Cardiosport is a UK company with excellent distribution in the US. They feature several excellent heart rate monitors at affordable prices that provide accurate readings without a lot of features. For example, the Cardiosport Go provides the time of day and your heart rate. It allows you to set your target zones with an alarm function that tells you when you’ve reached your zone. And, it includes an exercise session timer and tells you how well you did on your last workout. It offers an excellent value for $69.
The GraphX, at $159, which features a color display (one of the few color displays on the market), displays heart rate in numerical as well as percentage terms (as a percent of your own maximum), shows how long you’ve been exercising, and includes a stopwatch.
Cardiosport’s high end is appropriately named the Ultima, a $300 heart rate monitor that records up to 80 hours of training and up to six sessions at a time, which you can then upload to your PC for analysis later. Used in conjunction with the included software, it can tell you your average heart rate per lap, your actual heart rate per session, and your time in, above, and below your target zone.
Street prices for Cardiosport heart rate monitors are much lower then I’ve mentioned here. For example, we saw the GraphX for as low as $89.
The great thing about the MIO heart rate monitor watch is that it doesn’t require a chest strap. The bad thing about the MIO is that it doesn’t have a chest strap. This feature is good because no one really likes to wear a chest strap while exercising (or at any other time, for that matter). It’s bad because there’s no way to truly analyze your workout. Also, because you’re not wearing a chest strap, the MIO can’t tell you whether you’re in your target zone. It can only tell you your heart rate when you put two of your fingers on the watch and press down. Believe me, this is distracting, and it sometimes doesn’t work right.
The MIO heart rate monitor watch features a stopwatch for exercising, and will track your heart rate and relationships to the target zones, including percentages. It also tracks calories burned in a workout and can track calories eaten throughout the day. To get your heart rate, put your thumb and index finger on the MioSensors on top of the watch for a few seconds. The MIO takes your pulse and displays your heart rate.
The folks at MIO call it a “lifestyle monitor” because it tracks your heart rate during workouts, as well as calories burned. Then, throughout the day, you can enter how many calories you’ve eaten, and MIO tells you how well you’re doing from that standpoint. You subtract calories burned from calories eaten to help you determine whether you’re on track for the day from a diet and exercise standpoint.
Once you tell the MIO that you’ve started a workout, it automatically calculates your expected heart rate in between the times that you get your heart rate. So, if you get your heart rate after five minutes and then again after 15, MIO will calculate what it expected your heart rate to be in those intervening minutes and determine how many calories you’ve burned in your workout as a result.
They claim that this is accurate, and they have a research study to prove this online. However, their study says that MIO was able to get a heart rate 79% of the time (because of the difficulty of using the sensors), while a heart rate monitor with chest strap was successful 100% of the time. In any case, using a MIO watch will give you fairly accurate results and without the hassle of a chest strap. MIO offers several variations of the watch, all with similar features, ranging in price from $89.95 to $149.95.
Nike offers both low-end and very high-end heart rate monitors, all very stylish. For $99, you can get the Imara, which is designed for women and features a calorie counter, programmable heart rate zones, a data mode that offers exercise time, and a two time-zone watch. It displays heart rate in both beats per minute and as a percentage of maximum.
Step up a bit to $299 for the Triax Elite HRM or the $359 Triax Elite HRM/SDM, both intended for serious athletes. Both devices are feature-packed and provide heart rate zones and numerous features. Both include software so you can upload your workouts to your PC. The SDM includes a pod that clips to your shoe and measures speed and distance features so that it not only monitors your heart rate, but it also tells you how far you went and how fast you went. The watch displays your performance in real time as well, so you can turn it up a notch during a workout.
This is a pretty serious product that works on both PCs and Macs. You connect it to your computer through a USB dock that’s about the size of a hockey puck. These devices sync with your computer, downloading workout data from the watch to the computer and uploading workout plans and watch settings to the watch. Either device is great for training purposes, but they are both probably more than the average person needs.
Whatever you want in a heart rate monitor, the odds are, Polar offers it.With models starting at $59.99 and going up to $399.99, you can get nearly anything you want in a Polar heart rate monitor. And it’s no wonder; Polar has been making heart rate monitors since 1977, when they invented the first wireless heart rate monitor.Now, Polar offers more than 20 models, optimized for cycling, swimming, running, or mountain climbing. Plus, many watches include barometric readers, altimeters, compasses, and other devices.
While Nike is spending much of its time developing high-end exercise monitors, Reebok is tackling the low end, offering four heart rate monitors, all around $100 or less. Their top of the line is the Reebok Fit Trainer Heart Rate Monitor, which features a target zone alarm; exercise timer; and time in, above, and below your target heart rate in a stylish watch that you can wear when you’re not working out. The Fit Trainer sells for $89.99. Reebok also offers a more basic unit, the Personal Trainer, for $59.99. It’s not as attractive as the Fit Trainer and it doesn’t feature the exercise timer or zone alarm. The $79.99 Strapless Heart Rate Monitor is Reebok’s answer to the MIO. It features a timer, pacer mode, and touch sensors to take your heart rate up to 42 times during a workout.
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