What Makes A Good Heart Rate Monitor?

Apparently, there are more than 100 styles, designs and models of heart rate monitors that are available in the market today

. With that, picking one could be an overwhelming task. With the device's long list of basic and advanced features, picking the one brand and model could well be a confusing experience. To narrow down your choices, you need to determine how you plan on using the device.

You need to know the features you need to help you track your fitness progress. You need to create your own list of features, which will suit your workout, training or exercising needs. That should help you pick the one that is best suited to helping you achieve your fitness, training or weight loss goals.

Go for heart rate monitors that have parts that are meant to be worn with chest or breast straps as they are more reliable in transmitting and detecting the electrical activity of your heart. In effect, they more produce more accurate calculations on your heart rate data, which is transmitted and displayed on the component intended to be worn similar to a wristwatch. Wristwatch monitors are not so ideal for they easily get interference with the signals from the surrounding heart rate monitors. This could be a hassle when you are working out in a group.

Among the many available features of heart rate monitoring devices, it is important to get the basic functions. Heart rate zone alarms are important in giving you warnings on your current heart rate level. Timing features such as stopwatch, countdown timers, clock and alarm clocks are great for monitoring your workout time as well as rest periods. Some devices incorporate calculations of actual calories burned through the entire workout based on the measured heart beat.

When it comes to advanced features, connectivity to your home computer can be a plus especially when you are planning to participate to a sports event or a marathon. This feature enables the device to load pre-programmed workouts.

Adjustable heart rate targets and zones are important to individuals who are working out to improve their heart problems. This feature is extremely useful to people who are advised not to exercise beyond a specified heart rate zone. Sound alarms are set off whenever the user reaches critical heart rate zones.

For day or night workouts, it would be nice for your heart rate monitor to have an illuminating feature to maintain visibility under any condition. There are heart rate monitors that double as a wristwatch; this feature also allows you to keep track of the time of the day as you workout.

Ease of use is important to any monitoring device. If you are decided on which heart rate model to choose, determine if it is easy to use. Is the display clear to you? Are the buttons labeled? Surely, you wouldn't want to refer to the user's manual all the time.

Value is one important consideration when it comes to heart rate monitors. After deciding on which features you need and want, everything comes down to price. Be guided by your list of must-have features and consider browsing the health and fitness stores for their available models and brands of monitors. Or, log onto online stores to find excellent deals on your choice of heart rate monitors, fast and easy.

by: Shane Franclin

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