HRM

rymattsmom

Hi all,
Was looking for input/advice on HRM’s for myself that I can wear for the gym/walks. I don’t want anything too clunky looking/feeling and overall versatile/ user friendly. Waterproof would be great. I’d rather not pay an arm and a leg for it- I see a big $ span on amazon from $27-$350. I’d like a good reliable one.
Thanks In advance! It’s time to trade In The Polar chest strap contraption I used for years-years ago, lolol....

NorthCascades

I love my Garmin watch. It tracks what I'm doing at the gym - the motion sensor is pretty good but not perfect at telling deadlifts from overhead presses - and counts reps for me. Easy to correct it when it's wrong. It keeps a journal and there's a graph showing my total volume for each lift I do, it's nice to see the progression visually.

Before you spend $$$ you should know heart rate monitors have no special insight into how many calories you burn. You can be more accurate for walking with a simple mass over distance formula, and weight lifting is almost impossible to get a realistic estimate for, most people use a ballpark figure. Knowing your heart rate is useful for some types of training, that's why they're made.

TallGent66

NorthCascades wrote: »

I love my Garmin watch. It tracks what I'm doing at the gym - the motion sensor is pretty good but not perfect at telling deadlifts from overhead presses - and counts reps for me. Easy to correct it when it's wrong. It keeps a journal and there's a graph showing my total volume for each lift I do, it's nice to see the progression visually.

Before you spend $$$ you should know heart rate monitors have no special insight into how many calories you burn. You can be more accurate for walking with a simple mass over distance formula, and weight lifting is almost impossible to get a realistic estimate for, most people use a ballpark figure. Knowing your heart rate is useful for some types of training, that's why they're made.

How does it track volume? (Weight?)

NorthCascades

I start a "strength training" activity. I press a button to end each set. It'll count reps, but when I end the set it lets me use the up/down buttons to correct the # of reps. After that, it asks me how much weight, and defaults to what I did the last set. Afterwards, on the computer I have a list of the lifts I did, with the weight and number of reps. Can also correct on the computer, and that's what the graph is built from.

spiriteagle99

Wrist HRMs are not as accurate as chest straps. They give you an approximation, but can sometimes be really off.

MeanderingMammal

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Wrist HRMs are not as accurate as chest straps. They give you an approximation, but can sometimes be really off.

And it doesn't really matter how accurate a measure is, if you're using it to extrapolate something that's not really related to heart rate.

For the activities talked about, a 5% error rate on the HR measured is dwarfed by the errors in extrapolation. Broadly, the originator will get no value from an HRM.

sijomial

OP - Why do you actually want to know your HR during "gym" and walks?
(I'm not seeing what the benefit is for those activities.)

rymattsmom

It gives you a snapshot at what capacity your heart is working. At a low, healthy or too harsh of a range for each individual.

MeanderingMammal

rymattsmom wrote: »

It gives you a snapshot at what capacity your heart is working. At a low, healthy or too harsh of a range for each individual.

If that's all you want them the Garmin VivoSmart 3 will do what you want at a decent level of accuracy. They're heavily discounted on Amazon at the moment.

AnnPT77

rymattsmom wrote: »

It gives you a snapshot at what capacity your heart is working. At a low, healthy or too harsh of a range for each individual.

It can potentially do this if someone knows their actual (tested) maximum heart rate. The age estimates of HRmax are so far off for so many people that if one relies on such an estimate (which is often what's built into a fitness tracker), it can seriously mislead as to training HR ranges. Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) can be a better training guide in that kind of scenario (i.e., if untested), or there are various HRmax tests you can do (after you get doctor clearance, of course).

If your doctor says your CV system is sound, there really isn't a "too harsh" heart rate. We can work all the way up to tested max. If we try to work at too high a level, too often, or for too long, we get fatigued and underperform, of course: In that sense, knowing ranges based on tested max can be useful.