Heart rate monitors are used by many athletes and keep fit enthusiasts who use them to watch their heart rate as they exercise. Fitness heart rate monitors are electronic devices that provide an easy to read numerical display of the heart rate. As you exercise you can aim for a target heart rate so that you can ensure that your exercising is effective. Fairly simple heart monitors can be used for this purpose, physicians will use more complex ones to in order to monitor heart conditions.
Today heart monitors are easily available to buy and are made for the specific needs of an individual. They might be made specifically for weight loss or for athletes to use during training. Some are worn on the wrist like a watch or built into exercise equipment such as treadmills or exercise bikes. Simple fitness heart rate monitors that are straightforward to use, with large displays and a timer can be purchased from about $40. Make sure it is easy to change the battery. It is impossible to do this yourself for some monitors. Many basic heart rate monitors may give maximum and minimum rates as well as the average rate during your training session.
Some of the better quality monitors have a range of functions which may include workout intensity, monitoring how many calories you have burned and how much time you spend in each heart rate zone. A number even include weekly roundups of your workouts. These kinds of heart monitors are about $100.
At the top of the range are monitors such as the Garmin Forerunner Sports Watch and the Polar FT60 which have USB ports for easily transferring data to your computer. You can easily add a Garmin foot pod to the Garmin Forerunner Sports Watch to to make a combined heart rate monitor and pedometer and monitor calorie burned, speed and distance. You can set the Polar FT60 to track progress with weekly targets. If you are a serious athlete these versatile, multi-featured heart rate monitors are superb but much more expensive at around $200.
Heart rates are monitored by two methods, using a finger tip pulse or a chest strap. Heart rate monitors using a chest strap usually give more accurate readings as long as the chest strap is fitted properly and at all times it remains close to the body. The heart rate is monitored in the same way as an ECG and the results transmitted to the output device, which can be worn on the wrist like a watch. A number of heart rate monitors give audio messages through earphones.
So that you can have an effective workout you will need to know your target heart rate. You can find this from a heart rate calculator. Once you know your target heart rate zone your heart rate monitor to to keep within the zone during your exercise session. Keeping within the zone is important to prevent injury from working too hard or getting no benefit because you didn’t work hard enough. An exercise heart rate monitor is a very effective method to ensure you’re exercise program gives you the full benefit.
Tags: exercise heart rate monitor, fitness heart rate monitor, heart rate monitor and pedometer, polar f6 heart rate monitor