Tips on Buying a Fitness Heart Rate Monitor
Heart rate monitors are used by keep fit enthusiasts and athletes who use them to watch the rate of their heart while exercising. Heart rate monitors are small electronic devices that give a numerical read out of the heart rate. As you exercise you can aim for a target heart rate to be certain that your exercising is effective. Basic heart rate monitors can be used when working out, physicians will use more complex ones to monitor heart conditions.
At the moment heart monitors are can be purchased on line and in the shops and are designed to cater for an individuals specific needs. They can be designed specifically for losing weight or for use during fitness training. Individual monitors can be worn like a wrist watch or built into exercise equipment such as exercise bikes or rowing machines. Simple heart monitors that are easy to use, with large displays and a timer can be purchased from approximately $45. Check the ease of changing the battery. It is impossible to do this yourself for some monitors. Several basic monitors also display your average heart rate as well as maximum and minimum rates during your exercise session.
Some of the more expensive monitors have a range of functions including workout intensity, monitoring how many calories you have burned and the time you spend in the heart rate zone. Some even include weekly summaries of your workouts. These types of heart monitors cost approximately $100.
At the top of the range are heart monitors like the Garmin Forerunner Sports Watch and the Polar FT60 which have USB ports for transferring data to the computer. A Garmin foot pod can be added to the Garmin Forerunner Sports Watch to to make a combined heart rate monitor and pedometer and monitor distance, speed and calories burned. You can set the Polar FT60 for weekly targets and to track progress. If you are a serious athlete these versatile, multi-featured monitors are excellent but pricey at around $200.
There are two ways to monitor heart rates, a pulse meter on the finger or a chest strap. Monitors that use a chest strap usually give more accurate readings as long as you make sure the chest strap is fitted properly and is close to the body at all times. The heart is monitored in the same way as an ECG and the data is received by a device, generally worn on the wrist like a watch. Alternatively some heart rate monitors provide audio messages through earphones.
So that you can have an effective workout you should find out your target heart rate. You can find this from a heart rate calculator. When you have found your target zone you can use your heart rate monitor to keep within this zone during your exercise session. Keeping within the zone is important to so that you don’t injure yourself from working too hard or getting too little benefit by not working hard enough. An exercise heart rate monitor can be an efficient method of making sure you’re exercise program gives you the full benefit.
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