Are there any accurate affordable chest strap heart rate monitors?
Heard a lot about Polar but they're pretty expensive.
Heart Rate Monitors (Chest Strap)
yanyan1 on 15/07/2019 - 12:52
Comments
I'm interested to know too.
I have some Aldi one I bought a few years back cheap. It's a POS.
May I inquire as to the purpose you would need a heart rate monitor on the chest for? I just grabbed a Fitbit from the Amazon Prime sales and you could use the monitor on that as I have heard it is fairly good.
Running and cycling.
Maybe wrist ones are good enough these days. I honestly don't know. Thus why I'm interested to read responses.
Wrist monitors aren't as accurate as chest straps but fine for general HR monitoring. I'm wanting to measure heart rate variability (HRV) so a chest strap is best for that, although they are uncomfortable.
Also been looking at Xiaomi mi band 4 for a cheap wrist HR monitor for everyday.
It really depends on your purpose.
If you're just looking for a guide to your heart rate through the day and when exercising, one of the wrist band versions will be fine. This will also be more than fine in comparing one work out with another, both in terms of relative intensity and how you might be improving over time.
If you're looking for something that's a step up that focuses on your heart rate during exercise specifically and that possibly integrates with other devices (e.g. GPS units, etc.) you probably want the chest strap style for somewhat increased accuracy. This might be more useful if you want to train at quite specific heart rate levels and are therefore following a more technical/advanced program.
Be aware that between the two, the differences appear to be more on the "minute-to-minute" monitoring rather than average readings across a work out.
I bought a Magene off Aliexpress - Its only 3 uses in, but it goes alright it seems.
Wahoo are also good but pricey