Cardiac Rehab

[sylviayasgur]

re: heart rate monitors

re: heart rate monitors

hi again, peter!

about heart rate monitors..... i think i mentioned the polar monitors. they involve a strap that is worn around your rib cage and transmits your heart rate onto a watch you wear along with it. an alarm can be programmed to sound if you should exceed your target heart rate zone (or if you want to program a max. pulse rate at which you will receive a warning alarm/sound). most monitors involve some sort of strap.

i also mentioned that joey used a casio watch (casio exercise pulse monitor JP-200W) that is fairly accurate without a strap. it is a watch and you press a button, place your finger on a special spot designated to measure h.r., and there is a diagram that shows you your approximate pulse rate. i think it was originally designed to be used in conjunction with a strap but joey found it to be effective without anything else (just the watch) . this one goes for about $50.-

the one i liked best is an even newer one that i think i may eventually buy for joey, which goes for about $120.-. it's called the MIO chest bandless h.r. monitor and is a new watch that, as it says, has no chest strap!! it looks good too. (it, unlike joey's casio, was designed to be used independent of any external equipment).

take a look at the website: www.sarkproducts.com. they have a few different ones there. also, i went to ask jeeves and punched in casio exercise pulse monitor and it came up with quite a few, including joey's watch.

good luck and i hope i helped!
please let me know how it goes.
-be well,
sylvia

 

[Peter Easton]

Thanks, Sylvia!

Excellent references. I'm off and running, so to speak.

Peter

 

[Perrster]

MIO Watch

MIO Watch

Hey, Sylvia:

If you get the MIO let me know how you like it. I'm considering one of them too. I have a friend who works for the Fitness Experience corporate offices here in Chicago suburbs. She said they were not selling so many of them due to a recall a few months back because of a defective batch. I haven't talked to her about it for awhile but I would suspect that MIO has probably ironed out the problems and replaced all the bad ones. However, I still like them and maybe Santa Claus will check this vr.com post and bring me one?! In the meantime, I use a Polar strap on model.

 

[Marty]

Beginning rehab-telemetry monitor

Beginning rehab-telemetry monitor

Peter, It is good to hear you getting serious about aerobic training and are considering various heart rate monitors. My favorite is the Polar Pacer which comes with a chest belt transmitter and a wrist watch receiver. However, I would not do this on your own this early in your convalescence. When I started formal rehab at my hospital at eight weeks post op they had me wired for EKG, respiratory rate, etc. and could follow this during my early sessions by telemetry. Many patients perhaps 40% will have arrythmias post op . Eventually most of these resolve on their own but some require medication.It is very important that you be monitored during the beginning of your program. I was monitored for the first four weeks of my program. Warm regards Marty

 

[sylviayasgur]

Great advice, Marty!

i tend to be conservative when it comes to working out, etc. joey and i even discussed the possibility of the hmo not covering rehab, in which case we will go once and see what they do there so we can do follow up at home.

i tend to feel that an ekg hook up would be a good thing, especially with heart patients (arrhythmias or not), because in many vr patients, it is my impression (please correct me if i'm wrong) that the heart has to learn not to work as hard as it has been working all this time. this often makes the h.r. increase. these are all things that s/b monitored closely.

Perry, i will let you all know how that MIO is. just ordered one for joey. he still likes his casio though and wants me to buy him that too! talk about pampering the patient!

meanwhile, joey just went for a pulmonary function baseline test (since he is amioderone). anyone else hear of this?
would you believe he's at the office for 2 hours???? boy is he going to sleep well tonight!

hope you're all doing well. this is good discussion, cardia rehab!
God bless you all and keep feeling good!
-sylva

 

[Kevin M]

We've had the polar for about three or four years now.
We use the wrist receiver and it works with our treadmill also.
It's been great. No problems, except we had to replace the battery once and it was kind of a pain to hunt down one for it, but given the number of weird little high tech devices, cameras, PDA's, etc. that are out there now, it's probably easier to find batteries for them.
Kev