Which heart rate monitor

leevil knievil

Looking at really trying to get better fitness levels, been of the bike for about a month or so now with one thing and another, but when I was riding could never really gauge how hard I was pushing or should be pushing so looking at buying a HRM would a basic one do the job (polar ft1) and where should I start.

hucking_fell

Polar make good HR monitors. My dad had a cheaper Tesco one which was rubbish. He then bought a Polar. He later bought a 2nd Polar when the batteries went on the 1st one. Polar would rather you did this than replace batteries yourself. You can return Polars to them to get new batteries fitted but the cost is similar to that of their cheaper monitors.

I recently got a Polar HR monitor but have yet to get to grips with training zones. My max HR is more difficult to figure out than I thought it would be. Time, Average HR and max HR is all that my monitor shows me and I'm happy with that.

edit - some advise on max HR here: viewtopic.php?f=20024&t=12847819

Also, the "Ride Fit" supplement that comes with the May WMB has a good article on HR monitors.