Watches With Pulse – Chest-strap Versus Strapless Heart-rate Monitors

There are many people now in our culture who work out every day of their lives and would not even think about going to the gym without their watches with pulse monitoring functionality.

People these days push this limits and it’s very critical to know if you’re pushing too hard.  And, if you are working out too hard you can get injured.

Your pulse is the primary indicator of how hard you’re working out. And, although watches with pulse functionality have a ton of other gizmos and features, monitoring your heart rate is the primary one. There are some watches that even will help you stay on top of how many calories you are burning and give you fitness advice!

By the same token, you need to also make sure you are exercising hard enough and to make sure you get a benefit out of the work out.  Watches with pulse function let you know where you are at all times and will help you stay in that zone.

There are 3 basic types of watches with pulse function:

• The type where you wear a strap around your chest and it transmits your heart rate information directly to the watch via wire. This type allows you to get a real-time display of your pulse while you’re exercising. For the purist, the watch was chest strap is by far the best choice.
• The second type uses a fingertip sensor instead of a chest strap. For the really serious athlete, these are not the ticket because they require you to stop in order to take a reading. Of course, if you stop, then your heart rate is going to read a lot lower than if you’re reading it while you’re exercising. If you can live with a little less accuracy this is a good compromise and a lot easier than the chest strap.
• The third type uses a ring that goes on your finger to transmit heart rate. This is even less reliable than the fingertip sensor though. Experts say to stay away from this type of product if you need really accurate, real-time information because it is not going to get you what you’re after.

When you’re looking into watches with pulse function you need to first start out with understanding how you will likely use the watch.  For example, are you going to be in a workout setting or going to be out on the road running? These are two very different situations and demand a very different product to address your need to monitor your health in those settings.