Note: Unfortunately, the Garmin Vivoactive 4S has sold out. There are still a few Garmin watches on sale, though, like the Garmin Forerunner 235, an excellent running watch with many of the same features; the even more advanced Garmin Forerunner 645 with built-in music storage; and the triathlete-favorite Garmin Forerunner 735XT that also tracks swimming and cycling. And you can check our Prime Day hub here for even more deals.
Since I bought my Garmin Vivoactive 4S watch last November, I’ve worn it every single day and haven’t stopped singing its praises. Along with excelling at what every other fitness tracker in its category can do (tracking steps, stairs climbed, sleep, heart rate, and, like the new Apple Watch, pulse oximetry), the Vivoactive can be almost endlessly customized. You can change up all the display screens to get the information you want. Right now, I can see my daily steps and mileage count with a leopard-print background. And you can download apps like Uber, Spotify, Strava, contactless payment, and many more — including ultra-specific ones for triathlons, skiing/snowboarding, and even a Pomodoro timer for productivity.
From the moment I started wearing it, this watch has helped me become a better, and smarter, runner. Besides tracking all of the metrics of my runs (pace, distance, heart rate zones, GPS maps), the Vivoactive 4S lets me program interval workouts with set times or distances for warm ups, work intervals, rest periods, and cool downs. During the workout, the watch will buzz to let me know when it’s time to change up my effort. If I’m shooting for a specific pace or heart rate during an interval, I can see that on the watch in real time and also view the workout as a whole afterwards. I also take advantage of the watch’s Body Battery score to know when I can really push myself. Body Battery essentially measures how “charged” up you are, based on heart rate, activity level, and sleep quality on a scale of 0 to 100 percent. If I wake up at 100 percent, I feel confident that I can put in a strong effort on my run. On the other hand, if I’m measuring around 20 percent I’ll use that as a cue to take it easy and recharge.
Even if you’re not a runner, the Vivoactive is a solid activity tracker for anyone looking to get in better shape. You can use it to track other activities like cycling, swimming, weight lifting, Pilates, yoga, rowing, or walking. It will count your daily steps as well as intensity minutes (the amount of time you spend exercising with an elevated heart rate), and you can set daily and weekly goals for each. Even on lazy days, you can program the watch to notify you to get up if you’ve been sedentary for too long — a feature I appreciate now that I’m working from home and not walking around as much as I used to. And if you’re interested in tracking calories burned versus calories consumed, you can link your watch to a food logging app like My Fitness Pal or Lose It to get an accurate idea of your daily calorie budget.
Originally priced at $350, for today and tomorrow only, it’s discounted to just $200 (the cheapest it’s ever been since its release last year), which is really a bargain for such a powerful and customizable watch. I’ve searched for rumors about a new version being released but couldn’t find any, so unless Garmin is being ultra-secretive, there’s also no chance of it becoming obsolete anytime soon.
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