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Heart rate monitoring: wrist based, chest strap or Polar Verity Sense

  • Creator
    Topic
  • April 11, 2022 at 5:37 am #65414
    Pia Lichtblau
    Participant

    Dear Maya,

    I already understood that wrist based monitoring of our heart rates isn’t sufficient – my problem with chest straps is that I got rubbed sore and bloody by every chest belt I tried till now. So I was extremely happy when watches with wrist based heart rate monitors appeared and I used this since then.

    Now I found this heart rate monitor by Polar: https://www.polar.com/us-en/products/accessories/polar-verity-sense

    Would this be an alternative?

    And if not, is it really necessary to wear the chest belts in every training or would it be sufficient to use it only in crucial workouts like the AeT-Test?

    At the moment I’m not having neither a chest beld nore this Polar-thing, and before I buy something I wanted to clarify which would be the best.

    Thanks for your answer!
    Pia

  • Creator
    Topic

Posted In: PRIVATE Female Uphill Athlete Training Group

  • Keymaster
    Coach on April 11, 2022 at 6:14 am #65417

    Hello Pia,

    I am not familiar with this polar option. I am hesitant as the reason the HR monitors aren’t very accurate is due to the distance from the heart. This seems to be using very similar technology as the wrist HR monitors. I am sorry to hear the chest strap causes you so much pain and discomfort.

    If you still have an old chest strap, I would recommend using it for your AeT Test. See how that feels. Once you have that data you will hopefully be able to use your wrist monitor to at least train in the same zone even if the watch is saying something different than your test. As long as you are consistent and you are training below AeT you shouldn’t need to wear your chest strap.

    If you don’t have a chest strap, there are other options (not as accurate) but still useful to estimate where your Aerobic Threshold is without an AeT Test. We will talk about them on Tuesday 🙂

    I hope that helps!
    Maya

    Participant
    Laura on April 11, 2022 at 6:39 am #65418

    Hi Pia,

    I have the same problem with chest straps. I compared my garmin watch with wrist HR monitor with a second watch with chest strap (I wear them at the same time during some trainings). I compared the results. The watch can’t record sprints as accurately as the chest strap because it doesn’t respond as quickly. It also takes a while (1-2 min) for the watch to indicate the correct heart rate during warm up. However, when running at a steady pace, I can’t see a difference between the watch and the chest strap in the data.

    For me a chest strap in general is no option because it hurts to much. But I use it during AeT test. I can recommend my garmin watch which is especially for females (vivoactive 4s). I also tried Suunto Spartan with wrist HR, which doesn’t work well for me (the watch is bigger and my arm to small). Hope this helps!

    Laura

    Participant
    Pia Lichtblau on April 13, 2022 at 7:30 am #65514

    Thank you Maya and Laura,

    I’m at least happy to hear I’m not the only one having this problem 🙂
    And thank you Laura for our bilateral chat-exchange yesterday during the zoom-meeting!

    Pia

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