Best Fitness Tracker for Weight Lifting

Do you want to optimize your weight training routine? If you do, then you may want to invest in a fitness tracker that can count your reps, recognize your strength training workout, and give you the data you need to improve your strength over time and get the most out of your training.

That’s why in today’s review, we compiled some of the best fitness trackers for weightlifting based on our firsthand experience – options 2023!

We evaluate, test, and compare the latest fitness trackers so you can step up your buying power today. All these watches are best for weightlifters, bodybuilders, professional athletes, and Crossfit athletes.

All right, let’s begin!

Top 10 Best Fitness Trackers for Weight Lifting

1. Fitbit Inspire 2 Health & Fitness Tracker – Best Fitness Tracker Overall

Product Description

Our team discovered through using this product that, this wallet-friendly fitness tracker from Fitbit comprehensively monitors your workout sessions and shut-eye. Moreover, it tracks your heart rate 24/7, heart rate variability when you sleep, your breathing, and offers warning signs of Covid-19 infection.

Fitbit recognized the importance of staying healthy in this pandemic and shares that HRV (beat-to-beat variation of the heart) usually decreases in individuals showing symptoms of illness while their breathing rate and heart rate are often elevated.

Now, focusing on its use for weightlifting, the Fitbit Inspire 2 Health & Fitness Tracker has the longest battery life compared to other Fitbit devices. It counts distance, steps, and automatically recognizes when you’re doing various workouts.

You can also control the streamlined fitness monitor of this fitness tracker by squeezing the side of the band. Although it does not have an always-on display, its screen is bright enough when you activate it and it shows the fitness info and time. You can likewise receive notifications from your phone even while doing strength training. 

Pros

• impressive 10-day battery life
• 24×7 heart rate; tracks resting heart
• Tracks all-day activity
• 28,000 ft maximum operating altitude
• Allows you to earn Active Zone Minutes
• Waterproof
• Free 1-year Fitbit Premium trial (for personalized insights)
• Easy to use

Cons

• Vibration notifications is a little irritating to some (vibrates whenever wrist and arm touch together), although this can be turned off
• You can’t zoom in on the sleeping log 

Get Fitbit Inspire 2 Health & Fitness Tracker Here.

[Related post: Best Smallest Fitness Trackers]

2. Garmin Forerunner 935 – Best All-Rounder Weightlifting Watch

Product Description

Second on our list is the Garmin Forerunner 935, which is the more affordable version of Fenix 5. It has a barometric altimeter, Training Load and Recovery features, and Bluetooth smart sensor support.

We’re not even surprised why this watch is popular among athletes because of several important counts. We discovered from using this product that, it provides activity reports, has a high resolution, a route tracker, and its battery life can last for two weeks!

The Garmin fitness tracker is lightweight, making it ideal for long workout training. It then automatically logs and evaluates your activity history to help you determine how your weight training varies over time. To sync up your fitness information, simply connect your fitness tracker to Garmin’s independent website.

Additionally, the Garmin Forerunner 935 has a Body Battery energy monitor that is meant to stop you from injuring or overworking yourself. The number is between 1 and 100 and if you score too high, it means you have more energy for doing your exercises.

No wonder why this is one of the best fitness watches for weightlifting because it reduces the wearer’s chances of injury. 

Pros

• Smarter connections
• Monitors your performance, weight lifting training, and recovery
• Analyzes your technique so you improve your form
• With Body Battery energy monitor – reduces the risk of injury
• Useful and powerful built-in algorithms on Garmin Connect
• Size is not too big nor too small
• Always finds a signal, so you won’t worry about the outage

Cons

• No navigation capabilities
• You may have to always lock the watch when performing push-up exercises as the side button keeps clicking

Get Garmin Forerunner 935 Here.

3. Fitbit Versa Health and Fitness Tracker- Best Lightweight Design

Product Description

Fitbit Versa is a great choice for weightlifters as it comes with a mobile app that you can use to set and track your overall weightlifting goals.

With an always-on and larger display, this health and fitness smartwatch provides you with information a glance away. Our findings show that you can also use the built-in Amazon Alexa to get quick information and news, set timers and alarms, check the weather, control smart home devices, and many more through the sound of your voice!

