Recommend me a good cheap heart rate monitor

zzzeee1

I figure I should pick it up so I can have a better idea of how much is my workout worth

Anyone can recommend one (I rather have a watch only, without the chest strap)

Newf77

You stated that "better idea of how much is my workout worth' you are going to have an issue with this unless you have a chest strap. The watch style HRM's are good for periodic checking of your heartrate and from there it makes an estimate of the caloric burn, but with a chest strap it will measure your heart rate consistantly. Sorry no reccommendations for a strapless monitor.

dad106

You stated that "better idea of how much is my workout worth' you are going to have an issue with this unless you have a chest strap. The watch style HRM's are good for periodic checking of your heartrate and from there it makes an estimate of the caloric burn, but with a chest strap it will measure your heart rate consistantly. Sorry no reccommendations for a strapless monitor.

This right here!

Watch only ones are not accurate at all because they only take info when you touch it. So lets say you touch it once and get a reading of 90.. It's going to take that 90 and base your calorie burn off of that until you touch it again. So if you only touch it once during a workout, the reading will either be really low or really high.

A chest strap one on the other hand, is constantly feeding the watch your heart rate.. and thus gives you a way more accurate calorie burn.

If you want a good cheap chest strap model, then look at the Polar FT4. Runs for about 60 dollars on amazon.