Health and safety

What Gears is, and what it isn't

Gears coaches your running effort, builds a plan around your week and offers guidance for today's run from your sleep, your heart and your recent training. It doesn't diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any illness or injury, and it can't tell you whether exercise is safe for you. Only a doctor who knows you can do that.

Who should check with a doctor first?

It's wise for anyone starting a new kind of exercise to talk to a doctor. Please do so before running with Gears if any of these apply to you:

• you have, or have had, a heart condition, or a doctor has said you should only exercise under supervision
• you feel chest pain or tightness, at rest or when active
• you get dizzy, lose your balance or have ever fainted
• you have high blood pressure, or take medicine for your heart or blood pressure
• you have diabetes, asthma or another long-term condition
• you're pregnant, or have had a baby recently
• you have a bone, joint or muscle problem that activity could make worse
• you're getting over an illness, an injury or an operation
• you haven't been active for a long time

Gears asks about some of these on its safety step before your plan starts. Your answers shape the plan, and some of them hold the start until you've checked with a doctor. That step helps, but it isn't a medical assessment.

Readings can be wrong

Gears relies on sensors, and sensors make mistakes. A wrist heart-rate reading can be thrown off by a loose strap, cold skin, tattoos, sweat or arm movement; a chest strap reads more steadily, but can drop out when its pads are dry. GPS can wander under trees, between tall buildings and in tunnels. If a reading looks wrong, trust how you feel, not the number.

Gears is built so that heart rate can only make a gear easier, never harder. Even so, never push through discomfort because a screen says you can.

Readiness and training load are guidance, not diagnosis

Readiness, Today's gear and training load compare your recent sleep, heart and training with your own usual. They're guidance for today's run, not a medical reading. A good score doesn't mean you're well, and a low one doesn't mean you're ill. If you feel unwell, rest and, if it persists, see a doctor, whatever the app says.

Gears doesn't promise results. How quickly anyone gets fitter depends on far more than an app.

Stop if something hurts

Pain is information. If something hurts in a way that running makes worse, stop. In the app, open the End sheet and tap Something hurts: the run ends, the coach tells you to rest it, and the run is never marked down for stopping.

Stop straight away, and get help if you need it, if you feel chest pain or pressure, a racing or irregular heartbeat, dizziness, faintness, unusual breathlessness or confusion.

How do I run safely with Gears?

• Traffic first. Watch the road, not the screen. Obey traffic signals, and cross only where it's safe. The coach's cues never mean you should run into traffic or speed up at a crossing.
• Keep your ears open. Set your headphones to a volume that lets you hear cars, bikes and people. Open-ear headphones help. Gears can coach by haptics alone on the watch.
• Pick your route. Choose places you know, with good footing and light. Tell someone where you're going, especially for long runs or in the dark.
• Mind the weather. Ease off in heat and humidity, and dress for the cold. The coach's word about the day is a general guide from a forecast, not a weather warning.
• Drink and fuel as you need to. Gears doesn't remind you.
• Respect rest. Easy days and rest days are part of training. Gears plans them on purpose.

Questions

If you're unsure whether something in Gears suits you, ask your doctor first, then ask us at support@gearsrunning.com. Our terms of use say more about your responsibilities and ours.