IMPROVE YOUR LIFE WITH A POLAR HEART RATE MONITOR!!! (M21)

Member Name: GNU BOY

Product:	M21
Date:	14/02/01 (218 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for motivation; weight loss; pacing yourself; helping you feel you have achieved something.

Disadvantages: Quite expensive. Watch makes you feel guilty if you don't exercise!

The Polar Heart Rate Monitor (in case you didn’t know) is a combination of devices, designed to measure heart rate and energy exertion in its user. Consisting of a digital watch and a transmitter, it is used by athletes and ‘weekend warriors’ throughout the world.

For the price, you would be forgiven for opening your box that cost ninety pounds, finding a tacky-looking watch and plastic belt, and feeling slightly cheated. I must admit I felt this way initially. But it is important not to value something’s worth merely on its size (that’s my excuse, anyway). The Heart Rate Monitor, once programmed with your personal details, will provide an excellent partner in your fitness training, whether you are an Olympic Athlete or an eighty year old who is starting to jog. It soon emerges that the Heart Rate Monitor is good value for money, considering the benefits it brings to your lifestyle.

Do not misinterpret me. The Heart Rate Monitor will not improve your life like a good husband or a pushy mother. What it will do though, is remind you to exercise; calculate your best ‘exercise zone’ (the upper and lower limits you should keep your heart rate within while exercising); tell you when you leave this zone; calculate the number of calories you have burnt; and of course tell you the time. More functions are available. One of the best models on the market can conduct a fitness test on you as you exercise.

All of these functins would be excellent for a runner. But what if you are a swimmer? Fear ye not, the Polar Heart Rate Monitor is fully waterproof (unless you are swimming fifty metres below the water level, in which case you don’t need a Heart Rate Monitor, you need a good talking to). Therefore, you can train in a swimming pool or the sea, and still have all the benefits the equipment provides. The one disadvantage of this is that the battery in the transmitter will flatten faster, since the ele
ctrodes are triggered by being wet. To their credit, Polar mention this in the user manual.

‘What will I look like when I wear this bulky piece of machinery?’, I hear you ask. Again, be not afeared, since all the device entails is a digital watch of NORMAL size, and a thin black belt containing the transmitter, which you wear around your chest (assuming that is where you keep your heart). Full fitting instructions are contained in the manual. The belt is very discrete when worn under a T-shirt, and the device is so commonly used that anyone seeing that you are wearing one will think nothing of it. This should be reasuring to male swimmers of the self-conscious variety; it is only a belt that you wear around your chest. In fact, the design is quite sleek-looking. The transmitter is not contained in a pink hat with a ‘D’ on it.

It would be perfectly logical to wonder why it is necessary to keep within a certain exercise zone, and thus why it is necessary to own a Heart Rate Monitor. The reason is, your body is developed to withstand a certain amount of exertion. Below this level, you are not pushing yourself to the point where exercise is most beneficial. Above this point, your body is so overworked and strained that exercise can be damaging. Since heart rate is directly linked to exertion, one of the best ways of measuring the intensity of exercise is by using a Heart Rate Monitor. The effect your exercising has on your body can be greatly improved by monitoring the intensity at each session, and adjusting it as is necessary. Therefore, a Heart Rate Monitor can do wonders for improving fitness.

Many people begin an exercise program with the key intention being to lose weight. This product is well suited to that cause. It calculates the number of calories you have burnt, and even the percentage of those which are fat. The instuction manual provides safety guidelines as to the loss of weight (e.g. how much you shou
ld try to lose per month), so even the least knowledgable when it comes to losing weight will have an excellent guide.

People who are trying to lose weight are joined by Olympians (and six billion humans) in that they struggle to keep to a fitness program. The monitor is a helping hand in this, reminding you every hour if you have gone three days without exercise. Even the most kind to oneself will be reminded (not hassled) that maybe they should ‘keep moving!’, or ‘how about a bike ride?’.

Other brands of heart rate monitor are available, but none has so many useful features, or as reliable a record as this one. I will mention that this product should not be used by those with a pacemaker or heart condition.

Many sportspeople I know have a real problem with one of the following activities: running, swimming, cycling. Either they trip over their heels, or they sink, or they exhaust themselves cycling. My advice to them is usually to try a heart rate monitor. Often a problem as simple as the intensity you exercise at, can have an adverse effect on technique. I am a natural swimmer, but used to have real difficulty running for periods longer than a few minutes. I always ended up exhausted. With the help of the heart rate monitor, I can ‘pace myself’, and run for an hour and a half without feeling tired. This was not due to long term training, it happened overnight (miracle cure, eh?!). Once I had a way of keeping to a certain level of exertion, I could run to my heart’s content (literally), rather than run fast, hyperventilate, run fast, collapse, etc.

It would be wrong of me to say that a fitness program cannot work without a Polar Heart Rate Monitor. It can, and often does. But the benefits described above, plus the features that are introduced every time a new model hits the market, mean you are giving your fitness and your health a huge helping hand. I would really recommend this pro
duct to anyone who wants to keep a record of their fitness, since the watch does this too. All in all, it is a highly beneficial product for anyone; not only the exercise minded, but those who want to get into shape but don’t know where to start. This product will pay for itself, in the positive feeling you get with regular exercise. I would love to say more, but mine’s telling me maybe it’s time to go for a swim....

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