Heart Rate Monitors

Heart rate monitors have been around for about thirty years now. In fact, the first commercial EKG (electro cardio gram) heart rate monitor was produced by the Polar Electro company in 1977. A heart monitor is any device that is capable of telling what the current heart rate of a person is. Heart monitors today tend to use EKG technology by using electrical contacts on the skin to detect a person's heart pulse. The distance between pulses is measured by the electrodes touching the skin of the user and that signal is either directly connected to or wirelessly transmitted to some fitness accessory such as a heart monitor watch.

The Polar Electro company has been at the forefront of the heartrate monitors industry since its beginning and even now Polar heart rate monitors are considered to be the best in the industry. When it comes to a strapless heart rate monitor or a swimming heart rate monitor (a swimming heart rate monitor is somewhat more advanced since the electrodes have to be able to deal with a liquid environment and the entire system must be waterproofed) the Polar heart monitors consistently outdo other types of heart rate monitors such as the Sports Instruments Fit 3 heart rate monitor. You can buy a Polar heart monitor off of their website online or from any good sports and exercise accessories store. It is also possible to find the latest info on a Polar heart rate monitor for your specific exercise goals by reading heart rate monitor reviews available online or in fitness magazines.

Many pieces of common exercise hardware that you can buy today actually have heart rate monitors built into their design. Some kinds of treadmills now have metal plates on either side rail which are electrodes you can place your hands onto to get a reading of your current heart rate on the tread mill control panel. The same kind of thing is often now built into the handles of exercise bikes, and there are many features related to heart rate monitors such as programs that keep a record of your average heart rate and the correspondence between heart rate and exertion. All this can help you to make sure that you are exercising at the right level of intensity and get the best possible work out for your body type by adjusting the resistance of your exercise machines using heart rate monitors.