Please help me find a heart rate monitor for exercise...

[DorindaLestrange]

I'm looking for something to wear (preferably on my wrist/arm) that will measure and display my real-time heart rate during exercise.

In an ideal world, I'd like to be able to put some kind of alert on it that will beep when I go above or below a target range - but that's not a dealbreaker.

I've just been really disappointed with a Huawei fit band which I ordered for this purpose, but which turns out to give real-time step count, distance run, etc etc, none of which I care about at all... but NO REAL-TIME HEART RATE for some reason.

All I want to do is get on the cross-trainer for 45 mins and make sure my heart rate stays in the right zone while I'm doing it. (Sadly the built-in heart monitor on the cross-trainer is useless.) Please tell me there's a device that will let me do this?

I have an Android phone, if that makes any difference.

Any suggestions very gratefully received!

Chest strap monitors are the best. Polar are good - not sure if you have to have the watch or if they do an app to link to your phone.

Myzone is also brilliant but when I started with it you could only get it via a facility that had signed up to Myzone. That may have changed now.

Thanks!!

Although your username is a good encapsulation of the reasons my heart needs watching in the first place!

Chest strap and watch are the best, I’d go for polar

I use myzone. If I have my phone on I can see the data in real time, which I do for cycle classes for the same reason. If my HR goes into 180s I watch it. It doesn’t beep though to alert me but I can see it very easily.

I’ve got a polar Hr10
Links to you phone, no need for a watch if not wanted, depending on what you are doing the info is available real time on the screen, they also link with most gym equipment to show real time HR on the machine

Polar has a beep to alert you if you go out of hr zone

I agree on chest straps being better.

I also have a Polar, but the sports brands such as Garmin and Forerunner are good too. My now aging M400 allows you to lock onto a heart rate zone and it beeps if you go under/ above. For anything specifically sporty, they do tend to be better than the fitness band end of the market with an overlap on price.

Chest strap is best but just to throw and alternative in, in case it might suit you - Jabra does a pair of in ear Bluetooth headphones that have a built in heart rate monitor that links to your phone and gets good reviews.

Chest straps are typically way more accurate than o wris.ut

But if you really want one in a watch, then the basic garmin will do this (without alert - possible the higher spec ones will have that function?)

You can set it t show during activity, and although it doesn't show on you ur wrist when it's just being a watch, it is quietly logging away and you can look at 'all day heart ra' on the app/website.

I had Polar FT4. The sensor went on it after a few yrs, but good before that. Has all features OP wants.

Wow, lots of great info here. Looks like a chest strap is the way forward - if I can link it to my phone then I can just put my phone where I can see it.

Thanks so much everyone

Have a look at a cheap pulse oximeter. You can get ones that work on you finger but also ones with an earlobe or even a forehead probe.

Without being wired up to a proper ECG recorder it is difficult to record HR. For most cases (and if you were experiencing one of the exceptions you would not be exercising) your pulse and HR are the same but the pulse is easier to measure with a pulse oximiter.

To record a heart rate you need at least two electrodes in contact with the skin at all times. Movement between the skin and electrode can give a false reading.

A pulse oximeter shines a light through a barrow part of your body (slightly different tech for forehead electrodes) finger, ear lobe etc and measures the light at the other side so less sensitive to movement.

Of course you also get to know your Oxygen consumption.

www.argos.co.uk/product/8373911

I’ve got a Garmin forerunner 235 watch with wrist based heartrate sensor, and it great, seems very accurate much easier to wear than a strap. You can set heart rate zones and alerts and i believe display lots of different heart rate data. You can also see heart rate data overlaid on activity on the app.

A chest strap will show up on the cross trainer and you can set the watch to bleep and see the heart rate on the watch.

Can I just ask whether females are ok wearing a chest strap? I'm pretty flat chested but I can't work out if it'll be uncomfortable around my sports bra?

Never found wearing a chest strap uncomfortable under a sport bra with a wide elastic part at the bottom.

I wouldn’t wear under a normal bra

Yeh I’ve never found it uncomfortable, I stick it under the band of my sports bra and it doesn’t move or cause any discomfort

Thankyou

Yes definitely go for the chest strap and watch which is what we use for our cardiac rehab patients post surgery.

Thanks so much!

My chest strap fits happily under any sports bras of mine that extend quite low down the trunk. I also have some Shock Absorber bras which are much more like a normal bra. The chest strap tends to sit just below them, but that is fine too.