Heart Rate Monitors for Sports Enthusiasts

Technology is affecting the lifestyle of laymen around the globe. It is shaping up every dimension of our life. Everyday man on the streets has become more aware and watchful about his health. Sports watches, cycling computers, fitness monitors and related gadgets have left their niche of professional athletes and fitness enthusiasts and are now commonly used by novice exercisers. Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) is one such gadget which has rapidly grown in health and lifestyle market, since its invention in 1977.

Heart Rate Monitor is a simple apparatus that is used to monitor health by measuring pulse rate and other health related parameters. It yields enhanced results by providing increased focus on pulse rating. The equipment is comfortable and user friendly; a chest strap worn around the chest measures the pulse rate and oxygen consumption, and a wrist watch or a similar tool is used to display the real time readings to the user. In technical terms, it measures electrical signals from the heart and puts them on view on the unit's data center. There are two basic models of HRM, a chest strap model and a finger sensor model.

Technology related attributes of a Heart Rate Monitor are making it more and more useful in everyday life of fitness enthusiasts. With technological advancements, HRMs are appearing with features like stop watch, lap/split setting, recovery of heart rate time, setting of time in target zone, calorie counter, separate speed and distance monitors, PC interface, fitness trainer, coded transmitter, bicycle-mounting capabilities and battery replacement, in addition to the basic functions like backlight function, time of day display, and daily reminder alarm. These are the functions that a typical man of today’s tech world will love to have at a handy location for a quick use.

It helps the user to ‘train smarter not harder’ as it also helps them to maintain an optimal heart rate target zone for a specific goal. The tech savvy will be fond of another feature of HRM that it gives Global Positioning System (GPS) connectivity by wirelessly connecting to satellite. GPS connectivity can be used to spot and locate locations, read elevation and use earlier courses to compete against user’s own workouts.

So, if you are a novice out there, and love to keep a track of your workouts, trainings and exercise then you may want to explore the technology marketplace and look out for a HRM that suits your needs, since they come from many different vendors and in many different versions.