Heart Rate Monitors : The Beginning

Hello out there in the land of multisports. Today, and for the next few posts I'm going to be talking about what may, after a good pair of running shoes, be the single greatest piece of gear to have in your arsenal. It is the heart rate monitor. Many make them, some are better than others, and here I'm going to do my best to write objectively about a few of them.

Let's get a few things out of the way first. A heart rate monitor is a device which, through the use of a piece of diagnostic equipment, be it a chest strap, finger clamp, wrist strap, just to name a few, can read one's pulse and transmit the useful information to the interested party. Short answer for us is something that can tell us how hard we're working and display it in a manner that is easy to read at a glance.

There is a point of diminishing returns on adding gear to our kit. It is the point at which the bulk, or added features, reduce our enjoyment of our activity. For everyone this is a very different point. Some people (perhaps myself included) would want to know every wheel turn on the bike, correlate that to a series of heart beats, and then extract the effect of the force on the chain to determine how hard I need to be running after T2. For others the intrusion of a wrist watch detracts from the simple pleasure of running. So I leave that completely up to you. Know that your choice is right, because it's right for you.

That having been said, let's talk about heart rate monitors. I'm sure that you've heard by now that, and if you haven't allow me, during training your ability to work withing specific zones (ranges of beats/minute) allow you to train more efficiently over the long term than any other piece of gear.

I will be talking about heart rate monitors from the perspective of a multisport athlete as opposed to a general fitness athlete. I believe that the best way to track someone's actual heart rate is to put a strap around their chest where the heart is.

While there are many brands of devices that do this, I'll be looking at the following:

• Polar


• Timex


• Suunto


• Garmin

...and perhaps a few others as they come up in discussion.

Stay tuned for the next episode.
-dean