Tymewear VitalPro: Thoughts After 2 Months

The Tymewear VitalPro adds a training metric that heart rate and power alone cannot provide.

Heart rate and power define endurance training zones across running, cycling and triathlon, and the protocols built on them are what most serious athletes live by. But on a long ride, an ultra, or the bike leg of a long-course triathlon, both signals become less reliable the longer the effort goes on. Heart rate drifts upward. Power has to come down to hold the same zone. Ventilation does neither.

What is the VitalPro sensor?

TymeWear’s VitalPro is a chest strap with two sensors: a conventional heart rate monitor at the front, and a unique strain-gauge breathing sensor on the back. That special sensor comprises two pods, one of which contains a battery, and, between them, a free-moving, rubber-like material.

Together they capture breathing rate, minute ventilation, tidal volume and heart rate in real time. At £299, the unit sits at the premium end of the chest-strap market – although it comes with a well-featured app.

As you would expect, heart rate streams over ANT+ or Bluetooth in the usual way, but the uniqueness of the breathing data means it comes via a Garmin Connect IQ app. Hence, it’s then relatively easy to display on Edge bike computers and Garmin watches. Apple Watch is also supported, and other brands will follow in 2026.

Why ventilation?

Minute ventilation, the total air moved per minute, is breathing rate multiplied by tidal volume, which is the volume of air per breath. A fast, shallow breath moves less air than a slow, deep one, so breathing rate alone does not track effort. Several heart rate monitors already report breathing rate. The VitalPro is one of the few consumer devices that also estimates tidal volume, inferring it from the chest expansion (others use inferences from the Kubios algorithm/dfa a1). Tidal volume is what makes ventilatory thresholds detectable.

Dr Jonathan Baker, a data scientist for Alpecin-Deceuninck, told BikeRadar after testing a beta unit that the VitalPro provides accurate readings. That ventilation feels like a true threshold signal. He also said it does not replace the power meter or the heart rate monitor. Adds, not replaces.

Threshold testing without the lab

FTP and threshold heart rate tests can be done at home for free. Precise lactate and ventilatory thresholds have invariably needed a lab. VitalPro puts the threshold test on the strap and in its app, allowing owners to repeat it as often as they want at no extra cost.

Autodetection of thresholds from accumulated activity data is also in development, the brand has told the5krunner, which would remove the need for explicit retests. But not yet.

The evidence base

The 2.4-times-faster headline traces to a single twelve-week study by Wolpern and colleagues, which compared ventilatory-threshold training against heart rate reserve and reported an 11.7 per cent VO2max gain in the threshold group, compared with 4.9 per cent in the comparison group. Clearly, that is one trial, not a body of evidence. Tymewear’s in-house validation of the VitalPro against the Cosmed K5 metabolic cart reports 97 per cent accuracy for minute ventilation.

An earlier peer-reviewed paper by Sieff and colleagues found that Tymewear’s older smart shirt appeared to underestimate ventilatory thresholds against the lab gold standard. The VitalPro is a different sensor, and the brand has since refined the technology. Independent peer review of the VitalPro has not yet appeared, as far as I know.

More: Stephen Seiler, whose polarised-training research at the University of Agder has shaped the modern understanding of endurance intensity distribution, has collaborated with the brand. This site’s earlier coverage of ventilatory thresholds via the Fourth Frontier X2 sets out the underlying physiology in more depth.

Running, cycling and triathlon

Tymewear’s marketing leads with cycling, anchored by the Visma-Lease a Bike partnership, but the strap is built for runners, triathletes, and other kinds of endurance athletes. Running and cycling each require its own threshold test because their movement and intensity profiles differ. Triathletes have to complete both. The brand’s home page does not clearly flag this.

Note: IPX7 (1m waterproofing). It’s not for swimming

Some Thoughts on the Apps and My Usage

I did two tests, one for cycling and one for treadmill running. As you can see from the results below, the VO2max was overestimated by ‘a bit’, probably due to an incorrect treadmill speed calibration.

The iOS app itself is robust and looks nice, and is easy to use. The information is well presented and fairly self-explanatory.

I didn’t test the Apple Watch app, but I have used the Garmin CIQ data field, which is the only way to get your ventilation data into the TymeWear smartphone app unless the smartphone is with you (which mine never is). There is a regular sync from Garmin Connect to the iOS app, even for completed workouts where you didn’t use the strap, meaning that the app has a complete picture of your training.

I haven’t precisely noted or quantified how responsive the CIQ data field is to actual changes in effort. I want to say it’s about 10 seconds for the body to respond, and then a few more seconds for that to manifest in the averaged numbers shown. Something like that. i.e., slower than power and faster than HR to respond. If this initial verdict turns into a more detailed review of the TymeWear VitalPro, then I’ll include those kinds of stats.

