing, swimming, skating, and cross-country skiing. To monitor your progress, start by performing the test a couple of times during the first two weeks in order to get a baseline value, and then repeat the test approximately once a month.
To make sure the test results are reliable, the following basic requirements apply:
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You can perform the test anywhere - at home, at the office, at a health club - provided the testing environment is peaceful. There should be no disturbing noises (e.g. television, radio, or telephone) and no other people talking to you.
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Always take the test in the same environment and at the same hour.
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Avoid eating a heavy meal or smoking 2-3 hours prior to testing.
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Avoid heavy physical exertion, alcohol, and pharmaceutical stimulants on the test day and the previous day.
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You should be relaxed and calm. Lie down and relax for 1-3 minutes before starting the test.
Before the test
Before starting the test, make sure your physical settings including training background are accurate in Settings > Physical
settings.
Wear your watch snugly on top of your wrist, at least a finger’s width up from the wrist bone. The heart rate sensor on the back of your watch must be in constant touch with your skin.
Performing the test
On your watch, choose Fitness test > Relax and start the test. The watch starts searching for your heart rate.
When your heart rate is found Lie down & relax is shown on the display. Stay relaxed and limit body movements and communication with other people.
You can interrupt the test in any phase by pressing BACK. Test canceled is shown.
If the watch cannot receive your heart rate signal, the message Test failed is shown. In which case, you should check that the heart rate sensor on the back of the watch is in constant touch with your skin. See Wrist-based heart rate measurement for detailed instructions on wearing your watch when measuring heart rate from your wrist.
Test results
When the test is over, your watch notifies you by vibrating and shows a description of your fitness test result and your estimated VO
Update to VO2
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Press OK to save the value to your Physical settings.
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Press BACK to cancel only if you know your recently measured VO
2max
2max
.
to physical settings? is shown.
value, and if it differs more than one fitness
2max
level class from the result.
Your latest test result is shown in Tests > Fitness test > Latest result. Only your most recently performed test result is shown.
For a visual analysis of your Fitness test results, go to the Flow web service and select the test from your Diary to view details from it.
Your watch syncs with the Flow app automatically after the test if your phone is within the Bluetooth range.
Fitness level classes
Men
Age / Years Very low Low Fair Moderate Good Very good Elite
20-24 < 32 32-37 38-43 44-50 51-56 57-62 > 62
25-29 < 31 31-35 36-42 43-48 49-53 54-59 > 59
30-34 < 29 29-34 35-40 41-45 46-51 52-56 > 56
35-39 < 28 28-32 33-38 39-43 44-48 49-54 > 54
40-44 < 26 26-31 32-35 36-41 42-46 47-51 > 51
45-49 < 25 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-43 44-48 > 48
50-54 < 24 24-27 28-32 33-36 37-41 42-46 > 46
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Age / Years Very low Low Fair Moderate Good Very good Elite
55-59 < 22 22-26 27-30 31-34 35-39 40-43 > 43
60-65 < 21 21-24 25-28 29-32 33-36 37-40 > 40
Women
Age / Years Very low Low Fair Moderate Good Very good Elite
20-24 < 27 27-31 32-36 37-41 42-46 47-51 > 51
25-29 < 26 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-44 45-49 > 49
30-34 < 25 25-29 30-33 34-37 38-42 43-46 > 46
35-39 < 24 24-27 28-31 32-35 36-40 41-44 > 44
40-44 < 22 22-25 26-29 30-33 34-37 38-41 > 41
45-49 < 21 21-23 24-27 28-31 32-35 36-38 > 38
50-54 < 19 19-22 23-25 26-29 30-32 33-36 > 36
55-59 < 18 18-20 21-23 24-27 28-30 31-33 > 33
60-65 < 16 16-18 19-21 22-24 25-27 28-30 > 30
The classification is based on a literature review of 62 studies where VO
was measured directly in healthy adult
2max
subjects in the USA, Canada and 7 European countries. Reference: Shvartz E, Reibold RC. Aerobic fitness norms for males and females aged 6 to 75 years: a review. Aviat Space Environ Med; 61:3-11, 1990.
VO
2max
A clear link exists between maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 oxygen delivery to tissues is dependent on lung and heart function. VO2
) of the body and cardiorespiratory fitness because
max
(maximal oxygen uptake, maximal aerobic
max
power) is the maximal rate at which oxygen can be used by the body during maximal exercise; it is related directly to the maximal capacity of the heart to deliver blood to the muscles. VO2 maximal exercise tests, submaximal exercise tests, Polar Fitness Test). VO2
can be measured or predicted by fitness tests (e.g.
max
is a good index of cardiorespiratory fitness
max
and a good predictor of performance capability in endurance events such as distance running, cycling, cross-country skiing, and swimming.
VO2
can be expressed either as milliliters per minute (ml/min = ml min-1) or this value can be divided by the person’s
max
body weight in kilograms (ml/kg/min = ml kg-1min-1).

