There are two types of costly mistakes to avoid when it comes to personal heart rate monitors. Buying the wrong one in the first place and then using the one that you do have incorrectly.
Personal heart rate monitors are an excellent fitness tool. They can provide you with a plethora of information. (I always wanted to use the word “plethora” – so there you have it!) Kidding aside, heart rate monitors and the system can provide you with much more than your heart rate. There are models available that can count your calories, tell the time and act as a stopwatch – sometimes with just a tap on the watch face to change the view mode.
Don’t buy more than you need. If the only exercise that you plan on performing is to walk or run on a treadmill at home and the treadmill has an analog monitoring system then you really don’t need the watch monitor as your treadmill will pick up the information from your transmitter just fine. Be sure both your treadmill and transmitter are compatible with the analog system – many, many treadmills and ellipticals are.
If you’re going to be running the streets or woodsy paths, then you will want the monitor as well. Often a person becomes so involved with their exercise regimen that they will over do it and train to hard. On the other hand, many people who choose walking or running through the woods or countryside can become so interested in the passing scenery that they fail to achieve their target heart rate during the walk or run, thus reducing the benefits dramatically.
A personal heart rate monitoring system can greatly benefit your fitness plan by helping you to monitor every phase of the exercise session. Many heart rate monitors will also inform the user of the amount of calories burned, but beware as that cannot be accurately measured. The calorie burning mode will be an average based on “most” people and their metabolic rate. People who have more body fat and less muscle mass per pound will burn considerably fewer calories than those who have more muscle and less fat. Only a monitoring system that allows for the input of individual weight, percentage of body fat, muscle mass, etc. will be 100% accurate.
However, a personal heart rate monitor do give you a great average and that is usually more than enough for most of us to take advantage of.
Personal heart rate monitors are a tool to help avoid costly mistakes with your fitness routine. Are you on track to generate the most benefit from your fitness regimen?
