Need a HRM that I can use while doing Water Aerobics/cardio. Recommendations?

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mollypw1994
mollypw1994 Posts: 353 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone - I do water cardio 4x/week, and would like to track my heart rate/calories burned. Any recommendations on which kind to use? I searched the Fitbit store, but they recommend that you not wear any of their products while swimming. I also tried doing a search for this topic on the message boards, but wasn't able to find applicable results.
thanks in advance!

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  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
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    Some of the new Garmin products work with swimming. The HR data is gathered from your wrist.
  • scorpio516
    scorpio516 Posts: 955 Member
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    Garmin HRM-Swim hr strap. Two problems:
    1. It records but doesn't broadcast, because ANT+ and BT have transmission distances measured in mm underwater. For after the fact, this is great, but not if you are training by HR.
    2. It needs a $500 watch to go along with it

    The optical HR in Garmin watches that support swimming don't record when water sports are selected. You could fake it.
    Or something like the Garmin Vivosmart HR / HR+ could display HR in the water, but won't record it like swimming.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    Garmin's HRM-SWIM will tell you your current HR when you pop your chest out of the water. I'm considering/leaning toward getting one.

    In the past I've used a Mio Fuse; I wore it on the same wrist as my Garmin, about an inch away. ANT+ radio signals will travel 1.5 to 2 inches under water. Keeping them within this distance, I was able to get a continuous record of my HR while I swam.

    I'm not sure what "water aerobics" means, exactly. My experience was with swimming, with my chest submerged. Your use case might be easier to accomplish?
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 612 Member
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    The Polar A300 will give you your heart rate in water. it uses BT out of water and gymlink in. It works with swimming and water aerobics

    .http://www.polar.com/us-en/products/lifestyle/A300
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
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    My understanding is that this one can monitor HR in the water. I could be wrong. I'd check out dcrainmakers review.

    https://www.rei.com/product/109353/garmin-forerunner-735xt-heart-rate-monitor-watch?cm_mmc=cse_PLA_GOOG-_-1093530001&CAWELAID=120217890002899476&lsft=cm_mmc:cse_PLA_GOOG
  • godlikepoetyes
    godlikepoetyes Posts: 442 Member
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    I LOVE my Polar A 360. I do almost all my movement in the pool, so waterproof is a must.
  • charleycartee
    charleycartee Posts: 49 Member
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    I can't vouch for it, but I have a fitbit charge HR, and when looking to see if there was any option to waterproof it, I stumbled across: http://waterfi.com/waterproof-fitbit-charge-hr
  • juma4474
    juma4474 Posts: 64 Member
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    I have a Polar Loop and have worn it for water aerobics many times and it does an excellent job of tracking my activity while in the water. :)
  • browneyes1520
    browneyes1520 Posts: 94 Member
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    I have a polar FT7 and it's great in the water.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    edited May 2016
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    The Garmin Swim HR strap, or the Garmin Tri, are probably the most accurate in terms of measuring HR. They use "store and forward" which accounts for the fact that radio transmission in water is severely limited, so you won't get a contemporaneous reading.

    Extrapolating that to a calorie estimate, given that you're talking about water aerobics rather than swimming, is pointless as the estimate will be wildly inaccurate.
  • mollypw1994
    mollypw1994 Posts: 353 Member
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    Thank you, all! Seems some version of Polar is the best bet. I appreciate you taking the time to respond!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    Extrapolating that to a calorie estimate, given that you're talking about water aerobics rather than swimming, is pointless as the estimate will be wildly inaccurate.

    You definitely wouldn't want to put your receiver in swim mode for that. Also wouldn't want to put it in bike or run modes for water aerobics. :wink:
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    Extrapolating that to a calorie estimate, given that you're talking about water aerobics rather than swimming, is pointless as the estimate will be wildly inaccurate.

    You definitely wouldn't want to put your receiver in swim mode for that. Also wouldn't want to put it in bike or run modes for water aerobics. :wink:

    We're back in the realms of rolling two D10, factoring in the age of the firstborn and taking windage into account.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    For reference: the HRM-SWIM is just a chest strap. I mean it has some really cool features, but at the end of the day all it does is measure your heart rate and forward that info on to something. It's up to that something to figure out how many calories you burned. Just using the HRM-SWIM doesn't mean your device is going to assume you were swimming. You can use it for running or cycling too, it won't confuse your computer, it just won't be as comfortable. But it won't think you were swimming on your bike just because of which HRM you wore.

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