FITSPARK™ DAILY TRAINING GUIDE

The FitSpark™ training guide offers ready-made daily on-demand workouts available easily right on your watch. The workouts are built to match your fitness level, training history and your recovery and readiness, based on your Nightly
Recharge status from the previous night. FitSpark gives you 2-4 different workout options every day: one that suits you
best and 1-3 other options to choose from. You get a maximum of four suggestions per day and there are 19 different workouts in total. Suggestions include workouts from the cardio, strength and supportive training categories.
FitSpark workouts are ready-made training targets defined by Polar. The workouts include instructions on how to perform the exercises and real-time step-by-step guidance to ensure you exercise safely and with proper technique. All workouts are time-based, and they are adjusted based on your current fitness level, making the sessions suitable for everyone, regardless of fitness level. The FitSpark workout suggestions are updated after each training session (including training sessions done without FitSpark), at midnight and when you wake up. FitSpark keeps your training versatile with different types of daily workouts to choose from.
How is your fitness level determined?
Your fitness level is determined for every workout suggestion based on your:
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Training history (average weekly heart rate zone realization from the previous 28 days)
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VO2max (from the
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Training background
Fitness test on your watch)
You can start using the feature without any training history. However, FitSpark will work optimally after 7 days of use.
The higher the fitness level is, the longer the durations of the training targets are. The most demanding strength targets are not available at low fitness levels.
What type of exercises are included in the training categories?
In cardio sessions you’re guided to train in different heart rate zones for different durations. Sessions include time-based warm-up, work and cool-down phases. Cardio sessions can be completed with any sport profile on your watch.
Strength sessions are circuit training type workouts consisting of strength training exercises with time-based guidance. Bodyweight workouts can be done using your own body as resistance - there is no need for additional weights. In circuit training workouts you need a bumper plate, a kettlebell or dumbbells to perform the exercises.
Supportive sessions are circuit training type workouts consisting of strength and mobility exercises with time-based guidance.
FitSpark on your watch
In time view, use the UP and DOWN buttons to navigate to the FitSpark watch face.
Fitspark watch face includes the following views for different training categories:
The
PROGRAM WATCH FACE: If you have an active Running Program in Polar Flow your FitSpark suggestions are based on the Running Program training targets.
Press OK in the Fitspark watch face to view the workout suggestions. The most suitable workout for you based on your training history and fitness level is shown first. Scroll down to see other optional workout suggestions. Choose a workout suggestion by pressing OK to see detailed breakdown of the workout. Scroll down to see the exercises included in the workout (strength and supportive workouts) and choose an individual exercise for detailed instructions on how to perform the exercise. Scroll to Start and press OK to choose the training target and then choose the sport profile to start the training target.
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During training
Your watch gives you guidance during training, which includes training information, time-based phases with heart rate zones for cardio targets and time-based phases with exercises for strength and supportive targets.
Strength training and supportive training sessions are based on ready-made workout plans with exercise animations and real-time step-by-step guidance. All sessions include timers and vibrations that let you know when it's time to switch to the next phase. Continue each movement for 40 seconds, then rest until the minute is full and start the next movement. When you’ve completed all rounds of the first set, start the next set manually. You can end a training session any time you like. You cannot skip or re-arrange training phases.
Training results on your watch and in Polar Flow
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You'll get a detailed analysis in the Polar Flow app or in the Polar Flow web service. For cardio training targets you get a basic training result, which shows the phases of the session with heart rate data. For strength and supportive training targets you get detailed training results, which include your average heart rate and time spent on each exercise. These are displayed as a list, and each exercise is also displayed on the heart rate curve.
summary of your training session on your watch right after you've finished the session. You'll get a more
Training may include some risk. Before beginning a regular training program please read the Minimizing risks
when training guidance.

POSITIONINGSATELLITES

Your watch has built-in GPS (GNSS) that provides speed, pace, distance and altitude measurement for a range of outdoor sports, and allows you to see your route on map in the Flow app and web service after your session.
You can change the satellite navigation system your watch uses in addition to GPS. The setting is located on your watch in
General settings > Positioning satellites. You can choose GPS + GLONASS, GPS + Galileo or GPS + QZSS. The default
setting is GPS + GLONASS. These options give you the possibility to test different satellite navigation systems and find out if they can give you improved performance in areas covered by them.
GPS + GLONASS GLONASS is a Russian global satellite navigation system. It is the default setting as its global
satellite visibility and reliability is the best of these three, and in general we recommend using it.
GPS + Galileo Galileo is a global navigation satellite system created by the European Union.
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GPS + QZSS QZSS is a four-satellite regional time transfer system and a satellite-based augmentation system
developed to enhance GPS in the Asia-Oceania regions, with a focus on Japan.