This fitness tracker works around the clock and has about 6 days of battery life. In terms of design, it is available in black, rose gold, and silver plus different strap color combinations. 

One of its standout features compared to other fitness trackers is that it is comfortable and lightweight, making it more ideal when you do strength training. The display is clear and bright too!

This best fitness tracker boasts the “Squircle” face design, meaning a square face and rounded edges. Moreover, this friendly-looking watch has improved touch commences compared to the brand’s Ionic.

It tracks your heart rate 24/7, distance, steps, hourly activity, calories burned, floors climbed, and active minutes.

Pros

• Tracks exercises
• Analyzes sleep 
• Connects with family and friends
• Swim and sleep tracking
• Lets you control the Spotify app
• Larger display
• Lightweight
• Alexa built-in 

Cons

• GPS tracking is available only through a smartphone
• Fitbit locks the band pretty solid, making it a challenge to change the strap
• No payment system of its own

Get a Fitbit Versa Here.

4. Fitbit Inspire HR Fitness Tracker

Product Description

Yet another entry from Fitbit is the Fitbit Inspire HR Fitness Tracker. And why not? This one boast features that will be useful for your weightlifting training and other activities all day, including active minutes, calories burned, steps, distance, and hourly activity.

After putting it to the test, with its advanced training features, this Fitbit fitness tracker conveniently and automatically records workouts, like swimming, bike rides, walks – not just weight lifting. It can even sync the data for up to 6 meters range.

Although there are not many fitness trackers specifically designed for weightlifting, this one is worth adding to this list because of its features. One we love is that it has more than 15 goal-based exercise modes to help you see how every part of your workout impacts your training.

It’s swim-proof too! The water resistance of Fitbit Inspire HR Fitness Tracker is up to 50M and with 5 days battery life.

Pros

• Activity and sleep tracking feature
• 24/7 heart rate tracking
• 5 days battery life
• 15+ goal-based exercise modes
• Real-time heart rate zones
• Lets you see real-time pace and distance

Con/s

• Some hand movements are registered as steps (could trigger activity tracking)

Get Fitbit Inspire HR Fitness Tracker Here.

5. Garmin Vivomove HR – Hybrid Smartwatch

Product Description

One of our favorites in terms of fitness tracking capabilities is the Garmin Vivomove HR – Hybrid Smartwatch. It does more than just staying you connected with smart notifications and music controls.

Other interesting fitness tracking features in this hybrid smartwatch are wellness monitoring tools, like a relaxation timer, stress tracking (to help manage your stress), and REM sleep monitoring.

It tracks calories burned, daily steps, intensity minutes, heart rate, and VO2 max to keep you on your fitness goals. Drawing from our experience, since weightlifting is also rugged work, this one is durable and can withstand a fair share of scrapes and bumps.

You don’t even have to compromise style for function as this one comes in a sophisticated design. Overall, the Garmin Vivomove HR is truly made to help you feel and look good!

Pros

• Syncs your activities to Garmin Connect
• Smart and sophisticated
• With stress tracking feature – lets you know when you have a calm or stressful day
• Features wellness monitoring tools
• With a relaxation timer
• Smart features – music controls
• Good battery life
• Durable

Cons

• A little bit of a challenge to understand the fitness icon
• Few users share the screen is sometimes not responsive
• Hard to see the screen when outdoors

Get Garmin Vivomove HR – Hybrid Smartwatch Here.

6. TicWatch Pro 4G LTE Cellular Smartwatch

Product Description

If you’re looking for a good fitness tracker with military-grade toughness, based on our firsthand experience, then we highly recommend the TicWatch Pro 4G LTE Cellular Smartwatch.

We believe because of its durability it makes a suitable smartwatch for weight training. It has both functional and stylish designs with knurled stainless steel bezel. But just because it is durable doesn’t mean it is heavy. No, it’s not. In fact, it is lightweight and its strap is even made of silicone.

