Looking for a heart rate monitor, for workouts:

[Hot Rod Harry]

I have found 2 @ Sports Authority.. One is a Nike, & looks nice, the other is a Polar... Both are either with, or without a chest strap..

Which is the best, & is a chest strap needed/ the most acurate?

 

[Ed_War]

Hi HRH:

I have the Polar F11 with the chest strap. I love it, it tracks and charts everything (and can even be transfered to your computer). You need the chest strap for accuracy and convenience. I've checked mine against the monitor at Cardio Rehab and the numbers are identical. I highly recomend the Polar. It gives me piece of mind when I'm not at rehab and working out on my own at the gym.

Ed

 

[ctyguy]

I've got a Polar T31, comes with the watch and chest strap. The nice thing that I discovered is that when I go to the gym the treadmills pickup the signal and report my heart rate identical to the watch.

Definitely nice to have and gives me and lets me know when I might be going to hard.

 

[Adrienne]

I've got a Polar F11 which has a flexible strap for the chest. Two of the treadmills (the newer ones) where I work out pick up the signal.

 

[Hot Rod Harry]

How do they read the signal, with a cord to the chest strap? I wouldn't mind that for walking, etc, but would also like to have something un obstructive to use while I am at work, and while lifting weights.

Where can I get the Mio from?

 

[ctyguy]

The polar work wireless to the wristwatch it comes with as well as the treadmills in the gym. Nothing obstructive.

 

[Lionheart]

There are at least two heart rate monitors that can measure either with or without the chest strap.

Mio Ultimate
Reebok hybrid

You can see both of them at amazon.com
I ordered one so that I could monitor my rate either occasionally during the day without the strap or continuously during exercise with the strap.

I have no idea how well they work compared to others.

John

 

[tprice54]

Hrm

Hrm

For just a heart rate monitor, Polar was/is the standard. The chest strap allows for continuos readings during a workout. I have not seen the MIO, but looking at the web site, it should do just as well when wearing the strap.

 

[AgilityDog]

I had a mio, briefly, but returned it. It never could pick up my HR-I tried it for several days. I have a polar with the strap that I wear when I work out.

 

[Philip B]

Polar w. Chest Strap

Polar w. Chest Strap

I use Polar monitors (CS 200 & RS 200) for my cycling workouts and gym workouts. Both units use the chest strap with sensors.

The chest straps actually have electrical sensors built into the strap. The sensors pickup the electrical impulse which controls heart rate. To insure good transmission, I just wet my fingertip from a water bottle and wipe my finger across the sensor strips before putting on the strap.

Several of my staff members use Timex heart rate monitors. I've not heard any complaints about the Timex equipment.

I think there are lots of quality monitor products out there. The general concensus I've heard is that the models which use a chest strap transmitter tend to be more accurate than the ones that simply pickup a pulse rate from a wrist strap.

A lot of gym cardio equipment now comes with the electronics to pickup signals from chest strap transmiters. I just opened an empoyee fitness center on my campus and found that several pieces of my cardio equipment pickup the signals from my Polar chest strap.

Heart monitors really work well when one is trying to improve cardio fitness.

-Philip

 

[spartangator]

Hrm

Hrm

I've been using a Polar, like some of the other posters, and it's been great for running and weight-lifting. The readings were perfectly in agreement with the monitors at cardiac therapy, and while I haven't started doing so yet, I like the option of downloading the workout data to my computer.

The chest strap that comes with the Polar models is cloth-based with a little plastic piece that clips on in the front. These are way more comfortable than some other designs that have hard plastic straps all the way across the chest. I'm not going to say that wearing the chest strap doesn't freak me out sometimes just because it touches my scar, but any issues there are in my head. It's perfectly comfortable physically.

Amazon.com seemed to have the best prices when I was shopping around.