ASSISTED GPS

The watch uses Assisted GPS (A-GPS) to acquire a fast satellite fix. The A-GPS data tells your watch the predicted positions of the GPS satellites. This way the watch knows where to search for the satellites and thus makes defining your initial location faster.
The A-GPS data updates once a day. The latest A-GPS data file is automatically updated to your watch each time you sync it with the Flow web service via FlowSync software or via the Flow app.
A-GPS expiry date
The A-GPS data file is valid for up to 14 days. Positioning accuracy is relatively high during the first three days, and progressively decreases during the remaining days. Regular updates help to ensure a high level of positioning accuracy.
You can check the expiry date for the current A-GPS data file from your watch. Go to Settings > General settings > About
your watch > Assisted GPS expires. If the data file has expired, sync your watch with the Flow web service via FlowSync
software or with the Flow app to update A-GPS data.
Once the A-GPS data file has expired, more time may be required for acquiring your current position.
For best GPS performance, wear the watch on your wrist with the display facing up. Due to the location of the GPS antenna on the watch, it is not recommended to wear it with the display on the underside of your wrist. When wearing it on the handlebars of a bike, make sure the display is facing up.

ROUTEGUIDANCE

The route guidance feature guides you along routes that you have recorded in previous sessions or routes that you've imported into Flow from a third-party service like komoot or Strava for example. You can also import route files directly into Flow in GPX or TCX file format.
You can choose to go to the route start point, route end point or nearest point on the route (mid-route). First your watch will guide you to your chosen start point on the route. Once on the route, your watch will guide you all the way through and keep you on track. Just follow the guidance on the display. At the bottom of the display you’ll see how much distance you still have left.

ROUTE AND ELEVATION PROFILES

After choosing a route you'll see an overview of the route, and the elevation profile of it. This helps you identify which route is which, and what to expect from your session.
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TOTAL ASCENT AND DESCENT FOR PLANNED ROUTES

When starting a planned route you'll see the total ascent and descent on your route. As you go along the route the ascent/descent values will update and you'll always see the total ascent and descent still left on the route. You'll also see your current ascent/descent grade. At all times you'll know exactly where you are and how much you have left to go.
When doing an unplanned route you'll see the ascent and descent for the previous kilometer as well as your current ascent/descent grade.
You can use komoot to plan detailed routes on maps and transfer the routes to your watch via Flow.

ADDING A ROUTE TO YOUR WATCH

To add a route to your watch you must save it as a favorite in the Flow web service or app , and sync it to your watch. For more information see MANAGE FAVORITES AND TRAINING TARGETS IN POLAR FLOW.

START A TRAINING SESSION WITH ROUTE GUIDANCE

1. Choose the sport profile you want to use, and in pre-training mode, press the LIGHT button to enter the quick menu.
2. Choose Routes from the list, and then choose the route you want to do.
3. Add a carbs reminder or drink reminder if you wish, and then choose Start.
4. Choose where you want to start the route: Start point, Mid-route, End point to reverse direction or Mid-route to
reverse direction.
5. Stay in the pre-training mode until the watch has found your heart rate and the GPS satellite signals, and start your session by pressing OK. You may be asked to the calibrate the compass before starting your session. If so, follow the instructions on the display to calibrate it.
6. Your watch will guide you to the route. Route start found is displayed when you reach it, and then you're ready to go.
Route-end point reached is shown when you're finished.

ZOOM

Zoom in or out on your route. Press OK and choose Zoom in/out, and then use the + and - buttons to adjust the route view.
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CHANGE ROUTE ON-THE-FLY

Switch to a different route during your session.
1. Press BACK to pause your session, and press the LIGHT button to enter the quick menu.
2. Choose Routes, the watch then asks you Want to change your route?, choose Yes, and choose a route from the list.
3. Choose Start when you're ready.

