Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor
What is this contraption and why do I love it so much? Well, let me tell you.
When I first started running, I would input my height, weight, and age into the treadmill - and I trusted that I would at least be provided with a pretty close calculation of the calories that I was burning during my run session. As I started running a little longer, the amount of calories I would burn was so high - I just thought I was a rock star. Then, since I was in the serious business of counting calories and wasn't concerned with what I ate or when I ate, I would make sure to eat snacks at night if I had extra calories for the day. You can see where I'm going with this and can probably understand why this wasn't working so great for me.
I use an app to track my food and my exercise and as I would search for different exercises I would notice some just seemed so far off from what seems logical. Then I actually started to use my head and learned that different people can burn calories at a far different rate. So how in the world could these estimations be correct on all these machines? Since I was such a calorie freak - my OCD brain couldn't live with the fact that my daily inputs might be incorrect and I wanted them as exact as they could be.
In comes this little gem. I decided on the Polar FT4 because it's very simple to use, wasn't extremely expensive, it seemed to receive great reviews, and it's pretty cute! I purchased it in September 2013 and haven't exercised without this puppy on since. It continuously displays your real-time heart rate during any exercise. With this information I love that I can gauge my intensity and work to stay within my target heart rate zone to maximize my workout. Doing T25 really burns the calories and I love seeing my results after my 25 minutes are done.
There are alerts you can turn on to remind you when you slow down or speed it up. It also keeps track of your 10 last workouts so you can go back to see how you've been improving. I know there is quite a selection of different heart rate monitors out there, but I've been very pleased with the accuracy and with the functionality of this model so I'm going to stick with it as long as it lasts!
How do you use it? It's super simple. There is a chest strap, the transmitter, and the watch. Obviously the watch goes on your wrist. You wet one side of the chest strap, snap the transmitter on quick, put it around your chest and you're ready to rock.
I wanted this to be my first item to post about because so many challengers have been asking how they should track their exercise in their fitness app. Every time I get asked the question on how to find PiYo on the app, I immediately say "you really should get a heart rate monitor". I just think if you're that serious about logging everything you do - you should make it as accurate as possible to maximize your results. The FT4 removes the guesswork out of your workouts so you can focus on pushing yourself as hard as possible!
I bought mine on Amazon.com - because that's where I get mostly everything. I have a Prime membership so I usually take full advantage of that when I need something like this. Right now they have this pink one available for $61.82. So not bad at all for how much you're going to use it!
If you have any questions before you purchase yours, please feel free to contact me and I'd love to help you out!