The subscription problem

The commercial structure is where the questions multiply. The £299 strap includes a one-month trial of ProTraining, which then auto-renews at £15 per month unless cancelled.

The strap, on its own, delivers data, unlimited threshold tests, Garmin connectivity, and live workout metrics. ProTraining adds daily workout recommendations and a personalised workout library, which is to say it sells coaching. Tymewear’s own positioning is that this layer suits less-experienced athletes who do not yet have a training regime, which I guess is an honest framing.

For the reader who already works with a coach, a power meter, and training ecosystems on Garmin or Intervals.icu, the subscription is the wrong product for them. Whoop justifies its subscription because the Whoop app is the platform that typical members build their training around. Tymewear’s coaching infrastructure is not the platform for serious endurance athletes, whose training data already lives in tools such as TrainingPeaks. The metric is worth paying for. The coaching layer, for this audience, less so.

Usage

The breathing sensor sits on the back of the strap, and the author plus owners on the TrainerRoad and MTBR forums report that readings can spike outdoors during position changes and the strap can shift out of place. Furthermore, cyclists in bib shorts find the straps awkward to wear because they cross the area where the rear sensor is located; importantly, the strain gauge mechanism must sit cleanly above the bib’s rear strap, not below it (your jersey goes over it).

The strain gauge has no long-term durability record yet, as the product is new. It’s easily survived tens of hours for me, but it needs to survive many hundreds of hours.

Thoughts On The Future of VT as a Training Metric

I genuinely believe that training to VT plays a bigger role in the future of endurance training for the masses, alongside the role it already plays with some pro athletes. I’ve said the same thing about Muscle Oxygen metrics for several years. While muscle oxygen might solve some problems with exertion in the gym, it’s a complex metric that’s not as intuitive as the zones we are used to. VT doesn’t have that problem and, to varying degrees, mimics the ones we already know and love.

So VT has a future, but it will need a marketing push to gain wider awareness and understanding of its benefits. I’m surprised that Garmin hasn’t tackled this metric yet. TymeWear’s pricing shows that a high margin is possible, and that’s what Garmin wants. Garmin could also drive the awareness piece far more successfully than TymeWear.

Product Problems

It was a mistake not to make a waterproof strap, as this partially excludes triathletes who want to wear the VitalPro on race day. Fair enough, the strain gauge probably won’t work for swimmers, but triathletes will need to wear it under a tri suit, under a wetsuit, and it will get wet. I’ve worn other 1m IPX 7 straps while swimming, and it always ends badly.

Frequently asked questions

What does the VitalPro measure that a normal heart rate monitor does not?

Tidal volume and minute ventilation. A standard HRM that reports breathing rate does so indirectly via respiratory sinus arrhythmia, which measures breaths per minute. The VitalPro measures the magnitude of each chest expansion via its strain gauge. That is what makes minute ventilation, and the ventilatory thresholds derived from it, possible.

Does the strap work without the ProTraining subscription?

Yes. Real-time breathing rate, minute ventilation, tidal volume, heart rate, the threshold test, individualised zones, Garmin connectivity and ERG mode all run on the strap alone. The subscription adds daily workout recommendations and a personalised workout library. Those are software layers, not core sensor functions.

What happens if I cancel the subscription?

The sensor functions and the Tymewear app continue to work. Threshold tests, real-time data and the Garmin Connect IQ link remain available. Historical activity data stays in the Tymewear account. What disappears is the daily workout recommendation and the personalised workout library that the ProTraining tier provides.

How accurate is the ventilation measurement, and has anyone outside Tymewear verified it?

Tymewear’s in-house validation against the Cosmed K5 metabolic cart reports a pooled correlation of r=0.973 for minute ventilation and a mean absolute error of 1.2 breaths per minute for breathing rate, across 26 cycling incremental tests. That is the brand’s own study, not a third-party, peer-reviewed study. The nearest independent peer-reviewed work is Gouw and colleagues (2022) on Tymewear’s older smart-shirt product, which reported reliable test-retest results but a systematic underestimation of the second ventilatory threshold relative to the lab. No equivalent independent paper on the VitalPro chest strap itself has been published yet.

Should I trust the 2.4-times-faster training claim?

The number traces back to a real 2015 randomised controlled trial by Wolpern and colleagues, in which the ventilatory-threshold group gained 11.7 per cent in VO2max over 12 weeks, compared with 4.9 per cent in the heart-rate-reserve group. The cohort was 36 physically inactive adults with a mean age of 48.6 years. The finding holds for that population. Transferring the same multiplier to already-trained endurance athletes is a stretch that the marketing makes, which the study does not.

