What is a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM)?
Previously expensive devices that were only practical for elite athletes, they have come down so much in price that they’re accessible to everyone, and are an essential piece of kit for anyone who is serious about their training, and using exercise science to train smarter, not just smarter.
They are basically an elasticated strap with sensors that detect the electrical activity of your heart and send that information to a receiver, usually a watch. However, there are also several varieties that will connect to mobile phones (iphone 4s and newer, and most other BTsmart enabled phones). Each particular model will have its own pro’s and con’s, so figure out what you need before you buy.
I’m going to focus on using a HRM in combination with your phone for tracking fitness. This is done by using an app on your phone to connect to the HRM. There are even more apps than there are monitors, so I’ll take you through a few of them here.
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| Runkeeper on iPhone |
First off there’s runkeeper, which comes in 3 versions; free, paid, and subscription.
Runkeeper is geared more towards outdoor exercisers, and will automatically track distance, height gained, speed, heartrate, calories burned while you walk run or cycle outside. It also has the ability to give you feedback along the way, telling you any combination of the info above. Runkeeper is much more than just an app though, it provides an entire ecosystem for health and fitness tracking.
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| Wahoo Fitness on iPhone |
Next up, and my personal favourite for gym based exercise sessions, is Wahoo fitness. This has a nice clear display of heart rate zones which makes it easy to use without having to fiddle with it. As with runkeeper, you can set up and save predefined workout types, and compare sessions as you get fitter. It can also send data to the runkeeper ecosystem, so you can keep everything in one place. It can, of course also be used for outdoor activities, and has a similar feature set to runkeeper.
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| iSmoothRun on iPhone |
If running is your thing, I highly recommend iSmoothRun. This is a paid for app which costs less than a fiver. As well as the usual speed, distance, HR etc, this app also picks up your cadence (foot strikes per minute) and features a metronome to help you stick to your desired pace. It also features a ‘ghost’ setting, allowing you to race against your previous runs, and giving you feedback along the way. It can also send data to the runkeeper ecosystem.
All of these apps allow you to export your HR data in a format that can be used in spreadsheets such as excel to enable more detailed analysis if required. I use all 3 apps regularly, the exact app will depend on what the goal of that training session is.
Enough about the apps, on to the monitors themselves.
Cardiosport and Wahoo both make BTsmart compatible monitors.
Wahoo make an entry level strap which costs about €50-60. This will not record HRV*.
Cardiosport make a higher level strap which costs about the same, but will also allow you to track HRV.
I’ve tested both extensively, and I’ve found the WahooBLUE to be more consistently reliable. In my experience, the cardiosport monitor has been more prone to loss of signal, both in the gym and when out running. As I train almost entirely with work/rest intervals guided by heartrate, this is very annoying for me.
*HRV is the variability in the time between beats, and is a good indicator of how much stress your nervous system is under. Too much stress on the nervous system and your heart could be in trouble. Both physical and psychological stress will affect HRV. The higher the variability between beats, the harder you can push yourself in your training. HRV is measured first thing in the morning while at rest. When HRV is low, it’s time to take a day off or do a light recovery session. When HRV is high, thats a sign you can safely give it your all and push yourself to the limit.
If you already own one of the older style polar T31 HRM’s you can use this with a dongle that plugs into your phone, either the headphone socket or the dock connector.
