Finding the best heart rate monitor for your needs will depend on various factors such as your budget, how fancy you want to go and what you actually need it for. There are various types and sizes to choose from and they are very different to the baby heartbeat monitor which we used to hear the baby heart rate at the hospital. The first step is to think about what you want to achieve - whether you’d just like to improve your aerobic fitness or have a specific race goal in mind. This will dictate how you will use your heart monitor and what functions yours will need.
There are two parts to most models. The chest strap you wear while you are running – this reads your heart rate – and the receiver you wear on your wrist that stores and displays the data and this also doubles as a watch. It provides an accurate reflection of how hard you're exercising: our own guesses are unreliable meaning that we can all too easily end up running faster or slower than is good for us.
Basic Models
Basic heart monitors let you set limits and control heart rate intensity for individual training sessions, record exercise duration, calculate calories burnt and record the time spent in and above your set heart-rate zone. If this suits your needs then there’s no need to spend any more.
Intermediate Models
The mid-range monitors include all the features of the basic models with additional functions including laps, split times, and average heart rate for each lap. You can also expect a countdown timer for repeated intervals. For just a little more money, you’ll usually be able to set multiple target training zones. In addition, foot pods and GPS units give distance feedback in real time and use alarms that allow you to control your pace.
Advanced Models
These have the capability to download your training data to your PC for analysis. They can also track the intensity of your training to prevent over-or under-training. Other models now tell you the status of your last completed session and other features include multiple timers for more complex interval sets and fitness tests.
You will need to decide which is the best heart rate monitor for your particular requirements and then you will have to decide on how much you wish to spend, but generally the basic models are fine for someone like me.