Which Heart Rate Monitor??

[Flybye]

Hi,

I would appreciate some advice.

I am going to purchase a heart rate monitor in the next week or two.

I want to use it for the following:
Spinning - so cadence would be nice.
Calories - to track what I have burned.
Running - heart rate, anything else they do??
Cycling - mostly to monitor heart rate - I have a cadence meter on my bike.
Heart Rate - for strength training, running, plyometrics, yoga, kenpo, etc.
Hiking - don't know if there is a purpose for having a monitor here??

I look at Polar's site and they have a heart monitor for sitting, standing, running, cycling, fitness, cross training, and I leave the site more confused than when I entered. I really don't want 10 monitors on my wrist

What do you ladies own? Would it do what I have listed above? Anything else I should know??

Thanks!

[nscrbug]

I can't really help you with choosing a HRM, as I personally, hardly ever use one (my bike computer has it, but I don't use it very often). But I was just curious as to how the cadence option would work for spinning? I take spin classes 3x/week, and I just don't see how cadence would work in that situation...unless you were to somehow attach a cadence sensor to the flywheel??? Is that what you are looking to do?

[OakLeaf]

For hiking, did you have GPS in mind? I'm a Garmin gal, but I'm pretty sure Polar offers some with GPS as well.

[Mr. Bloom]

The March issue of Shop Smart a Consumer Reports publication will have information on HRMs. I understand it hit newsstands on Jan 11 (I don't have a subscription...but I understand the list is on page 57)

[WindingRoad]

Well I have had my Polar F6 for about 6 years now. I thought at one point I would upgrade to a cheaper Garmin model that had a footpod and now it doesn't work and I have gone back to my Polar. I changed the battery in my Polar and it is as good as new again. If you are really looking for a true HR monitor and not the GPS technology so much I would highly recommend a Polar F6. This has the encoded transmitter so you won't get interference at the gym from other wearers and it won't break the bank. Another cool thing is a lot of the gyms have treadmills that will automatically pick up your heart rate if its a Polar, same for the spin bikes at my gym too. All I know is I kept trying to upgrade to something cooler and more techno but I kept falling back on my Polar when something broke or just didn't do what I wanted. They make a very durable product.

[WindingRoad]

Flybye this is the exact one I have. Looks like you can still get them from Amazon and places like that.

[Flybye]

Winding, I was actually looking at that same monitor quite a bit today. Some of the reviews said that the footpod had quit working - on more than one review - on the other Polars. Guess there is room for improvement there. I won't be going to the gym, I tried, but I can't make myself go I have my own spin bike, a dreadmill, and a muscle house, so I guess I am set. I get outside all that I want and rarely see a soul where I run - just the river and my dogs.

Mr. Bloom - HI!!! Hope all is well with you. I haven't been around too much with work and all of life that keeps my busy. I will see if I can track down an issue and look them all over.

Oak, I had not considered a GPS until just now. We hiked last year and had a blast! I am HOOKED - in fact, we are planning a Grand Canyon/Canyonlands/Moab backpack trip in March, depending on weather. GPS would be nice for some of the hikes we are considering and would be great to mark some fishing spot on the lake. Hmmm......

nscrbug, I tried to get back on the Polar site to check out the cadence meters, but the site was down. I am guessing that it is calculated by a shoe clip or a flywheel sensor. For a home spin bike I can just purchase a cheapo cadence computer and glue it to the flywheel, IF I can find one that had a calibration that fits the wheel size.

Thanks everyone!!

[WindingRoad]

Flybye you may want to consider a smart phone. I know it sounds strange but I am going to get my iPhone this weekend and they have a really great GPS built into them. No additional charges to use it! You can use mapmyrun, mapmyride etc to track your distance, pace, time etc. I think the only thing a smart phone does NOT do is track your HR This is where my Polar comes in, btw it does not have GPS on it. I figure I can track my HR on the Polar and see where I'm going on the iPhone. Nike has a website too you can hook up to your iPod or smart phone. Just more things to think about

[OakLeaf]

You can get an ANT+ dongle to pair an iPhone with any ANT+ compatible HR strap.

The issue with using a phone is battery life. Once you turn the GPS on, you're looking at maybe 4-5 hours. Driving a peripheral off your phone would kill the battery life even more. I like iMapMyRun for walking, but if you're going to do something other than walk for a couple of hours and then immediately plug in your phone, you could wind up incommunicado.

[zoom-zoom]

Garmin Forerunner 305 or 310XT would fit your bill. I have the 305 and love it...have had it for over 3 years and it works like a charm--I originally ran with it, now I run and bike with it. I think they can be had now for about $125. Cadence sensor for the bike would be maybe $40 more (IIRC).

[ridebikeme]

There are certainly lots of choices out there. I have a Vetta wireless computer that has heart rate and cadence and love it! Although it's only used on the bike.

I've had lots of people buy monitors the shop trainer classes the past few years, and it certainly depends on what you want it for. I will say that the computers that feature calories used aren't terribly accurate.(IME) I've sold a lot of Sigma computers, the PC-9 offers zones where you program in where you want your heart rate to be for a specific workout and if you get above or below that it will beep to let you know. It's fairly inexpensive $65-$75 depending on where you look. And the important thing is that there have not been any problems with any of them.

Good luck in your search!

[Catrin]

You can get an ANT+ dongle to pair an iPhone with any ANT+ compatible HR strap.

The issue with using a phone is battery life. Once you turn the GPS on, you're looking at maybe 4-5 hours. Driving a peripheral off your phone would kill the battery life even more. I like iMapMyRun for walking, but if you're going to do something other than walk for a couple of hours and then immediately plug in your phone, you could wind up incommunicado.

I used my iPhone once for iMapMyRide and I did indeed wind up up incommunicado after 3.5 hours of a 5 hour ride...I don't know if the 3Gs or the IPhone 4 would be any better but I wouldn't think so...

[oz rider]

What do you ladies own? Would it do what I have listed above? Anything else I should know??

Garmin Edge 500 here. You need the cadence sensor (included with most packages) so it wouldn't do cadence on spin bikes unless they had the sensor, but you'd get everything else with the HR strap. It doesn't have maps (the bigger ones do) but it does HR, cadence (with the sensor), time, temp, grade, altitude, cals, max speed, pace, zones, direction and a billion other things. And when you upload the data to Garmin (free) or onto your computer (free software) you get a map of your travels anywhere in the world and nice graphs for all metrics. But it's bar/stem mounted so not so good for running (tiny though, so it would fit a pocket). So maybe the Forerunner is worth a look (not sure it does cadence though).

[Catrin]

The Edge 500 sounds attractive - I am leaning more away from having maps as I figure I wouldn't be able to read the screen anyway. If'en I am truly exploring then shame on me if I don't have paper maps...

Polar does not seem to sell my HRM any longer and I can't seem to find the model number. I think it is an older version of the FT7 and I like it a lot. My strap is on it's last legs, has been for months, but I am resisting replacing it until it no longer works at all.

The new version can be found here, and it seems to have at least one feature that mine doesn't have. I like the looks of my version better, but it is a fine HRM.

[Blueberry]

I think the Garmin FR60 will do what you want (including cadence). Just a thought if you don't want to go GPS based.