subject: Using Health Monitors To Benefit Personal Fitness [print this page] Health monitors and personal fitness improvement work well together to help people get started on the fitness path in an easy and generally-enjoyable manner. Remember; monitors should be used as a means to an end, with the end goal being personal growth and fitness improvement. At this, these monitors perform well as a way of tracking exercise and how hard or easy it is when it's done, for one.
Generally, just about anybody can profit from the use of a good health monitoring device. For one, some are able to measure the duration as well as the intensity of an exercise event by tracking what physiologists call biorhythm. This has nothing to do with something New Age, though; rather, these monitors can look at things like heart rate, how high it is for how long and other parameters.
When looking at biorhythm-related performance metrics, such as exertion or duration of exercise, monitors are excellent at assessment and giving a person data that can be used to assess improvement of fitness. As an example, someone who's using a heart rate monitor can track drops in running time and heart rate over the same distance. Running faster at lower heart rates is a good sign, usually.
Both persons are the same age, weight and sex, which -- when taken altogether and all things being equal -- would then tell an observer or either of the two persons just which one is the most fit in comparison to the other. Of course, the person who can go the same distance with less exertion (meaning, lower heart rate) in less time is usually considered to be more fit.
That's the beauty of using different types of monitors when it comes to improving personal fitness. A pedometer is also a good way of monitoring the exercise engaged in (in this case, walking) and figuring out just how much exercise took place. A person who can walk a mile in 16 minutes within a certain number of steps versus one who walks it in 18 minutes with more steps is probably more fit.
A wide variety of health monitoring devices exist nowadays, all with the aim of aiding in personal fitness improvement. Some are complex and high-tech in nature, including a range of heart rate monitors, some of which would be at home in a physiology laboratory. Others are very simple, such as pedometers, and provide functional information that can be good for tracking fitness over time.
Of course, the Internet's full of shops and stores that sell a variety of such health monitors. Look for a store that tends to offer a good selection and at a good price. At the least, it should be willing to meet or beat a price for the same group of monitors. Remember, personal fitness is just that; personal. People should go with what works best for them, in other words.
