Picking the Best Features of Sports Heart Rate Monitors

Monitoring heart rate is an essential part of any strenuous or extended exercise routine. Sports heart rate monitors carefully track heart rate and are an important tool in preventing over training and under-training. As your level of fitness increases, increasingly strenuous activities becomes easier and you need to train harder. Use a heart rate monitor to ensure you operate in your ideal fitness zone and reap the best rewards from an intense workout.

With so many options available, choosing a sports heart rate monitor can seem overwhelming. Two main types to choose between are a wrist or chest model. Look into a unit's features to be sure it meets your requirements. At the very least you want to track your heart rate, unless you climb mountains you don't need advanced features like GPS tracking and barometric pressure sensors. Chest sensors are far more accurate than wrist sensors, and high end units typically have both a chest strap and a wrist strap that communicate wirelessly. This lets you read information on your wrist while benefiting from the increased accuracy of a chest strap.

Sports & Heart Rate Monitors Have Tons of Features

Increase your budget and heart rate monitors for even more useful features. Mid-market sports heart rate monitors are an investment to track overall fitness. Monitors in this category are bought specific to the type of sport or training performed. For example, units made for runners are designed to work with speed and distance tracking pods that attach to shoe laces. Units in this range also connect to fitness applications and transmit hours of workout data to fitness tracking programs. Increase your budget for access to sensors for altitude, pressure and GPS-based distance tracking. For urgent job or important social commitments, invest in a sports heart rate monitor that has tight integration with modern mobile devices to alert you to calls or text messages as they come in. Specialty units may also be designed to help you compete, giving you information about how others are performing.

Still undecided? Then realistically consider your needs and invest in a model that has all the basics. Heart rate monitors are not cheap but are designed to endure. Just want to keep an eye on your heart rate during an aerobic workout? A basic model should do fine. Training for a competition? Consider a mid or upper range model designed for your sport that will give you statistics on your level of fitness.

Visit our Washington D.C. sporting goods store to check out all the latest electronic running gear, including heart rate monitors.