A heart rate monitor is a device that allows you to measure the heart rate in real time. It is a helpful device for athletes, health-conscious individuals, and even occasional exercisers. Heart rate monitors come in different types. This article will guide you through finding the best heart rate monitor you can use to your advantage.
Heart Rate Monitor Options
Why Get a Heart Rate Monitor?
Shopping for Heart Rate Monitors
Polar FS3
This is an entry-level heart rate monitor, perfect for simple exercisers. Its basic heart rate monitoring features include heart rate display, visual and audio alarm for target heart rate zone, backlight, and clock. This heart rate monitor watch is priced around $100 in the market.
Omron Heart Rate Monitor
This is another basic heart rate monitor, which is very easy-to-use. This watch offers a continuous heart rate reading, heart rate zone alarms, daily reminder alarm, and time display. It costs around $30 to $50.
Timex T5G971
This is a favorite among exercisers as it is easy to use and it provides basic heart rate and workout information. It has a large display screen and activity timer. The watch provides you information about the average, minimum, and maximum heart rate after each workout. The Timex T5G971 is priced around $30 to $60.
Garmin Forerunner 305
This heart rate monitor watch is perfect for the multi-sport athlete. This watch has not only a heart rate monitor but also has GPS tracker, distance and speed tracker, and calorie counter. The Garmin Forerunner 305 is available with a price tag of $125-$175.
Polar FT60
This watch can offer a personalized workout depending on your habits and goals. It can even customize your weekly targets depending on your performance from the past routines. Its features include a heart rate monitor, fitness test, data transfer, workout tracker, and calorie counter. It is priced at $160-$200.
Heart Rate Monitor Options
The most common heart rate monitor comes with a chest strap transmitter and a receiver. The receiver can be in the form of a mobile phone or a wrist watch. The chest strap transmitter records the heart rate continuously and sends it to the receiver for reading. Some heart rate monitors with chest strap come with an analog transmitter while others have digital ones. The first one is more popular in most heart rate monitors as it can be interfaced with gym equipments to monitor the heart. However, the problem with this kind of chest strap is there is always a possibility of signal interference, especially if other users of analog heart rate monitors are nearby. The digital chest strap, on the other hand, eliminates signal interference problems, but it only works to the transmitter it is originally packaged with.
Another type is the strapless heart rate monitors. This type of monitor requires getting your pulse in order for it to know your heart rate. Unlike heart rate monitors with transmitters, they do not record the heart rate continuously. When you are exercising, you need to stop and place two fingers on the special sensors of the watch for a heart rate reading.
Heart Rate Monitors Without Chest Strap
Polar RS 100
This heart rate monitor watch allows you hands-free heart rate monitoring. It continuously displays your settings as it allows you to set your heart rate goals and zones. This is also one of the sport watches for men that can monitor the calories and fats you have burned as you work out.
Polar RS 3000
Besides being a heart rate monitor, this one acts as a personal trainer, too. It can measure your speed and distance while allowing you to transfer all your data to a database.
Cardiosport Ultima PC
This one features an ECG accurate heart rate, which can efficiently calculate your average heart rate and pace. It also offers a countdown timer and a high/low target zone
Bowflex Basic Strapless
This watch is a very basic heart rate monitor as it only displays you the time and your heart rate. However, the heart rate here is not continuous. Meaning, you have to switch settings when you are timing your workout and calculating your heart rate.
Garmin Forerunner 405
This is considered one of the strapless heart rate monitors to date. This is a good sports watch that can display continuous heart rate and so as your calories burned and pace. It also offers an easy summary download of your workout to your computer.
Why Get a Heart Rate Monitor?
Having a heart rate monitor for your exercise routines can do a lot of things for you. Here are some of the reasons why you need this device today:
- Improve your health. Being updated with your heart rate readings can help you find the right intensity and pace of your exercise to help you achieve your goals. This is true whether you are a serious athlete or a simple individual trying different goals such as toning muscles, strengthening the heart, relieving stress, building endurance, controlling weight, and maintaining good fitness levels.
- Lose weight. A heart rate monitor can assist people who aim to lose weight. The monitor can tell you whether you are exercising hard enough for you to burn enough stored fats in the body.
- Exercise safely. Studies show that people who exercise using a heart rate monitor are the first ones to know whether they are developing a health problem or not. If the heart rate registers higher as compared to your expectations given the pace and intensity of the exercise, it may be a serious sign of being sick. The readings of a heart rate monitor can always serve as an early warning to help you stay away from health problems in the future.
- Exercise on your own. Getting a heart rate monitor is just the same as a having an exercise coach. You can set the monitor to beep in times you fall below your target. You can even change your pace and intensity to give your workout variety from time to time.
- Track your health. A heart rate monitor can be a long-term health tracking device. How your heart rate reads tells you the condition of your heart. If you notice a sudden rise in the heart rate in just a few seconds of exercise, the heart may be out of shape. Monitoring your heart rate regularly will help you determine its efficiency and strength.
Shopping for Heart Rate Monitors
Since there are a lot of options of heart rate monitors in the market, you must know what to choose for your use. Here are some considerations you must look for when shopping for a heart rate monitor:
- Design. Do you want a strapped or strapless monitor? If you need a continuous heart rate reading, you must go for heart rate devices that come with a chest strap. Otherwise, you may go for the strapless option.
- Features. Heart rate monitors are better if they offer more than just giving you your heart rate readings. Some of the best heart rate monitor watches and devices include heart rate zone alarm, countdown timers, fitness test, trackers, time, and data transfer. It is best for you to analyze your needs during exercise to see whether some features will be helpful or not.
- Ease of use. It is important that the heart rate monitor is very easy to use. It must be easy enough for you not to bother about the user’s manual every time you need to do something. Plus, its numbers must be read easily even when in low light.
- Software/data transfer. This is an aspect that is often overlooked when purchasing heart rate monitors. This ability of the device can help you transfer workout data to your computer for future monitoring. Since people usually have trouble with this feature, it is important that the software that comes with the heart rate monitor is easy to use.
- Price. The number of features and the quality of the heart rate monitor will usually determine the price of the watch.