Heart Rate Monitors can add to your circuit training, interval training, cardio training and most aspects of fitness through improving the efficiency of your workouts.  By allowing you to keep an eye on your Heart Rate while you train, Heart Rate Monitors from top brands such as Polar and Sigma can help you to ensure you are training the right way to achieve your goals. Heart Rate Monitors can have a variety of different features ranging from a simple display of your current Heart Rate to, the ability to download personalised training programs to your Heart Rate Monitor and even GPS capability providing details on your speed and distance as well as your heart rate. Read our more detailed guide to Heart Rate Monitors.


 



What is a Heart Rate Monitor?

A heart rate monitor, quite simply, is a device that measures and displays a user's heart rate. Heart Rate Monitors usually consist of a heart rate transmitter which is generally a strap worn around the chest, and a wrist unit that displays the heart rate as the information is received from the heart rate transmitter. In general, Heart Rate Monitors can add to your circuit training, interval training, cardio training and most aspects of fitness through improving the efficiency of your workouts.

What are the different features of a Heart Rate Monitor?

Heart rate monitors can have a variety of features, the simplest will display the user's current heart rate and probably record the maximum, minimum and average heart rate achieved during a single training session. Features of heart rate monitors can be far more advanced. Some heart rate monitors (particularly polar heart rate monitors) go as far as incorporating GPS technology, allowing your heart rate monitor to give you information on speed and distance travelled.

Different ways heart rate monitors display heart rate

Descriptions of heart rate monitors features will give information on the various ways that a heart rate will be displayed by the monitor. All heart rate monitors will display your current heart rate in beats per minute (bpm) but may also show it as a percentage of your maximum heart rate (MHR). Heart Rate monitors that have this feature also vary in how your maximum heart rate is calculated. The most common is age-based calculation, requiring the user to input their age, MHR is then calculated as 220 minus age, but some Heart Rate monitors allow for manual input of MHR.

What are Heart Rate training Zones?

Cardiovascular fitness training has a different effect on your body depending on your Heart Rate Training Zone. These training zones are expressed as a percentage of your Maximum Heart Rate and many Heart Rate Monitors will calculate and display your current Heart Rate Training Zone, or allow you to input your own zone limits. Some Heart Rate Monitors may then allow you to select your desired training zone and will alert you if you leave that zone. Calorie expenditure features of Heart Rate Monitors Whether your goal is weight loss, increased muscle size or definition, or general fitness improvement, it is useful to know how many calories you are burning when you workout. Some Heart Rate Monitors offer a feature that uses your heart rate combined with other data such as your height, weight, and gender to calculate, display and record the calories you are burning. Different Heart Rate Monitors will record data over different periods of time, some Heart Rate Monitors will display only the most recent training session, other Heart Rate Monitors will record the total burned over a number of sessions.

More advanced features of Polar Heart Rate Monitors

Polar Heart Rate Monitors offer a variety of more advanced features such as the ability to upload your training data to polarpersonaltrainer.com to monitor your training load and recovery time. The ability to download personalised training programs, operate the wrist unit of the Heart Rate Monitor by moving it closer to your chest, calculate your V02 max, resting heart rate, heart rate reserve (max heart rate minus resting heart rate) adapt your recommended training zone according to your current physical state and much more.