If used properly, heart rate monitors can be a valuable addition to your exercise program. With them, you can monitor how fast your heart beats, how many calories you have burned and your total exercise time over the course of several weeks. These small, inexpensive devices can help you maximize the time you dedicate to fitness and keep you accountable to achieve the results you want.
Function
Heart rate monitors are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. Although some come with only a wristwatch component, the most accurate monitors come with a watch and transmitter. The transmitter wraps around your chest, one inch below the xiphoid process (where your rib cage splits in front), and the receiver fastens around your wrist to receive and display your heart rate. By having a display of your heart rate, you can determine whether you are working out hard enough or too hard, or whether you need time to recover from exercise.
Features
Features of the device vary among companies and model, so do your research at sites such as Consumer Reports or Consumersearch.com to find out exactly what your desired watch can do. Watch options include calorie count, heart rate limits, multiple alarms, stopwatch, back-lit display, storage capacity, percentage of fat burned, upload and download capabilities and a variety of exercise display screens. Some transmitters, namely polar, are fully compatible with sensors on treadmills. These watches display your heart rate on the treadmill's readout for easier use. Some monitors come with a device, similar in size to an egg, that tracks your speed and distance and attaches to your shoe. This device, known as a foot pod, is ideal for distance runners and those who prefer to do their cardio outdoors.
Size
The transmitter band is an inch wide and can adjust to wrap around people from 90 to 300 pounds. The receiver is either the same size as or slightly larger than a regular digital watch.
Misconceptions
While heart rate monitors are a great way to count calories during cardiovascular exercise, they cannot be used to accurately measure caloric expenditure during weightlifting or daily activity. The monitor uses heart rates and prediction equations to estimate the amount of calories burned during exercise. However, these assume the heart rate rises in direct response to activity. In daily activity, everything (even emotional stress) has an effect on the heart rate, and during resistance training, a physiological reaction known as the pressor response elevates the heart rate disproportionately to the level of exertion. Although it isn't fully understood why the heart rate increases so drastically during resistance training, an article published in the Journal of Applied Physiology noted that those who were more experienced with heavy weightlifting displayed a less drastic heart rate increase than those who were not used to training this way.
Expert Insight
The accuracy of heart rate monitors has been called in to question several times since their birth in 1977. An article published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning noted that if you only input your sex, weight, height and birth date into the monitors, the devices had a tendency to underestimate the amount of calories you burn by up to 13 percent. On the other hand, an exercise physiology lab or a fitness center would be able to provide a more accurate measurement regarding your body's ability to use oxygen.
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