Heart Rate Monitor

[Brighteyes 237]

My trainer has suggested I get a heart rate monitor so I can determine how many calories I am burning during my workouts. Anyone have any recommendations?

[Sleeved in Seattle 280]

Polar has some nice ones and it's good to get one that will ignore others around you. I had the F5 for years.

[Brighteyes 237]

Good to know. I will certainly put that on my list :-)

[suejersey 263]

I have the Polar FT4 or 40 and it works great. I use it all the time.

[wcn1970 239]

Look at this purchase long term. Do you plan to run or bike? If so out that into your thinking of what monitor you shop for. I use the bike gps watch that uses a polar strap. I get best of both worlds. Just a HRM for the gym and it is a GPS watch to track my rides and HR while mountain biking plus logs everything on the nike app so I can see my progress.

[wcn1970 239]

Nike GPS watch.

[Alex Brecher 10,494]

Most Polar straps are compatible with the heart rate monitors built in to many pieces of standard gym equipment. I personally use the FT4. I find wearing a strap around my chest to be very uncomfortable and it slides down quite a bit when I'm really pushing myself hard. I can't wait for (accurate) heart rate monitors that don't require chest bands. The technology is there and should be coming to market in a few months.

[wcn1970 239]

^^ the Mio Alpha is a nice strapless HRM and is very accurate. I had one for a couple weeks. I didn't end up keeping it because it wasn't great with cycling. I had to use 2 separate units and prefer one. I have no issues with straps and wonder if your HRM is a newer model or older? Could be the difference in straps and it sliding down. I find I have to tighten my straps every so often and wash them once a week or so.

[HoosierGirl 780]

I do a lot of home workouts and gym workouts. Have a Polar FT7 and like it a lot. Although it doesn't track distance on my runs, I can still track my heart rate.