It has a decent battery life, which is 18 hours on cellular usage but up to 5 days when switched to Essential Mode. This means LCD display only. The TicMotion technology of this cellular smartwatch detects motion. It also tracks swimming, fast walking, running, and other activities.

Since this is a cellular smartwatch, it is preloaded with SIM, allowing you to send texts and make phone calls. You can download apps, stream music, check flights, review your health and fitness data, and cloud sync notifications right through your watch too!

Pros

• Up to 18 hours of battery life – on cellular usage, 5 days if on Essential Mode
• 24hr heart rate monitoring
• GPS built-in
• Detects motion
• Cellular connectivity for Verizon 
• US-military grade durability
• IP68 + pool swimming
• 6 built-in sports modes
• High sunlight readability
• With sleep-tracking feature
• Awesome dual screen

Cons

• SMS works only with numbers that Verizon assigns
• As it’s an older watch, you can’t get the Wear OS update
• Awkward proprietary magnetic dock (for charging). Make sure it’s charging before you leave and the cord is short

Get TicWatch Pro 4G LTE Cellular Smartwatch Here.

[Related post: Best Weightlifting Belt]

7. Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

Product Description

Another best fitness tracker for weight lifting is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. The brand itself has a long history of producing excellent fitness trackers or fitness-focused smartwatches.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 fitness tracker even breaks the brand’s tradition of building watches on its own Tizen OS. That’s because it now runs on a new version: the Google WearOS to bring it back to the Android ecosystem. 

It has an advanced workout tracking that detects 6 popular activities, from rowing to running, and even swimming. Based on our observations, you can stay motivated with your weight training too by connecting to live coaching sessions.

This best fitness tracker also has a built-in GPS, but for accurate VO2 max reading, you may have to run outdoors for at least 20 minutes with the GPS on. 

In addition, this Samsung Galaxy Watch has an accurate ECG monitoring feature. Overall, what Samsung promises on this watch is “total management on your wrist” and, true enough, it delivers that promise.

Pros

• Updated: now with Google WearOS
• Looks and feels great
• Waterproof
• Responsive screen
• Topnotch display
• The app is easy to set up and use
• Tracks sleep and activity

Con/s

• You need to have a Samsung phone to use the ECG function

Get Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Here.

8. Garmin Vivoactive 3 Smartwatch with Built-In Sports Apps

Product Description

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 follows the trend in wearable tech this year, especially in terms of fitness. While it is primarily designed as a multisport watch, Garmin wants you to wear this on your wrist every day.

As such, the brand added key features like notification responses, NFC payments, and other features that meet the fitness wearable formula. You don’t have to take it off when you’re in the gym or in your home gym doing weight training.

We have found from using this product that, aside from tracking gym sessions, it also tracks bike rides, runs, and swims. Plus, its design is eye-catching. It has a brushed stainless-steel bezel with a black screen. It is comfy to wear as well.

Now, moving on to its practical features for weightlifting and other activities. It is laden with sensors so it can track any fitness tracking task you need. It has GLONASS, GPS, thermometer, accelerometer, barometric altimeter, compass, and an optical heart-rate sensor.

Aside from the fitness tracking capabilities mentioned, it also features VO2 max that measures the maximum rate at which you take oxygen from the air and through the lungs. This is such a great measurement of health.

Pros

• GPS smartwatch
• Tracks activities
• With 15 preloaded sports apps
• Built-in GPS
• Features contactless payments
• With VO2 max feature
• Up to 7 days battery life in smartwatch mode
• Just the right display size (1.2-inch diameter)
• You can download and create workouts
• Compatible with Connect IQ store

Cons

• Optical Heart Rate (OHR) works fine, but other users experience occasional “dropouts”
• The touch screen of this watch is sensitive to a wet sleeve

Get Garmin Vivoactive 3 Here.

9. Polar Vantage M2

Product Description

The Polar Vantage M2 is a tough and sporty fitness tracker. In terms of design, it falls somewhere in between the premium Polar Vantage V2 and the fashion-focused and more casual Polar Ignite 2.

Its circular body is crowned by a carbon fiber-effect band that frames the display glass. Even its rubber strap sticks to the handsome theme. Moving on to its software and features, it has up and down buttons to guide you on various watch faces.

