Heart Rate Monitor?

I use a chest strap Polar Nike+ transmitter with my Nike+ Sportswatch. Quite a pricey combo because the watch has built in GPS. I believe you can get watch/strap combos for sub $100 price range. You can find them im running or sports supply stores or online of course. I tend to browse amazon for the reviews.

They are pretty much plug and play and should start working right away. The benefits would be more accurate calorie burn tracking and you can physically see your heart rate which helps you determine what 'zone' you are in. ie aerobic, anerobic, max, fat loss.

Polar FT4 ($90) or FT7 ($110) are your best bet if you are budget conscience. They are both good HRMs and give you relatively accurate calorie burns for an aerobic event. It's still an estimate and I always took about 70%-80% of what my FT4 told me to account for estimation error and BMR burn. Anything below the FT4 price wise and you're getting into scetchy territory in RE to accuracy.

To be honest, I don't even pay attention to the calorie burn anymore and use it primarily to make sure I'm training in whatever HR zone I need to in order to accomplish my fitness goals. But when I did MFP, I did use it to estimate my exercise burn for eating back those calories and it worked well for me.

Keep in mind that the further you get from a true aerobic even, the less accurate a HRM is going to be in estimating your calorie burn. This is because your burn is not determined directly by your HR...for example, if you have a high resting HR, that doesn't mean you have some super fast metabolism and are burning all kinds of calories...the monitor simply uses your HR as an indicator of what level of VO2 max you are working at to come up with an estimate, basically for the average joe out there of your same stats. When you start doing exercise outside of steady state cardio...for example, lifting weights...that is not a good indicator of VO2 max and therefore the HRM becomes increasingly inaccurate for calorie burn...if that makes sense.

I have a Polar FT4 as well. It's great. Comfy, easy to use, and PINK! I almost got aqua. It was the best for my budget and uses, but the colors were a bonus. I've been using it for almost 2 months with no problems so far. But I also know that Polar has a reputation for great customer service, so if problems arise, I'm sure they'll be easy to resolve.

Love my Polar FT4!

Love my Polar FT4 , super easy to use, never had an issue, only had to replace watch batteries once.

It depends on what you want it for. Are you trying to track calories? Do you want to use it for heart rate zone training for a cardio event, such as a running race? Do you want it just because everyone else has one? Polar is pretty awesome, but you can get the bluetooth monitor and get the Polar app for you phone if you want. Or you can use other apps if you prefer your phone instead of a watch.

If you want a HRM to track calorie burn from weight lifting, don't bother. For more on this, search forums...there are some good detailed posts on this. But the gist if that HRMs are good for constant activity, not intermittent.

I have two...I have a polar and one I got from ALDI's. I paid 50 for my polar and 20 for my other one and honestly the one from ALDI's is just as good. Both of mine have chest straps since they are suppose to be more accurate and I mainly use mine to keep up with my calories burned and my HR. I recommend one to anyone who is working out so they can see how much they are actually pushing themselves.

I see it recommended that a person get a heart rate monitor, but I don't know anything about them Can you recommend a good one, and where to get it? And how do I use it?

Thank you.

I depend on what you plan to do exercise wise, how much you are willing to spend, and what bells and whistles you want.

I love my Polar FT60. It was a bit more expensive, but it fit with what I was doing. It was waterproof, so I could use it to swim. It has a training program built in that develops times in specific HR zones for meeting your training goals.

I wish I would hav splurged for the FT80 sometimes, as it is supposed to have some program for weight training.

Question about the Polar does it have a chest strap you have to wear? I have had one of those before and they are just so uncomfortable especially when your all sweaty!

The very best recommendation I received and I'm passing along is to search YouTube for HRM reviews and how to use them. Read about all the cool stuff they can do, then assess whether you'll actually use those features.

Yes - you do wear a chest strap but I don't even know it's on.

Does anyone know how accurate the wrist models are? I was looking at the one by New Balance.

I use the polar FT4 for doing classes and SPIN and when I run I use the Nike+ Plus and Nike GPS Watch. Like others have mentioned here when I first started I was all about watching the calories on the Polar. Over the past 5 months I still pay attention to the calories burned but I pay greater attention to the time that I spend in the "zone". This gives me a better idea if my heart rate is elevated to where I want it and provides me with the feedback that I need to pick it up for the rest of the workout as well. The two devices in addition to my Fit Bit are the best devices I have ever used.

I've been using the Mio Drive+ for about 2 months and really like it. It's a strapless HRM. You press 2 buttons on the watch and it gets your HR in a few seconds. Depending on your preference, this is a pro or con. It wouldn't be suitable for biking or non-stop aerobic workouts like Beachbody's T25 or Insanity because there's not much opportunity to stop and wait for a reading.

I had a strap-based HRM before the watch broke and found the strap to be uncomfortable.