What are Heart Rate Monitors?

Heart rate monitors are available in a number of styles with varying accuracy.  Cheap and
relatively inaccurate heart rate monitors shine a beam of light through your skin (normally
your ear lobe) to a receiver.  Looking like a plastic peg attached by a lead to a receiver
box these light systems work on the principle that as the heart beats a rush of blood
through the ear lobe reducing the amount of light that passes through the skin. The
monitor notes the number of changes of light received and assumes this to be your heart rate.

Hand Grip Systems are more accurate than light systems and are found on many quality
exercise machines.  Life Fitness (the world renowned cardiovascular machine manufacturer)
uses this system on many of its machines.  Hand grip systems rely on sensors in a metal bar
picking up your heart rate as you grip, quite firmly, a metal sensor bar.

Telemetric Heart Rate Monitors are very accurate and come as a two component product.
Component 1 is a transmitter belt.  This looks like a thin elastic belt with a large plastic buckle.
  Component 2 is a receiver: this is similar in looks to a watch.   The system is as accurate
as hospital ECG products.  The receiver, which fits next to your skin just below the nipple
line, picks up electronic signals from your heart and transmits them by means of wireless
induction to a wristwatch receiver or to a receiver built into an exercise machine.

Why should I use a Heart Rate Monitor?

The heart is a muscle that will grow and shrink in size just like other muscles on your body.
The same principle applies to heart muscle growth as skeletal muscle.  Growth and strength
will only occur if the muscle is forced to work harder than it would naturally choose to.  In
weight training we use the term overload to describe the method of gaining muscle growth.
  With the heart we talk about training zones.

It has been shown that a healthy heart is capable of growing in size by as much as 30%.
A stronger heart is a larger heart.  Not only do the muscular walls of the heart grow stronger
but so do the size of the chambers of the heart.  Larger chambers allow more blood to pass
through the body with every beat and this has significant health benefits as well as meaning
that the heart does not need to beat as fast to transfer oxygen from your lungs to the rest
of your body.

The speed at which your heart beats during exercise has been shown to relate closely to
many key reasons for exercising:

1)      How many calories you are burning during exercise?

2)      How many calories you burn during your recovery after exercise?

3)      The level of your ‘base metabolism’  i.e. the number of calories your body burns
throughout the day whilst you are inactive.

4)      The point at which your muscle cells start to produce lactic acid – known as your
Anaerobic Threshold.  Lactic Acid results from a lack of  sufficient oxygen to produce energy.
A build up of lactic acids leads to muscle inefficiency and therefore fatigue.

5)      Research has shown us that your heart rate needs to reach a certain level for a
prolonged period on a regular basis in order to grow in size.

The conclusion to be drawn from the above relationship between heart rate level and health
related benefits is that it is very difficult to effectively reach your weight loss, exercise,
heart-related  fitness or  sport specific exercise goals without monitoring your heart rate
during exercise.

It has been shown that heart rate monitors get you fit faster; get more benefit from a half
hour of exercise completed at the right intensity, rather than an hour done at the wrong one.

How Durable are Heart Rate Monitors?

Light sensor systems tend to be quite fragile with a requirement to keep sensors clean and
avoid damage to connecting leads. They are not waterproof and do not work well when the
body is not still.  Hand grip systems are very durable but tend not to be portable.  The
durability of telemetric systems is very dependent upon the brand that you purchase.
  Well known brands are  CARDIOSPORT, POLAR  and  PROACTIV.

The most durable systems are completely waterproof – transmitter and receiver – POLAR  is
the only brand to have sealed units.  The advantage of a sealed unit is durability and reliability
regardless of environmental conditions.  POLAR  watches are therefore the world leading HRM
for sports people and those who swim with their monitors on and require high levels of
reliability.  The downside of POLAR  is that in order to guarantee this reliability users must
expect higher ongoing running costs than non-sealed brands.   Most of these extra costs
relate to the fact that when receiver batteries need replacing (approx every 2 years) or
transmitter batteries lose power (5-10 years) POLAR  products need returning to the POLAR
 service centre whilst non sealed units permit self change batteries.

How Versatile are Heart Rate Monitors?

Telemetric heart rate monitors are the most versatile of  the HRMs.  Of the telemetric systems
POLAR  branded monitors are the most versatile due to the fact that they are equally suitable
for wet and dry conditions.  Although many non sealed brands such as CARDIOSPORT
 and PROACTIV  guarantee their monitors as waterproof and will replace monitors that show
signs or water infiltration, the experience of Pro Active Health Ltd has been that this does
occur more often than desirable when seriously exercising in damp environments, i.e.
swimming, triathlon, canoeing etc.    This need not be a concern to individuals exercising
at home, in the club or in dry or damp conditions – all brands mentioned are resistant to sweat
and dampness.

How much will a Telemetric Heart Rate Monitor Cost me?

Buying a heart rate monitor is similar to buying a car.  A top of the range model can cost many
times that of the entry model.  The price you pay will therefore depend upon the features that
you require.  An entry level model costing under £40.00 will be just as accurate and effective at
showing your heart rate as a top end model costing £300.00. However the top end model will
also be a sports watch with stopwatches, alarms etc and will store your heart rate internally
allowing your performance to be downloaded to a computer once you finish exercising.

Running costs of heart rate monitors are low. Fully sealed POLAR  branded monitors will cost on
average £12.00 per annum to maintain (based on a new transmitter every 5 years and a change
of receiver batteries every two years).  Non sealed units such as PROACTIV  will cost about
£5.00 per annum  with self change batteries in both transmitter and receiver.

What do you Mean by Features on a Telemetric Heart Rate Monitor?

All telemetric HRMs are supplied with transmitter and receiver and will alll display your current
heart rate.  Thereafter every other piece of information displayed on your receiver is regarded
as an added feature.

To demonstrate the range of features available we have used POLAR  icons and
descriptions.  Other manufacturers will have different names but the function of features will be
similar.

Click here for a description of functions

Which Heart Rate Monitor Should I choose?

The initial decision must be whether to choose a POLAR  -  fully sealed unit for greater reliability
and versatility in wet conditions This HRM has the downside of higher running costs or you may
prefer to buy a non sealed system such as PROACTIV with more risk of water infiltration causing
unreliability but lower running costs.

Click here to decide which  POLAR  monitor to choose

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