Your Garmin watch just got a massive free upgrade — here are the best new features you need to try

Some of the best Garmin watches just got even better, thanks to a bunch of new features Garmin has just rolled out with its latest software update. Perhaps the most useful of these is Garmin Fitness Coach, which will be available to Garmin Connect users for the first time.

Fitness Coach will help create personalized workout plans based on fitness, activity history, and background information. Runners and cyclists can already create plans in Garmin Coach, but Fitness Coach has been added for those wanting overall fitness improvement that incorporates strength workouts and over 25 different activity types.

So even if you're not using a Garmin watch to train for a marathon, you can now implement a gym or bodyweight-based plan to help achieve progress. As a side note, the new update will also let users track multiple activities in one session rather than saving separate activities

Before we dive into the rest of the features Garmin has announced, here's a list of all the compatible watches that can take advantage of them:

• Garmin Venu X1
• Garmin Fenix 8
• Garmin Vivoactive 6
• Garmin Forerunner 570
• Garmin Forerunner 970

Gear tracking updates

Garmin's oft-forgotten gear tracking is receiving a pretty substantial update that expands the gear types available and allows users to group them into collections. There's a gear database containing specific shoe and bike models as well as the ability to track gear stats and see a progress bar on the wrist, without needing to visit the app.

Gear tracking rarely gets talked about, but it's a way of showing how close your running shoes or road bike is to the end of its life. Users can put in a brand and a model alongside a maximum distance and then get notified about when the gear needs to be serviced or replaced. As part of this update, you'll now be able to auto-assign gear to specific Garmin Connect activities that will track stats automatically.

General health features

Using a Garmin watch to track your sleep just got a bit simpler, as compatible watches will now show users their sleep consistency and how aligned they are to their circadian rhythm.

General lifestyle logging has also been included with the ability to add behaviors — like consuming caffeine or alcohol — directly on their watch. You will also be able to view reports on how those choices impact sleep, stress and HRV².

Other features

Here's all the other features Garmin has announced as part of its latest software upgrade.

Course planner: This lets wearers prepare for upcoming races by planning out the course with cut-off times, rest plans, checkpoints, aid stations, and more in Garmin Connect, then see the course on their smartwatch.

Sports scores: Sports fans can track their favorite teams across 15 different leagues and see live scores, schedules, and standings from their wrist when paired with a smartphone.

Varia voice alerts: Cyclists can get audible alerts from their paired Varia radar to their smartwatch, letting them know about approaching vehicles to help them stay more aware of their surroundings.

Accessibility: Users can now hear the time of day, health data, and more spoken directly from the watch face, plus hourly alerts for the start of each hour. Color display options are also available – including grayscale, red/green, green/red, or blue/yellow, which help legibility for those with various forms of color blindness.

These updates are currently rolling out, so if you use one of the above Garmin models as your daily smartwatch, check that your Garmin Connect app is fully updated and make sure your watch is synced to start getting access to these new features.

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