Heart rate monitor?

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RaceFan101
RaceFan101 Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
How does a Heart rate monitor work? and what does it do? can I input my weight and stuff and then it will tell me how many calories i burned in a workout session?

thanks in advance!

Ps: if you could list a few cheap but good quality HRM's out there that you would recommend using would be great!

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  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    How does a Heart rate monitor work? and what does it do? can I input my weight and stuff and then it will tell me how many calories i burned in a workout session?

    thanks in advance!

    Ps: if you could list a few cheap but good quality HRM's out there that you would recommend using would be great!

    HR Monitors track heart rate and should be used as a training aid to track heart rate. They calculate calories burned but this is just an estimate. They also only work for steady state cardio such as running, cycling, elliptical...etc. They are NOT accurate for other activities such as weight lifting, HIIT, workout DVDs and such...etc.
  • johnflym3
    johnflym3 Posts: 1 Member
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    Hi RaceFan101,

    HRM work by attaching a sensor to a band that wraps around your chest which thens sends your info (heart rate) to the computer which is in the form of a wrist watch that you wear at the same time. Before you start, you would input your personal info into the computer, i.e height, weight, sex, age, etc., which would then be used to compute calories burned, heart rate average, heart rate maximum, how long in zone and so forth based on your personal info. Pretty neat!
    Polar is the brand that I use and have been happy with for some time, they have many different models from well under $100 to over $500, go to their web site at polarusa.com for a complete listing. Also, Amazon sells them for a much lower price once you've decided on which model you like. Hope this helps you out.

    johnfly
  • RaceFan101
    RaceFan101 Posts: 8 Member
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    just what I was looking for! thanks!
  • Ohhim
    Ohhim Posts: 1,142 Member
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    Also, note that some brands of chest straps work directly with equipment at the gym, only requiring you to wear the heart rate monitor strap (but not the accompanying watch) to see your level of exertion when on a treadmill/eliptical/bike/etc..

    For example, my garmin GPS ANT+ compatible heart rate monitor doesn't work with the machines, but my cheap $35 timex HRM watch/chest strap combo does (as do most polar brand ones).

    Also, sometimes it takes a few minutes for a chest strap to sense enough activity before starting. Ways to speed up the detection include tightening the strap, and moistening the strap with water, saliva, or a gel.

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