It can show things, like current heart rate, how well you’re sleeping (Nightly Recharge feature), cardio load status, and daily functions, like the weather forecast. After putting it to the test, we observed that although it takes a while to assemble the necessary data (such as it takes several days for the sleep figures to factor in) for this tracker to function, it is still worth it in the long run.

You’d also love the FuelWise smart fueling assistant feature, which reminds you to maintain adequate energy or to refuel during longer sessions. Polar believes that people should “train smarter, not harder.”  Hence, they’ve created this device to support more than 130 sports!

Overall, this multisport smartwatch is reasonably priced and is ideal not just for those into weightlifting but for fitness enthusiasts too!

Pros

• Automatically tracks your sleep and recovery
• Tracks your load to make sure you’re recovered
• FuelWise smart fueling assistant feature
• Supports 130+ sports 
• Smartwatch features – call/text notifications, music controls, weather
• Up to 30 hours training time (battery life) with OHR and GPS
• Fitspark training guide
• Nightly Recharge sleep tracking

Cons

• Syncing is a little slow
• App provides information overload

Get Polar Vantage M2 Here.

10. HalfSun Fitness Tracker

Product Description

Drawing from our experience, if you prefer a simple activity tracker fitness watch with a calorie counter, pedometer, and sleep monitor, we recommend the HalfSun Fitness Tracker.

It has a large color screen and comes in an ergonomic design. For its function, the HalfSun Fitness Tracker records all-day activities, such as active minutes, sleep quality, steps, and distance.

It even provides you with real-time heart rate data and blood pressure then you can get the complete report through its app. Other useful features in this watch are sedentary alert, call alert (hang up), sport modes, and weather forecast.

Pros

• Ergonomic design
• With sedentary reminder
• Waterproof
• Connected GPS
• Heart rate alert
• Sport mode
• Female menstruation period reminder
• 3 to 5 days working time

Cons

• Not clear/ readable in sunlight
• Blood pressure readings may be inaccurate sometimes

Get HalfSun Fitness Tracker Here.

What to Look for in Best Fitness Trackers for Weight Lifting

Excited to buy your fitness tracker to complement your weight training? Before you buy, consider this buying guide first.

Durability

First and foremost, weightlifting is a tough sport. You must put in the hours of work and both mental and physical toughness is a big part of that work. As such, you also need a fitness tracker that is durable to withstand your training.  

The best fitness trackers are designed to withstand the toughest conditions in all parts of their construction. 

Heart Rate Monitor

If you truly want to gauge the intensity of your strength training or whatever exercise you do, then you’ve got to know how hard your heart is beating. The good news is that some of the best fitness trackers for weightlifting are reliable in terms of heart rate monitoring. Sometimes, it is even equipped with sleep tracking and other fitness tracking features.

Accuracy

Fitness trackers are not foolproof. They use algorithms and sensors to analyze footsteps, stairs climbed, what peak your heart rate was during a workout, and how much sleep you got.

All these mean that there can be a degree of imprecision. When buying a fitness watch for weightlifting, opt for one that is able to reliably measure those data and, at the very least, has less room for error.

Final Verdict: Which One Should You Buy?

Our top choice for this list would be the Fitbit Inspire 2 Health & Fitness Tracker. Our team discovered through using this product that, it offers almost all kinds of high-tech health and fitness monitoring that is great not just for weightlifting but all sorts of workouts (20 in total).

It is available in three colors and has smartwatch-like features. It has the longest battery life vs. any Fitbit watch. By how long? That’s 10 days on a single charge and that’s already twice the capacity as its predecessor.

Setting and using the Fitbit Inspire 2 is easy too. Just create a Fitbit account or tap your profile image if you already have one. Then, select the Set Up device and follow the easy on-screen instructions. 

Plus, this fitness watch is waterproof for up to 150 feet so you can definitely wear it into a pool and will even track your swim workouts. The Garmin Forerunner 935  is also definitely worth checking if you prefer a fitness watch that has a feature to stop you from overworking to lessen the risk of injury.

If you like this article, you might want to read our other reviews at ExpertFitness.org.