What Is the Training Effect Feature on My Garmin Device?

The Training Effect feature measures the impact of an activity on your aerobic and anaerobic fitness and accumulates during the activity. As the activity progresses, the Training Effect value increases.

What Determines Training Effect?

Training Effect is determined by your user profile information, training history, heart rate, duration, and intensity of your activity. Your Garmin device will report the most accurate Training Effect when your maximum heart rate and your heart rate zones are configured correctly. 

NOTE: User profile information and training history will not be taken into account if you upload a third-party activity that was not recorded using a Garmin device. 

Which Devices Feature Training Effect?

Many newer Garmin devices will have this feature. To learn if your device has Training Effect refer to your owner's manual.

Can I Get Training Effect from Third Party Activities?

You can now see training effect when you upload third party activities from apps such as Zwift, Concept2, etc. Training effect will update when you have a training status capable device associated with your account. 

What Are Training Effect Labels?

There are seven different Training Effect labels to describe the primary benefit of your activity. Each label is color-coded and corresponds to your training load focus (Training Load Focus). Each feedback phrase, for example, "Highly Impacting VO2 Max," has a corresponding description in your Garmin Connect™ account activity details. For more details about Training Effect labels, see Firstbeat Workout Labels.

What Are the Differences Between Aerobic and Anaerobic Training Effect?

Aerobic Training Effect and Anaerobic Training Effect are features offered by Firstbeat.

Aerobic Training Effect

Aerobic training effect measures the aerobic benefit of exercise, which should correlate with the fitness improvement you expect to get from it. Technically speaking, aerobic training effect is the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) accumulated during exercise, mapped onto a 0-to-5 scale that accounts for your fitness level and training habits. Typically, as you get fitter, you need larger “doses” of exercise to continue seeing improvement. While an exercise session generating an EPOC of 60 ml-O2/kg might have given you a great training benefit when you were out of shape, it might not do very much for you once you are in really good shape. Training Effect reflects this reality by giving a higher number in the first case than in the second case.

Anaerobic Training Effect

While there is not a specific metric tied to it, the aspect of performance most easily associated with anaerobic training effect is your ability to perform short bursts of sustained high-intensity activity. Your body’s most efficient method of transforming fuel into energy requires oxygen, but sometimes your demand for energy exceeds the rate at which enough oxygen is immediately available. Anaerobic energy can jump into action in these scenarios, but it becomes depleted quickly.

By analyzing both heart rate and speed (or power, in the case of cycling) the anaerobic training effect feature quantifies the anaerobic contribution to EPOC made during these periods of exertion. The higher the anaerobic training effect, the greater expected benefit to your anaerobic athletic capability. High-intensity intervals, for example, have been shown to improve several components related to your ability to perform, and anaerobic training effect quantifies this for you. However, the feature goes one step further. By analyzing the type of workout you did, it can tell you more specifically how the workout helped you. For example, if it were detected that you completed several high-speed repeats, you might get an anaerobic training effect of 3.5 saying, “This activity improved your anaerobic capacity and speed due to several high-speed/power repeats.”

For cycling, steady workouts at moderate effort or workouts involving longer intervals (>180 sec) have a positive impact on your aerobic metabolism and result in an improved aerobic training effect while repeated high-intensity intervals of 10 to 120 seconds have a highly beneficial impact on your anaerobic capability and result in an improved anaerobic training effect. For running, the following table should give you an idea of the typical aerobic and anaerobic training effect you can expect from a good run workout. 

The above Training Effect values and phrases are illustrative examples. Your experience may differ depending on your personal training habits. For example, if you aren't getting your heart rate down during an intense interval session, you are more likely to see the workout labeled 'Tempo' rather than 'Threshold'. It may take several training sessions for the device to learn your fitness parameters and produce the most accurate results. While the device is still learning about you, you may see uncharacteristic Training Effect values.