Unlike every other smart watch or wearable that I know of, the Apple Watch is unfortunately not capable of broadcasting your heart rate to iFIT Fitness equipment. However, after testing a few ideas, there’s one method that is by far the fastest and easiest way to connect your Apple Watch to any NordicTrack or iFIT Bike, Tread, Rower, or Vault.
You are going to need your iPhone and an App called Echo Heart Rate. The Echo app is able to bypass the connection limitations of the Apple Watch by using your iPhone’s bluetooth to send your heart-rate info to your equipment.
You can try out the Echo Heart Rate App for free, but the free version limits workout sessions to just 20 minutes. If you would like to have unlimited use of the app for longer workouts, then there is a one-time fee of $14.99. For me this is easily worth it so I don’t have to switch out my Apple Watch with another heart-rate tracker if I don’t want to.
UPDATE: For the Connect The Watts Community, The Pro Version of ECHO has been reduced in the App Store to $9.99 for the next 48 hours (July 19th – July 20)!!!
How to set it up
- First, Download the Echo app on your iPhone and watch.
- Second, select “Tap to start” on Echo and make sure the type of fitness equipment you are using is selected. The app will say, “Waiting to connect” because it can only connect after you have started the class. It will not connect during the warm-up.
- Finally, once the workout starts, it will take a few seconds and then your should see your heart rate pop up on your phone, watch and most importantly, on your iFit or NordicTrack screen.
Echo also has a heart-rate zone feature that matches up with to the NordicTrack zone color system, so just make sure that your max heart rate in the Echo Heart Rate App to set to the same max heart rate on your iFIT account and enable “HR Zones” in the Echo app settings.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