BACKTOSTART

The back to start feature guides you back to the starting point of your session.
To use the back to start feature for one session:
1. In pre-training mode, press the LIGHT button to enter the quick menu.
2. Choose Back to start from the list, and choose on.
You can also set back to start on during a training session by pausing your session and opening the quick menu with the LIGHT button and by scrolling to Back to start, and choosing on.
If you add the back to start training view to a sport profile in Polar Flow, it is always set on for that sport profile and it does not need to be switched on every session.
To return to your starting point:
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Keep your watch in a horizontal position in front of you.
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Keep moving in order for your watch to determine which direction you are going. An arrow will point in the direction of your starting point.
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To get back to the starting point, always turn in the direction of the arrow.
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Your watch also shows the bearing and the direct distance (beeline) between you and the starting point.
When in unfamiliar surroundings, always keep a map at hand in case the watch loses the satellite signal or the battery runs out.

RACEPACE

The race pace feature helps you to keep a steady pace and achieve your target time for a set distance. Define a target time for the distance - 45 minutes for a 10k run for example and follow how far behind or ahead you are compared to your pre­set target.
Race pace can be set on your watch, or you can also set a Race Pace target in the Flow web service or app, and sync it to your watch.
If you have scheduled race pace target for that day your watch suggests you to start it when entering pre-training mode.
Create a race pace target on your watch
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You can create race pace target from the Quick menu in pre-training mode.
1. Enter pre-training mode by pressing and holding OK in time view or by pressing BACK to enter the main menu and choose
2. In pre-training mode, press the LIGHT button to enter the quick menu.
3. Choose Race pace from the list and set the distance and duration. Press OK to confirm. The watch displays the pace/speed required to meet your target time and then returns to pre-training mode where you can start the training session.
Start training

STRAVALIVESEGMENTS

Strava Segments are previously defined sections of road or trail where athletes can compete for time in cycling or running. Segments are defined in Strava.com and can be created by any Strava user. You can use segments to compare your own times, or to compare with other Strava users' times who have also completed the segment. Each segment has a public leaderboard with King/Queen of the Mountain (KOM/QOM) who has the best time for that segment.
Note that you need to have a Strava Summit Analysis pack to use the Strava Live Segments feature on your Polar Pacer Pro. Once you have activated Strava Live Segments and exported segments to your Flow account and synced them to your Pacer Pro you will receive an alert on your watch when approaching any of your favorite Strava segments.
When performing a segment, you'll get real-time performance data displayed on your watch showing whether you are ahead or behind your personal record (PR) of the segment. Your results are calculated and displayed instantly on your watch when the segment ends, but you need to check the final results at Strava.com.

CONNECT YOUR STRAVA AND POLAR FLOW ACCOUNTS

You can connect your Strava and Polar Flow accounts in the Polar Flow web service OR in the Polar Flow app.
In the Polar Flow web service go to Settings > Partners > Strava > Connect.
or
In the Polar Flow app go to General Settings > Connect > Strava (swipe the button to connect).

IMPORT STRAVA SEGMENTS TO YOUR POLAR FLOW ACCOUNT

1. In your Strava account, choose the segments you wish to import to your Polar Flow Favorites/Pacer Pro. This is done by choosing the star icon next to a segment name.
2. Then in the Polar Flow web service's Favorites page choose the Update Strava Live Segments button to import the starred Strava Live Segments to your Polar Flow account.
3. Your Pacer Pro can have a maximum of 100 favorites at a time. Choose the segments you want to transfer to your Pacer Pro by clicking the selection boxes on the left of the Strava Live Segments list to move them to the sync list for your Pacer Pro on the right. You can change the order of your favorites on the Pacer Pro by dragging and dropping them.
4. Sync your Pacer Pro to save your changes to the watch.
For more information on managing your favorites in the Polar Flow web service and app, see Manage favorites and training
targets in Polar Flow.
Find out more about Strava segments at Strava Support.

START A SESSION WITH STRAVA LIVE SEGMENTS

Strava Live Segments require GPS. Make sure you have GPS set on in the running and cycling sport profiles you wish to use.
When you start a running or cycling training session, the nearby Strava segments (50 kilometers or closer in cycling or 10 kilometers or closer in running) synced to your watch are shown in the Strava segments training view. Scroll to the Strava segments view with the UP and DOWN buttons during sessions.
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When you approach a segment (200 meters or closer in cycling or 100 meters or closer in running) you’ll get an alert on your watch, and the distance remaining to the segment will be counted down. You can cancel the segment by pressing the back button on your watch.
You’ll get another alert when you reach the starting point of the segment. Recording of the segment starts automatically, and both the name of the segment and your personal record time for the segment are shown on your watch.
The display shows if you are behind or ahead of your personal best (or KOM/QOM if you are doing the segment for the first time), as well as your speed/pace and distance left.
After you've completed the segment, your watch displays your time, and the difference to your personal best time. The PR symbol is displayed if you set new personal record.
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