What is a heart rate monitor?

Quite simply, heart rate monitors are device that monitor your heart rate and provide you real time feedback about it and record your data. They come into various shapes and forms, but the most common one is a wrist unit (usually combining as a watch) to display and record the data combined with a “belt” that goes around the chest and that is used to read your heart beats and transmit the data to the watch.

Most consumer models now offer extended data such as energy consumption, an indication of your current activity level or breathing rate that can provide assistance to athletes during training as well as in between training sessions.

A lot of heart rate monitor companies also manufacture various accessories that can be combined to provide even more data such as running speed, or distance traveled.

How do heart rate monitors work?

When the heart beat it generates a small electric signal. The belt or chest strap that comes with most heart rate monitor has a set of electrodes that are able to sense this electric signal. The belt then sends that signal to the wrist unit who stores it and/or interprets it. These wrist units contain a small computer that then makes calculations based on the data it receives from the belt. It is these calculations that allow the wrist unit to display a varied set of data such as current and average heart rate, current activity level and energy consumption or calories burned.

Why use a heart rate monitor?

There are multiple reasons to use a heart rate monitor but the most obvious one is that the data provided by a heart rate monitor will help you achieve faster results by training more efficiently. What that means is that the data will help you train at a pace that is better suited to your current fitness level and geared towards the goals you want to achieve.

Another benefit is that the data will most also help you better plan your training session and their intensity to better benefit from your training. Intense training often needs to be alternated with more moderate training called “recuperative training”. Not only will your heart rate monitor help you identify this by looking at the gathered data, but it will also help better understand your body and identify how each of your training “zones” feel.

Another reason that should not be underestimated is that using good tools helps ourselves stay motivated. Seeing the data from your heart rate monitor and how your cardiovascular capacity improves as you go through your training program can sometimes be the boost you need to keep training when you feel like you’ve reached a plateau.