HRM not working well..women??

cmbx2mom
cmbx2mom Posts: 56 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Anyone else ever have this issue? My heart rate monitor seems to work sometimes, but not other times, especially when I"m on the treamill. I was doing sprints today and I would look down and it said 139...no way! It should have been at least 160+, multiple times during my run. Then later when I was lifting hard it would say high 140s to 150s which made sense. I changed out the batteries, continuously tried to wet the sensors more, adjusted where the strap sits on my chest etc etc. This is a New Balance model. I used to have a POlar model that worked decent but I have always occassionally seen this issue with HRM. Sometimes I wonder if it is because the cheast strap was not really made with a womans body in mind. When I run outdoors I wear my garmin and I end up with cuts/gashes in my skin on my chest where it digs in. I have to keep it snug to get a signal. I feel like my ahem "chest bumps" really interfere with getting/keeping a decent signal. ANyone esle (especially women) have this issue???

Replies

  • cmbx2mom
    cmbx2mom Posts: 56 Member
    bump, maybe I posted this too early?
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
    No issues here.

    When you're lifting, the HRM will measure your HR, but the calorie burn estimate will be wrong. It's only accurate for cardio, even more so with steady state cardio.

    For the running, do you look down during your sprints? Or after? Because after, your HR would drop considerably within a minute. Mine usually goes down 20 to 25 bpm in the 1 minute walk breaks I take. Just confused when you stated it should be 160+ multiple times during your run. The display will show you the current HR by default. At the end, you can see your average HR and your Max HR.
  • sarahrbraun
    sarahrbraun Posts: 2,261 Member
    Anyone else ever have this issue? My heart rate monitor seems to work sometimes, but not other times, especially when I"m on the treamill. I was doing sprints today and I would look down and it said 139...no way! It should have been at least 160+, multiple times during my run. Then later when I was lifting hard it would say high 140s to 150s which made sense. I changed out the batteries, continuously tried to wet the sensors more, adjusted where the strap sits on my chest etc etc. This is a New Balance model. I used to have a POlar model that worked decent but I have always occassionally seen this issue with HRM. Sometimes I wonder if it is because the cheast strap was not really made with a womans body in mind. When I run outdoors I wear my garmin and I end up with cuts/gashes in my skin on my chest where it digs in. I have to keep it snug to get a signal. I feel like my ahem "chest bumps" really interfere with getting/keeping a decent signal. ANyone esle (especially women) have this issue???

    I don't think your generous pecs are the issue. I am a 38DD and I only had an issue 1x, and that was because I needed to tighten the strap. I put the strap snug up under my boobs, I don't even put anything on it. My HRM is an Omron 100C
  • fittocycle
    fittocycle Posts: 827 Member
    Do you think the chest strap might have loosen up during your workout? I tend to get inconsistent readings when mine is loose.
  • remisenforme
    remisenforme Posts: 180 Member
    I have a Polar, not your brand, but I haven't had a problem using it with weights, elliptical, or exercise bike. Hope it sorts out!
  • juliec33
    juliec33 Posts: 238 Member
    I have the same problem. I notice that it's worse with some of my sports bras than others. I even bought a heart rate monitor where the chest strap was designed for women (meaning it curved up in the middle to go between the boobs) and that one was worse and caused some really uncomfortable chafing. I love wearing a HRM because I think it gives a better calorie reading than MFP but right now I don't wear it because of the "issues".
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    I'm not sure how your breasts would interfere unless you were wearing the strap above your breasts instead of below it. But the strap should be snug, in fact, it should be just over the line from being tight so that the contact is solid and it doesn't shift around.

    My strap fits tightly around my chest, just under my breasts and my bra strap goes directly over the top of it. I only ever had one situation where the receiver lost the signal but I unsnapped and resnapped in the transmitter and it picked it right back up.
  • marsviolet
    marsviolet Posts: 79 Member
    I hate mine, it cuts out all the time. Biggest waste of money ever.

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