Heart rate monitors come with a variety of features, from simple beats per minute tracking to racing split times and more. Depending on how you use one, this device can help you monitor your workout intensity, track calories burned, show you which exercises provide more intensity and keep you from overexerting yourself. Knowing the benefits will help you use your monitor to its maximum benefit and help you get more value for your purchase.
Heart Rate
The most obvious reason for purchasing a heart rate monitor is to, well, monitor your heart rate. There are several reasons for wanting to do this. Many heart rate monitors allow you to program in your maximum heart rate, and then input your desired target heart rate to create a specific type of workout.
For example, to exercise in a way that burns the most fat, you will want to work at 50 to 60 percent of your maximum heart rate. To get an aerobic workout, which burns more calories, you will set a target heart rate of 70 to 80 percent of your target heart rate.
Heart rate monitors can also give you data on how long your workout kept you in your target heart rate range, and some monitors can even show you how long you were above or below your target heart rate.
Pacing
Some heart rate monitors come with alarms that alert you when you have gone below your target heart rate or above it. This audio warning allows you to pick up the pace of your workout if you have unknowingly slowed down or allows you to back down your exercise intensity to prevent you from overdoing it. Heart rate monitors allow you to better pace long runs or machine workouts.
Apples to Apples
Certain exercises, like ab crunches, can leave you gasping for breath, even though they do not raise your heart rate as much as others, like running a treadmill at a pace that seems easier. Checking a heart rate monitor each time you perform a certain exercise lets you see how much cardiovascular benefit you get from that exercise. Remember, just because an exercise is difficult does not mean it requires more heart function or burns more calories.
Calorie Burning
Some heart rate monitors use a combination of your input weight, resting heart rate, maximum heart rate and other data to calculate how many calories you burn during a workout. Strength training exercises may take more out of you, because you may be using maximal force to lift heavy weights. However, that type of exercise may not raise your heart rate as much as a comparatively easy exercise bike session. If your goal is to burn calories with a workout, a heart rate monitor helps you learn which exercises are the best for you.
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