HRMs and strength training

Unless you get one with a chest strap you might as well keep on guessing. HRM's aren't very accurate at lower heart rates so lifting calories is iffy. It will be fine for all your other activities. A Polar FT4 will give you what you need at a reasonable price.

Thanks! The Polar FT4 was the one I was looking at. I'm reading the manual for it online right now.

I got mine in August and I love it.

Thanks! The Polar FT4 was the one I was looking at. I'm reading the manual for it online right now.

EDIT: Reading the manual and I'm confused about the chest strap.

http://www.polar.fi/e_manuals/FT4/Polar_FT4_user_manual_English/manual.pdf

See page 6. Do I really have to wet the electrodes on the strap and wear the thing around my chest EVERY time I work out? What if I go swimming?

Well, not if you go swimming. But yes, I just run mine under the faucet. You also should rinse it after every use and machine wash it weekly.

HRM's don't work at all for weight training. They're not made for that. The calculations are based on higher oxygen levels in the blood that only occur with cardio exercise.
Using a heart rate monitor when weight lifting would be the same as using it to calculate how many calories you burned when something scared you. Your heart rate increases but it's not the same as cardio.

The benefits of weight training come after instead of during.
The more muscle you have on your body the more calories your body burns thru the day.

HRM's don't work at all for weight training. They're not made for that. The calculations are based on higher oxygen levels in the blood that only occur with cardio exercise.
Using a heart rate monitor when weight lifting would be the same as using it to calculate how many calories you burned when something scared you. Your heart rate increases but it's not the same as cardio.

I do circuit training with weights which gets my heart rate up, would it work for that?

Any kind of cardio will work with the HRM. Just not straight weight training.

The HRM may help you estimate more accurately, but bear in mind that you will always be guessing on how many calories you are using.

Here's a excerpt of an article written by a certified trainer. It explains some of the technical aspects of HRM not working for weight training...



The problem is a technical one. Calorie burning isn't determined by heart rate, it's determined by the number of muscle cells that are activated to perform a given activity. It's the working cells that actually use the energy (calories) and consume oxygen. When working muscle cells need more energy and oxygen, your heart rate goes up to deliver these things to the cells via the blood stream.

Any muscle that performs a high intensity or maximum effort (strength training) will trigger an increase in heart rate and blood flow. But if only a single muscle group is on the receiving end to utilize that extra oxygen (doing a strength exercise that isolates your biceps, for example), only a relatively small amount of oxygen (and calories) will actually be consumed.

So while a series of strength training exercises may elevate your heart rate like aerobic exercise does, you're not actually using as much oxygen and burning as many calories as you would be if you were steadily using several large muscles all at once, as when walking, running, swimming, or doing aerobics for example.

The heart rate monitor doesn’t know whether your increase in heart rate is due to several large muscle groups working (cardio), an isolated muscle group lifting a weight (strength training), or even if adrenaline or excitement is increasing your heart rate. It just knows your heart rate, and the formulas it uses to estimate calories are based on studies of aerobic exercise, not other activities. So, it's going to overestimate your calorie expenditure when the rise in heart rate is stimulated by using isolated muscles at maximum intensity, which is what occurs during strength training.

HRMs will work for weight training regimens based on compound lifts. They will not work for isolation lifts and will give you an incorrectly high reading.

I have a Polar FT4 and use it for my "weight training" at the gym which I have turned into more of a circuit training and ever since I have used the Polar, I finally started dropping some weight. It's helped a lot, love it. If you're doing "weight lifting" the way I do, then it should work for you. I don't lift a heavy set and then walk around reading a magazine like the guys at my gym do. I a set, and move to another right away and keep going and I do 3-4 rounds and I add in some short bursts of cardio like box jumps or burpees or whatever to keep my heart rate up.

The problem is a technical one. Calorie burning isn't determined by heart rate, it's determined by the number of muscle cells that are activated to perform a given activity. It's the working cells that actually use the energy (calories) and consume oxygen. When working muscle cells need more energy and oxygen, your heart rate goes up to deliver these things to the cells via the blood stream.

Any muscle that performs a high intensity or maximum effort (strength training) will trigger an increase in heart rate and blood flow. But if only a single muscle group is on the receiving end to utilize that extra oxygen (doing a strength exercise that isolates your biceps, for example), only a relatively small amount of oxygen (and calories) will actually be consumed.

So while a series of strength training exercises may elevate your heart rate like aerobic exercise does, you're not actually using as much oxygen and burning as many calories as you would be if you were steadily using several large muscles all at once, as when walking, running, swimming, or doing aerobics for example.

The heart rate monitor doesn’t know whether your increase in heart rate is due to several large muscle groups working (cardio), an isolated muscle group lifting a weight (strength training), or even if adrenaline or excitement is increasing your heart rate. It just knows your heart rate, and the formulas it uses to estimate calories are based on studies of aerobic exercise, not other activities. So, it's going to overestimate your calorie expenditure when the rise in heart rate is stimulated by using isolated muscles at maximum intensity, which is what occurs during strength training.

In addition to that excellent write up, that change in need during aerobic exercise really takes about 3-5 minutes of steady-state at given level to even out, because the first jump in intensity causes the same spike in HR though not really for the purpose of oxygen delivery.

So circuit training and classes with weights usually has no steady state for any 3-5 min anywhere in it, so actually still invalid then.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn

The few HRM's that are valid for lifting and anaerobic sprints really just look at your breathing rate (figured from the fact the HR changes slightly breathing in or out) and decides which one it was. If anaerobic then that HR is just ignored for calorie burn estimate, until HR and breathing return back to aerobic state.