Will the readings hold in an aero or time-trial position?

A steady aero or TT position is fine once the strap settles. Short, sharp movements are where the readings get noisy. The breathing sensor sits on the back, under the shoulder blades, and measures the magnitude of chest expansion, so anything that compresses the strap against the lower back or shifts its position introduces signal noise. Users on the TrainerRoad and MTBR forums have reported spikes during sharp position changes.

Does outdoor cycling provide the same data quality as indoor cycling?

Indoors is cleaner. A turbo or smart trainer holds the body stable, which keeps the strain gauge reading the chest cleanly. Outdoor riding introduces bumps, position changes and the upper-body movement involved in handling the bike. Tymewear has improved outdoor stability through software updates, and the partnership with Visma-Lease-a-Bike includes outdoor road riding. The data is usable outside. It is cleaner inside.

Does this replace a power meter, or sit alongside one?

Alongside. Power tells you the mechanical work the legs are producing. Ventilation tells you the physiological cost of producing it. The two signals diverge in useful ways. Power can be held steady while ventilation drifts upward as fatigue accumulates, and that drift is where the metric earns its keep. A serious endurance athlete will run both. The VitalPro is not a power meter substitute.

Is ventilation really more stable than heart rate on long efforts?

Generally, yes, but not absolutely. Heart rate drifts upward during a long, steady-state effort due to cardiovascular strain, dehydration, heat, and substrate depletion. Ventilation also drifts under those same stressors, just to a lesser extent. The honest framing is that ventilation tends to track effort more tightly than heart rate over hours, particularly around the thresholds. Treating it as a drift-proof signal is wrong. Treating it as a more stable one than HR is right.

Will a coach actually use this data?

That depends on the coach. A coach already working in TrainingPeaks or Intervals.icu with HR and power data can read VT1 and VT2 zones in those tools, because Tymewear syncs across to both platforms. The data is portable. What the coach is less likely to adopt is the Tymewear app workflow or the ProTraining workout recommendations. The metric is portable. The coaching layer is not.

How does this compare to Whoop or Oura?

The use cases barely overlap. Whoop and Oura measure 24/7 strain, sleep and recovery via the wrist or finger, and neither measures ventilation. The VitalPro is the opposite: a session-time training tool focused on breathing-based intensity rather than a continuous wellness tracker. Owners of one would not see the other as a substitute.

How does this compare to the Fourth Frontier X2?

Both estimate ventilatory thresholds noninvasively, but from different physiological perspectives. The Frontier X2 is an ECG strap and derives VT1 and VT2 from heart rate, heart rate variability and detrended fluctuation analysis of the HRV signal. The VitalPro measures chest expansion directly with a strain gauge and computes minute ventilation from it. The X2 reads from the heart side. The VitalPro reads from the lung side.

What does Stephen Seiler’s involvement actually mean?

Seiler has collaborated with the brand, and his research has informed how the platform frames ventilatory thresholds. His name on the proposition adds credibility to the underlying framework. It does not constitute independent validation of the VitalPro hardware. Seiler’s research on polarised training stands on its own. Whether the VitalPro accurately measures the metric on which polarised training depends is a separate question.

Could a future Garmin update make the £299 obsolete?

Possibly, although not imminently. Garmin already derives breathing rate from chest-strap HRV via respiratory sinus arrhythmia, but it does not estimate tidal volume or minute ventilation, nor does it present ventilatory thresholds. Adding tidal volume estimation to an HRM 600 successor would require additional sensing or substantial algorithm work. If Garmin moves on this, the smaller brands will feel it first. A serious endurance buyer who actually does long efforts now is unlikely to wait.

Who it suits

The audience for the VitalPro is narrower than the marketing implies. At least for now, until the awareness grows.

It suits long-ride cyclists, ultrarunners, and triathletes whose bike leg runs long enough that heart rate and power begin to mislead. Coached athletes whose coach will use the data are natural buyers, as are athletes whose existing zones feel inaccurate on long efforts. It is less obviously useful to short-effort athletes whose heart rate and power zones already track effort honestly, to anyone unwilling to manage the auto-renewing subscription, or to anyone on Wahoo, Suunto or Coros who is not willing to wait for the integrations.

Verdict

Good metric. Wrong bundle. Buy the strap, not the subscription.

US Pricing:

• VitalPro Sensor + 1 Month ProTraining: $299 USD (approx. €275-€285)
• VitalPro Sensor + 1 Year ProTraining: $399 USD (approx. €370-€380)
• VitalPro Sensor + 2 Year ProTraining: $449 USD (approx. €415-€4

UK Pricing:

Last Updated on 19 May 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID